San's P.O.V.
I take a sip of the drink. It's a dangerous drink. A wonderful drink. A drink that will soothe all my pain. Skeletons can ingest food like humans, but their metabolism is different. Just half a glass of beer could get me drunk. So far I had two glasses.
I chuckle, stumbling my way towards the house. It's impossible for me to get my hands to stop shaking. I can't even dig into my pockets to get the key.
Fortunately, the door opens by itself. Toriel glares at me. It's so funny to see that I laugh out loud.
"It's four in the morning. You have to get to work in a few hours and now you don't have enough time to get a good rest. What is the meaning….Are you drunk?"
She is so funny! I laugh and I laugh and I laugh. My laughter echoes throughout the whole neighborhood. That will probably scare some people to hear a monster laugh. Maybe our human neighbors will think I'm about to go on a killing spree. Wouldn't that be so funny?
The woman in front of me could only stare with pity in her eyes. Why isn't she laughing too? Our whole life's a joke, right? Might as well laugh about it.
Her furry hand goes behind my back, gently pushing me inside. I nearly trip over my own two feet.
"Aarh dey en bed?" I slur out. Toriel understands me anyway. What a good woman.
"Yes. They're both fast asleep. Let me get you some coffee. I know you're not going to bed now."
She sits me on the table, then goes to start the pot. I listen to her move around, my eyes downcast on the ground. I keep smiling, no matter how hollow my grin is now. I just have to keep smiling. The happiness will come eventually, right?
"I got fired."
I hear her shuffling cease for a moment. A second later she recovers. She turns on the pot then sits down next to me.
"Maybe two jobs is too much."
I shake my head. My entire body trembles with rage. Yet my smile still remains intact.
"I can't get us money fast enough. The mortgage is out of control. And they're not paying me enough to keep up. Not paying us enough."
Toriel purses her lips.
"I might be able to get a weekend job…."
"You too? I already told Papyrus that working for humans was a bad idea. You have no idea what they're like."
"I'm sure some are like Frisk," she argues.
Like Frisk. The child that will eventually choose to reset. To make all of my efforts worthless.
I couldn't tell Toriel that I'm afraid of the kid. She wouldn't understand.
"Not too many. Like 90 percent of 'em hate all of us. One said I smelled. Do I?"
"No, Sans. You smell fine," she sighs, "Call in sick today. Please? I really think you need some rest."
I tremble, "No….n-no. I can't afford—"
"You'll get fired from your other job if you go in like this."
My eye sockets grows heavy. A dry sob escapes my throat. Toriel's hand rubs my skull. She brings my head on her lap and I let her treat me like a child. Just being near her brings me momentary comfort. I loll to sleep.
I snap awake when I had the sense that something's wrong. With growing horror, I glance over at the clock. It's eleven in the fricken morning. I should've been at my job hours ago.
I yank myself off the couch and scramble to get myself ready. I nearly bump into Toriel on may way into the kitchen. She's in the middle of pouring some batter into a pie dish. Her eyes widen when she sees me nearly running into her.
"Sans, what's wrong?" she asks. She should know that I'm not supposed to be here, so her confusion leaves me bewildered.
"I…uh…"
The goat woman sighs, cleaning her hands with a spare towel.
"I called you in sick today. Your other job was very understanding."
"What? Tory, I can't afford—"
"Then you shouldn't be getting yourself drunk at three in the morning," she scowls.
I guess she's right about that. But calling me in sick was financial suicide. Especially when that's the only job I have left. The goat woman notes the disgruntled look on my face. She rubs her temples.
"You haven't had the weekend off in a while, anyway. Maybe we can all go to a picnic later, okay?"
Frowning, I just look at her without saying anything.
"Alright?" she says again. There's nothing else I could do, so I nod my consent. She smiles in relief when I don't argue with her. I stuff my hands in my pockets and lean against the door. There's nothing else I can do, I guess.
I might have been about to fall asleep standing up, because a startling sound jolts me awake. The kid had ran inside the kitchen to show Toriel a bug that they had caught. The beetle bites down on their thumb in a vain attempt to get away, but the kid doesn't seem to notice.
Toriel stares at the beetle in their hand.
"Oh! I see you've captured a bug friend."
Frisk nods. They look like they want to say more, but with their hands full, they're unable to communicate. Toriel offers them a smile.
"You are going to let it go after a while, right?"
Frisk gives her a disgruntled look. She points her finger up toward the ceiling with a firm hand on her hip.
"That bug probably has a family to feed. You don't want it to never see them again, do you?"
Frisk suddenly smiles a not-so-innocent smile that catches me off guard. It's the kind of smile that gets happiness out of people's suffering. It's like they're thinking about the bug's misery and were getting some kind of sick joy out of it.
I'm not the only one caught off guard by their expression. Toriel is shocked beyond words. Unable to say anything, we both stare at Frisk in silence. Then, the child's expression softens to one of sadness. It's the kind look we expect to see on Frisk's face, not the evil one we saw a second ago. They nod.
It takes Toriel a moment to recover from her surprise.
"Good. Take it back outside and then you can help me with the pie."
Frisk nods again and walks away. I can't get their expression out of my head. I turn toward Toriel.
"Gotta check on something. Be right back."
Good thing that I have a knack at sneaking around. I guess it's just a talent that I've always had. I'm not very easily detected if I don't want to be. So Frisk has no idea that I'm following them closely. I watch them pull open the sliding glass door in order to get outside.
Curious, I watch them gently place the beetle on top of a sunflower. Their smile is just as innocent as before.
Huh. Maybe I had just imagined that evil on their face. The kid didn't seem any different than norm—
CRUNCH!
The kid's shoe makes impact with the beetle's much weaker body. I could only stare in horror as the kid snickers softly to themselves. I back away. My thoughts are going a million miles an hour.
On the one hand, it was just a bug. Plenty of people had killed their kind before. On the other hand, the kid's only motivation seems to be for the sake of being cruel. There's literally no other reason they would do something like that.
I walk away from what I just saw.
"Hehehehe! Greetings, dear brother! I see you've decided to take a vacation!" Papyrus walks down the stairs to greet me. I force my usual grin, but right now I'm not in the mood to perform my usual puns. I hope he doesn't notice.
Papyrus's eye sockets furrowed in slight concern. I guess he did notice after all.
"Is everything in order, brother?"
"Why you ask?" I shrug.
"Your smile is not as….smiley as usual."
It's getting harder to keep my grin up, considering that it's not fooling my little brother. But I keep strong. It's the only thing I know how to do. Papyrus shuffles his feet.
"Well, I wanted to tell you that I will be forgoing bedtime for a while."
My head snaps in his direction. That sounds suspicious.
"For what?"
Papyrus averts his gaze, suddenly looking very guilty.
"Eh….I'll be doing some lessons with Undyne. King Asgore has reinstated the Royal Guards, so I need her to help me practice."
"Can't she help you during the day?" I don't have too much of a problem with him staying up all night. I just have a problem with him out and about at night. I guess I'm a little overprotective when it comes to things like that.
"Well, she's busy with other things. She only has time at night."
I guess that makes since. Still, I can't help but feel like Papyrus is hiding something from me.
A thought crosses my mind. Oh, I get it. Papyrus is thinking about looking for work while he's out and about. He really wants to help out with money, huh?
I close my eyes and sigh. I would talk to Alphys about getting him a job in the underground. A few monsters decided to stay inside the mountain after dealing with humans' prejudice. It would be the only safe place for him to work.
Instead of calling Papyrus out on his lie, I decide to just roll with it. I give him a thumbs up and a smile. He grins back.
"So it's okay?"
"Sure, bro. I gotta say, you're growing up fast. I'm proud of you."
Papyrus stares at me in shock. Was that a blush on his face? It's not impossible for a skeleton to blush, since we have warming magic inside our bones to make that happen. Still, our blushes aren't as obvious as a human's, so it's kind of hard to tell.
"Wowie. That's the nicest thing you've ever said."
I shrug with a sheepish smile. I pause when I hear the doorbell ring.
"Hold that thought, bro?" I had designated myself to be the one who always answers the door. When I'm at work, Toriel takes the role, even though I wish she would just ignore it. I don't trust anyone in this neighborhood, so it's a protective act on my part.
A guy's gotta keep track of his family.
I'm relieved to see that it's not a human full of hate. It's King Asgore, looking like a normal peasant in his pineapple printed shirt and bulky jeans. He smiles at me, though I wonder if it's a tad force. Truthfully, I don't think he likes me too much. But I never bring that up.
"Hey Sans. Is Tory home?"
"Yep. Making another pie," I hold the door open for him to enter. He does with thanks, "Nice of you to stop by."
"Thank you."
"Who is, Sans—Oh," Toriel's happy face immediately hardens when she sees her husband. I'm surprised they're not divorced yet. Toriel never looks happy to see him.
"Hi, sweetie."
"Don't you 'sweetie' me. I told you to let me know before you visit," she crosses her arms.
Papyrus and Frisk comes in to see what's going on. Frisk smiles at Asgore. The smile is so sweet that it's hard to believe what the kid did just a few minutes ago. What is going on?
Frisk comes over and hugs Asgore's waist. The king goat rubs his furry hand against their head.
"Nice to see you too, child. I see you're doing well."
"Well," Toriel uncrosses her arms in defeat, "Come inside and have some coffee. I made a fresh pot. Frisk, Papyrus, can you set the table. We'll have pie with our coffee."
The old lady is going to make us all fat with how much pie she makes. This time it's a caramel apple pie. I don't know how she keeps mixing two main ingredients into a delicious pie, but she does.
When are you going to make butterscotch-cinnamon again? Frisk asks.
"Oh, I don't know. I don't want to make it too many times because it's my best recipe, and I think it will taste better for special occasions."
Asgore suddenly says, "I think it's always delicious no matter how many times you make it."
Toriel gives him a sharp look. She can read his intentions like a book. He wouldn't be able to fool her with kind words.
"Thank you, Asgore," she says sternly.
I take a bite out of my pie.
"You know. No matter how bad things can get….It'd be a shame if this all is erased."
Everyone looks at me with question in their eyes. Frisk stares at me with fear. I can see their forks trembling in suppressed terror.
"What do you mean, Sans?" Toriel asks.
I keep my eye dead set on Frisk's, monitoring their every change of expression. I'm looking for that evil look they had when they killed the bug for fun. So far they only look terrified.
"I'm just rambling. I guess sometimes I worry that all this goes away. That I wake up one day and monsters are still trapped. That Frisk is still trying to get out…." I notice Frisk furrowing their brows, "I feel like any minute now, it will all go back to the way it was."
And maybe that's a good thing, I suddenly think to myself, After all, it's not like things has gotten any better. We were probably happier not dealing with all these humans and their prejudice.
A loud clank as Frisk drops their fork. Toriel turns her attention straight toward them.
"Is something the matter, dear child?"
I gotta go lie down.
With that, the kid bolts out of there like a dog that Papyrus caught chewing on his bones. Everyone stares at each other in question. I frown, setting my fork down before standing up.
"I'll go talk to them," I offered.