Chapter Four - A Harsh Reminder.
Sans was awakened to sound of crying coming from Roman's basket.
He dragged himself out of his bed and reached into the basket, scooping Roman up into a comforting embrace. He gently bounced the crying infant up and down but to no avail, he just kept crying.
"Hey, there there!" he cooed as he nuzzled his son "What's wrong, buddy?"
"Sans?!" Papyrus burst through the door "What's wrong, is he alright?!"
"Yeah bro, he's fine." sighed Sans as he continued to rock Roman back and forth "Babies cry."
"Yes, Sans I know that, but why is he crying?" growled Papyrus
"I think he's just a little wet, that's all" replied Sans
"Really?" gasped Papyrus "He looks pretty dry to-OHH!"
This was a really inconvenient time for Sans to realise that, with everything Toriel had given them, she hadn't got any diapers. He was going to have to think of some way to go out and get some but there was a problem; the only way for any of the monsters to get anything was to venture into the human village and purchase what they needed from shops and the humans had not yet adapted to the presence of the monsters, in fact, they weren't overly fond of them being above ground once again.
Sans knew he couldn't risk it. He was one of the weaker monsters with only 1 HP and would easily fall to the humans if they became hostile towards him. He didn't want to send Papyrus because the last thing he wanted was for his little brother to get hurt. No, he was going to have to bring out the big guns.
"Here, hold him for a sec." he said as he passed Roman to Papyrus and pulled out his cellphone and dialed a number. There was only one monster he knew who could hold her own against the humans if there was any trouble.
"Hello, Undyne?" he said nervously, knowing full well that it was late and she'd be pretty miffed at him for waking her "Hey, how are you?!"
"Sans...it's midnight...what...the...HELL?!" roared an angry voice from the other end of the line
"Yeah, sorry...listen, it's kind of an emergency, could you pick up a few things from town?"
"Can't it wait 'til morning?!"
"Nah, I kinda need this stuff right now...again, sorry!"
"Okay...fine! What do you need?"
"Great! Thanks Undyne!" beamed Sans as he looked back at Papyrus and gave him a thumbs-up "Okay, I only need one thing really, now hear me out!"
There was a few seconds pause.
"I need you...to buy me...some diapers."
"...is this a joke?"
"No, no, this is legit! I'll explain when you get here! Thanks boss! Buh, bye!"
He hung up, not wanting her to ask anymore questions.
"Come on, Roman" smiled Sans as Papyrus handed him the little skeleton "Let's go downstairs and wait for the cranky lady!"
"Sans, why didn't you tell her what's going on?" asked Papyrus
"Not really a conversation I want to have over the phone, Pap." Sans laughed nervously. "Don't worry, she'll find out when she gets here!"
- A few moments later -
It had only taken Undyne a total of half an hour to go to the store and back to the Skeletons' house with Sans' odd request. It would've taken her less time if she hadn't run into some trouble in the village. She made her way to the front door and pounded angrily on it. Papyrus answered the door.
"There better be a damn, good explaination for this..." she fumed as she stormed into the house, forcing the bag of diapers into Papyrus' hands.
"Ssh!" gasped Papyrus "Don't be so loud, you'll scare the baby!"
"What freakin' baby?!" snapped Undyne as she stopped dead in her tracks.
"This one!" Sans emerged from the kitchen, cradling baby Roman whilst giving him a bottle.
Undyne was at a loss for words. She looked up at Sans then down at Roman then back to Papyrus who appeared very nervous.
"Am I dreaming?" she asked the taller skeleton
"Uh, hahaha! Um...no..." blubbered Papyrus as he placed the bag of diapers on the floor "Uhh...Undyne...this is my nephew, Roman."
It took Undyne a few seconds to process what the hell was going on.
"N-nephew?!" she gasped "But...Sans is your only brother...so that means..."
"Yep!" Sans declared proudly "Cutie, isn't he?"
Undyne almost collapsed in shock. She walked towards Sans and looked down at the little skeleton, who by now had finished his bottle and was now staring up at her with an amused smile on his face.
"Umm...Sans?" she smiled awkwardly as she hooked her arm around his shoulder "How?"
"Well, when two monsters-"
"SAY NO MORE!" she gasped as she clamped her hands over her ears.
As she did that, Sans noticed something strange on her grey, hooded jacket. She looked as if she'd been bleeding, almost as if she'd been attacked. He suddenly felt awful.
"Undyne, did the humans give you trouble?" he asked her as he hinted towards the wound on her side.
"Oh! Yeah, some humans got me with a broken bottle!" she smirked "I think they were drunk, it was nothing I couldn't handle."
"Geez, I'm sorry, Undyne..." Sans sighed "It's my fault you went out there"
Undyne would ordinarily agree, and give Sans a painful lecture but she looked down at the baby skeleton and felt compelled not to raise her voice in fear of frightening him.
"Let me change this guy and i'll come and help patch you up..." smiled Sans as he retrieved the diapers from the floor. He then made his way up the stairs, quietly.
Once Sans had changed Roman, he had gently rocked him back to sleep and placed him in his basket bed. He then made his way back down to where Papyrus had already began to work on Undyne's wound.
Sans felt really guilty, it was because he had asked her to go out, the humans had attacked her now she'd been hurt. He couldn't even find the words to say to her, he simply made his way over to where she was sitting and sat down silently next to her. She looked over to him and playfully punched his shoulder.
"Hey, lighten up, nerd!" she smiled "I'm tougher than you think!"
Sans gave a small, unhappy smile but he said nothing.
"I told Undyne everything..." added Papyrus as he applied bandages to Undyne's wound "About Roman, that is..."
"Thanks, bro..." sighed Sans, thankful he wouldn't have to.
"Gotta admit it, Sans..." said Undyne "you got some serious guts raising this kid out of the blue like this..."
"He's my kid, what else was I supposed to do?" sighed Sans "though, I really have no clue what I'm doing..."
"Well..." sighed Undyne "If you need anything-"
"Thanks."
The conversation was interuppted by a loud crash coming from outside. Sans, Papyrus and Undyne ran to the window, only to see a group of humans, about 7 of them, throwing rocks at the house across the street; the house Undyne shared with Alphys.
"Crap!" she gasped "They must have followed me back here!"
Without another word, she grabbed her spear which was propped up against the wall next to the front door, and ran outside as quickly as she could, screaming Alphys' name as she bolted towards the attackers.
Sans and Papyrus watched in horror as they ganged up on her.
"We've got to do something!" said Sans as he too bolted out of the door
"Right!" Papyrus followed suit.
Making his way towards the humans, Sans began to get very irate. Undyne wasn't fighting them, she knew she'd kill them if she did. No, instead she just stood there screaming at them, threatening to kill them if they didn't get away from her house. Sans began yelling at them too, all the while Papyrus was trying to reason with them. All of the comotion caused the other monsters to leave their homes to see what was happening and before anyone knew it, the humans were screaming at them to go back to the underground and they were screaming at the humans to leave them in peace.
When, all of a sudden, Sans heard something that chilled him to the bone. He glanced across the street and saw that the windows of their house had been smashed and for a split second, he saw two humans enter the house.
"Oh no..." he whimpered "Roman!" he ran back towards the house as fast as his boney legs could carry him.
He burst through the front door, which they had foolishly left open, and looked around to see their living room ransacked. He could hear footsteps upstairs so he ran towards his room as fast as he could. As he rushed to his room he could hear voices. He didn't care what they were saying until they mentioned the basket.
"What's this?" sneered one of the humans as they pulled back the blankets
"Woah!" gasped the other one as he recoiled in horror "They're breeding now?!"
Sans didn't wait another second he burst into the room and fired a bone attack at one of the humans, causing him to fall into a bookcase. The other one, who was holding what seemed to be a baseball bat, turned to see Sans stood at the door, eye sockets completely black with blue flames encasing him.
"Get...away!" Sans roared
"What the hell?!" gasped the human
"Get...away...FROM MY KID!"
Sans fired another bone attack, once again, hitting the human who had been knocked into the bookcase. The human with the bat stood up and took a step closer to Roman's basket, almost touching it.
"I'M WARNING YOU!" Sans' voice echoed through out the room, causing Roman to start crying.
Without warning, the human reached into the basket in an attempt to grab the tiny skeleton but before he could, Sans ran at him and pinned him to the floor, causing the human to drop the bat. His eye glowed as he held the humans neck, so tightly the human began to splutter.
Papyrus burst through the bedroom door and saw Sans wrestling the human to the ground. He noticed that the other human had now picked up the bat.
"SANS, WATCH OUT!" he called to his brother but it was too late. The human had wacked Sans on the back of his skull, causing him to fall to the ground.
Papyrus ran to his brother and shielded his body with his own before the humans could get another swing on Sans.
"No! Please!" he begged
"Consider this a warning, freak!" bellowed one of the humans as he delivered a painful kick to Papyrus' abdomen "Go back to where you came from!"
Just as they left, Papyrus watched in horror as the other human kicked the baby's basket over, causing Roman to scream in terror. As soon as he was sure they were gone, Papyrus left his brother's side and crawled towards where the basket had landed. He scooped up Roman into his arms and began trying to console him, at the same time checking his tiny boy for any injuries.
"Ssh, ssh, sshhhh!" he shushed "It's okay, Roman, it's okay!"
Undyne rushed into the room. Enough of them had been enough to frighten the humans away so she rushed to see if the Skeletons needed help.
"Oh, god! Papyrus!" she cried as she rushed to his side "Is the kid okay?!"
"I think so!" Papyrus cried "But Sans is hurt! Please! Help him, Undyne!"
Undyne rushed over to Sans' seemingly lifeless body and pulled him into her arms. She shook him gently in a desperate attempt to wake him.
"Sans?!" she yelled "Wake up, Sans! Come on!"
Roman was still screaming, Papyrus' attempts at calming him down weren't working. Undyne started to panic and started to shake him harder.
"SANS! WAKE UP!" she cried
"SANS!" screamed Papyrus.
That seemed to do the trick. Sans began to stir. Undyne looked down and him and gave him a relieved smile.
"Oh, thank god!" she sighed as she helped him to sit up "We thought you were a goner..."
It took Sans a few seconds to come round. His head hurt and felt really fuzzy, and what was worse, his vision was a little blurry. He looked around until his eyes fell on Papyrus who was still cradling the tiny, terrified skeleton, seeing this seemed to break him out of his trance. Unsteadiliy, he crawled towards his brother and son. He held out his arms as Papyrus handed him the tiny child.
"Roman!" he cried as he hugged his son tightly to his chest "Oh, buddy! It's okay, i'm here!"
Roman continued to cry as Sans held him and rocked back and forth as he too began to cry. Papyrus shuffled closer to them and wrapped his arms around them both.
"I left him!" Sans sobbed as he nuzzled his tiny son "I left him and they nearly got him!"
"Sshh...it's alright Sans..." shushed Papyrus "He's fine, you're fine! We're all fine..."
"Sans..." gasped Undyne "You're bleeding..."
Sans had indeed got a pretty bad crack on the back of his skull which had small trails of blood trickling down from it, but he didn't care. All he cared about were his family and friends.
He was just thanking his lucky stars that no one was seriously hurt.
Roman's screams had dimmed down into whimpers but he was still shaking in fear. All Sans could do was cuddle him.
"It's alright, Roman..." sobbed Sans "I'm here...daddy's here okay?"