[A/N: I have no excuse for being so late, I just have a lot of ideas but I'm having trouble writing the middle parts to get there.]

For a while sans just watched Frisk sleep, he watched their chest rise and fall, their face twitch every now and then. It was calming for sans to see them so at peace. Then Frisk started turning from side to side, grunting and furrowing their eyebrows. They were having a bad dream. Sans laid down and pulled the human into his arms and held them tightly. They stopped squirming and let out a small sigh and their breathing calmed again.

sans looked out the window, the sun was rising, it filled the room with a pink tint. sans was lost in his thoughts. He was scared of being alone again. He had lost everyone he cared about trying to rescue Gaster, everyone except Papyrus. sans didn't know what he would do without his brother… it was only a matter of time before the kid reset, and one of those resets they're going to get bored… those were the timelines that Pap…

sans blood began to boil. Tears threatened the edge of his sockets. The thing between his arms, that was a monster; and not in the good sense. How could sans try to forget? They once killed everyone sans loved, and now they think they can just live a happy life among all of the monsters they've killed countless times before?

sans shivered. He didn't want to be alone. He couldn't stand the thought of being without Papyrus. Pap was always there for sans, he hated his jokes but loved him anyways, sometimes he would crack his own joke just to humor sans. He was always there to comfort sans when he broke down even if Pap didn't understand why, and he never asked. He never tried to pry things out of sans, he was just there to make him feel better.

All the other monsters may not remember what they did, but sans knew. How could he possibly forgive them? How can he live with himself to be the best friend of the same murderer?

No, this was Frisk! The kid who laughs at all of sans' jokes. The kid that loves puzzles and pasta. The kid that freed the monsters from the underground. They had to be the most selfless person sans knew… in this timeline.

sans hugged Frisk even tighter and let out a small sob into their back, wetting their shirt. He loved Frisk.. he couldn't help it… He didn't want to be alone…. kid please don't let me down. don't reset. keep your promise.

Frisk began to squirm in sans' grip, he let go and they took in a big breath. "humans need to breath" they said as they rolled over and looked at sans. His face was wet with tears. "sans? what's wrong?"

"kid… we need to talk." sans sat up and wiped the tears away from his face. "I know what you did… I know that you killed everyone…. a lot." Frisk flinched, their breathing became uneven and their eyes were filled with fear. Tears started rolling down their face. They felt guilty. good, sans thought. "why do you do it? aren't they your friends? don't you care about them?" Frisk's soft crying turned into a gross sobbing, every now and then they would gasp for air in between sobs.

"I…. I never wanted to! It always starts as an accident! I.. I kill a monster in the ruins, not on purpose! Then my exp increases…. and that's when everything goes wrong" it took them a minute to steady their breathing and to calm their cries. sans just watched, hoping there was a good explanation. "Chara starts to take control when my exp and lv increase…" They looked away from sans.

"chara…? tori and asgore's kid?" sans asked, confused. Frisk nodded, sans let them talk.

"... Chara would encourage me to kill monsters, to gain more lv, they took control of me. I could only watch as they killed everyone I loved… all of my friends… I didn't want to!"

"...but… i don't understand. chara's been dead for years...how is that possible?"

"My determination brought them back to life." Frisk explained. They were relieved to see that sans wasn't angry, just confused.

"damn, kiddo, that's some heavy stuff… is chara… i mean do they still…?" sans had trouble wording the questions. Frisk understood.

"I don't know… I dream about them a lot. More now that we're on the surface. But I've never killed a monster, i'm lv 1, no exp, so they can't control me. I can still hear what they're thinking in my head every now and then. They tell me to kill. I ignore them. I have no plans to kill anything" sans nodded at Frisk.

"okay, you're off the hook for this one. i forgive ya, bucko. but only because it wasn't you killing everyone, it was chara."

Frisk was relieved to finally tell someone about their impure thoughts, about the guilt of past timelines. They were so happy that sans was understanding. They didn't know what they would do without sans, he was the only one that understood how saves and resets worked, he was the only one that Frisk could come to.

"Do you want to go trick-or-treating on Halloween?" Frisk asked changing the subject.

"halloween?"

"It's a holiday where people dress up as monsters and get free candy!" Frisk smiled at sans excited about the upcoming holiday.

"no way, humans dress up as monsters?" Frisk nodded, "why?"

"It's a human tradition! A long time ago humans were afraid the dead would come back and haunt them so they dress up as monsters to scare them away, or something like that. The history isn't really important, but it's a lot of fun!"

"sure kid, i'll come with ya. what're you going to dress up as?" Frisk looked at the ceiling and scrunched their face up in thought.

"I don't know yet. Let's go costume shopping in New Hope!" Frisk jumped up out of bed and yanked sans with them and ran into Papyrus' room, he was still snoring.

"hey kid, let him sleep. we'll go when he wakes up" Frisk nodded and walked out of the room and sans quietly shut the door behind them.

"I have to go home and take a shower anyways, I'll text Undyne and Alphys too! Just meet me at my house in a couple of hours okay?" sans nodded and Frisk gave him a short hug goodbye. They ran down the stairs and rummaged through the refrigerator.

sans watched the human take the container in the fridge that Papyrus had left for them and walk out of the house. He walked into Papyrus' room and sat on his bed. He was snoring loudly but looked like he was dreaming of happy things. sans smiled at him and laid down next to him. He hugged Papyrus and buried his face in Papyrus' back, he listened to the soft hum of magic flowing through his bones. Thank God you're alive in this timeline. I can't live without you, Pap. I love you so much… sans was quickly being lured to sleep, his brother filled his mind with positive thoughts. He would just take a short nap, it wouldn't hurt anything. And so the two skeleton brothers slept in a little longer

Frisk went into their dresser and picked out a black and orange striped sweater and went into the bathroom. They hopped in the shower and let the hot water run over them. Don't you know what's going to happen? Chara's voice echoed in their head, you let them free but don't you know how humans are? They don't adapt well to new things, they're selfish, and power hungry. By freeing them from the underground you are killing them. Humans will hunt them for their souls, monsters will go extinct. Why do you think they were sealed in the underground in the first place? For their protections, not the humans'.

Frisk squeezed their head between their hands trying to block out the thoughts. No, this is what the monsters wanted, they had been working to break the barrier for so long, they were happy on the surface. All the humans in New Hope were more than thrilled to have the monsters as neighbors…

If you kill a monster you can take on the humans. You can make it a safer place for monsters. All you have to do is sacrifice one monster soul to save the rest. Toriel had the same idea didn't she? Take one soul to cross the barrier and peacefully find the rest? What's the difference? She wanted to save the monsters too.

Maybe… Chara was right? What they're saying makes sense…. No, there's no proof that humans would do that. Maybe they will surprise everyone. Frisk would wait to see what happens. But maybe Chara's idea wasn't so bad afterall..?

Frisk turned off the shower and quickly dried off, rubbing the towel through their short hair making it fluffy before combing it down. They pulled on their sweater and pants, brushed their teeth and grabbed their phone. They sent a text to Alphys and Undyne to meet at Frisk's house if they were free so they could go shopping. Frisk's phone lit up, it was from Undyne:

"Be there in a sec"

Frisk texted sans and Papyrus to let them know Undyne and Alphys would be over soon. Frisk walked out of the bathroom and there was a knock on the door. That was quick, Frisk thought.

They opened the door to see Undyne and Alphys at the front door, Alphys was wearing a white turtleneck sweater and Undyne was wearing her black tank top. Alphys gave a small wave and Undyne had a huge smile on her face.

"Hey, punk! I haven't been able to spend quality time with ya since we got to the surface! Mostly my fault, fu hu hu, sorry about that. So what are the plans for today?"

Frisk explained the tradition of Halloween to them and Alphys got really excited.

"O-oh! It's just like cosplay r-right?" Frisk nodded at her and Undyne gave Alphys a hard slap on the back.

"Well if Alphys likes it I know I'll like it too! And hey! Free candy right?"

Frisk asked the two if they were hungry, Alphys declined but Undyne said she could eat. Frisk heated up some of Papyrus' alfredo and handed a plate to the fish lady.

"Papyrus made THIS? Wow! My lessons must be better than I thought! I didn't know the dork would keep cooking after I left. When I left the house we had just burnt his kitchen!" Frisk laughed.

When Undyne was done Frisk cleaned up and washed the dishes. They turned on the TV and watched Mettaton shows. It was just to pass time afterall. But where were the skeleton brothers? Shouldn't they be here by now?

Undyne voiced Frisk's exact thoughts, "Where the hell are they? That's it I'm going over there and kicking their butts!" Undyne stormed out of the house and ran next door, there was a loud crash and Undyne was cursing again.

Frisk and Alphys quickly ran outside to see Undyne's fist stuck through the skeleton brothers' house, right above the first hole where she kicked a hole through it.

"DO NOT WORRY BROTHER, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SAVE YOU FROM THE BURGLARS!" Papyrus came running down the stairs with his bone attacks ready. He dropped them and ran over to the door when he saw Undyne, "OH! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Your door is too weak Papyrus! I'll buy you a better door when we go shopping." She pulled her fist out of the door, "Are you guys ready? We've been waiting for you!"

Papyrus looked around confused, "ERM, DID WE HAVE PLANS?" he asked scratching his skull.

Alphys explained the concept of Halloween and how they were going out to buy costumes. Papyrus was thrilled and ran back into his room to change out of his pajamas, while also waking up sans.

The group all walked down to New Hope excitedly talking about what they were going to dress up as. Frisk had been thinking about dressing up as a skeleton, but they wanted to surprise the skeleton brothers. Frisk told Undyne she would look good as a pirate, she already had the eyepatch for it.

They reached the town and walked down a street to a line of shops. The whole town was decorated for halloween, there were orange lights and jack-o-lanterns everywhere. Everyone was staring at the decorations, there were ghosts, skeletons, zombies, etc.

"WOW SANS LOOK! IT'S US!" Papyrus was pointing at a skeleton costume display outside of one of the shops.

"i want tibia skeleton for halloween" sans said eyeing up the costume nodding approvingly.

The group poured inside the shop, there were only a few people inside but they all stared at the monsters. A teenager walked up to Undyne and held his hand up for a high five "Dude! Your costume is awesome! Are you a fish pirate?!" Undyne slapped his hand and he screamed in pain.

"Fuhuhu! Something like that!" Undyne was clutching her sides laughing as the human walked away holding his hand that was burning red.

While everyone was looking through the costumes around the store, Frisk found a skeleton costume and snuck up to the counter to pay for it along with some black and white face paint.

Undyne did end up buying a pirate costume, Papyrus also bought a skeleton costume, and sans and Alphys didn't buy anything. They both said they already had costumes.

The group walked down the road with the shops until they saw a nice cream shop. "Wow, already? How did he get a place so fast?" Undyne asked walking right up to him and ordering her a vanilla and Alphys a strawberry. She paid for them and they sat down at one of the outdoor tables in front of the shop. Papyrus got a mint chocolate chip, and sans bought Frisk a chocolate. They all sat around the table reading the wrappers to each other.

"You look nice today," Undyne read hers to Alphys, Alphys blushed and fidgeted with her own wrapper.

"U-uh um, i-is this as sw-sweet as you?" Alphys read her wrapper then quickly looked down. Undyne kissed her cheek and Alphys got even redder and almost fell out of her chair. Undyne slapped her knee and tried to hold back her laughter.

Papyrus looked to sans and read his, "Love yourself! I love you!" sans was scooped up into a big hug and swung around by Papyrus, sans chuckled.

"my brother is so cool." he said finally when Papyrus put him down. The group enjoyed their nice cream and walked around some town some more enjoying the decorations. They came across a hardware store and Frisk grabbed Undyne's arm and pulled her towards it.

"Where are you dragging me?" Undyne asked until she walked inside and saw a wall full of doors (among other things like ceiling fans and such-think Home Depot-) She gaped at her selection of doors and ran over to one that was completely metal. "This one. This is the one they need"

sans shrugged and Papyrus said it didn't matter to him, and so Undyne bought this insanely thick metal door and carried it above her head for the rest of the day. They were on their way home as it was starting to get dark when Frisk was stopped by a kid a little younger than them, Frisk guessed they were probably 12.

"Uh, uhm, you guys are from Ebott right? Uh, my mom said we are moving there soon, but we gotta wait for the goat people to get back? Do you know when they're coming back?"

Frisk nodded, "They'll be back tomorrow, you can talk to them then" The kid smiled up at Frisk and the monsters and ran back to their mom who was talking to a group of people. They tugged on the back of her shirt and pointed at the monsters, the mother looked at the monster then down to the kid smiled and hugged the kid, she waved to the monsters. Papyrus and Frisk waved back, the others just watched.

They left New Hope and started up the path back to Ebott. "WOW! HUMANS WANT TO LIVE WITH US! I'M SO EXCITED TO HAVE MORE OF YOUR KIND IN OUR TOWN FRISK!" Papyrus exclaimed. "OH! I DIDN'T SEE YOUR COSTUME, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE?" Papyrus reached for the bag containing the skeleton costume and Frisk yanked it away just in time and shook their head at him.

"It's a secret," Frisk said.

"OH BUT I AM VERY GOOD AT KEEPING SECRETS! LET ME KNOW!" Frisk shook their head at Papyrus again, "AWH ALRIGHT, WELL MY COSTUME IS A SECRET TOO!" Papyrus pulled his bag up to his chest and hugged it, he was too tall for Frisk to be able to reach it up there.

"hey kid," sans said catching up to frisk "don't worry about him, he's just skullking" sans snickered and Frisk giggled quietly.

"SANS! STOP PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL PUNS!" Papyrus rolled his eyes at the two.

They walked to Ebott excitedly planning for Halloween and decorating, it was dark when they got back. Everyone was tired, all but Undyne and Papyrus, as soon as they got back to their cluster of houses, Undyne ripped off the old door to the skelebros house and installed the new metal door and kicked it open. She was satisfied that it didn't even leave a dent, she then tried punching it, again no dent. She started kicking and punching the door, then she summoned a spear. Alphys ran in front of her.

"W-wait! We're not trying to break thi-this door!" Alphys said, sweating nervously.

"Just making sure this door is tough enough to deal with me!" Undyne said simply as she was dragged off by Alphys. They waved goodbye and went into the lab.

"pap? 's okay if i sleep with you tonight?" sans asked.

"OF COURSE BROTHER! I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THOSE PESKY NIGHTMARES!"

"heh. thanks bro. you're the best." sans said, "night kiddo, see ya tomorrow"

"SLEEP TIGHT, HUMAN!"

Frisk said goodbye and walked inside. They turned on the TV and turned it to a human channel for once, it was cartoons. They shrugged as they pulled the couch out to make a bed and fell asleep watching some show about a burger shop.