So back at school again after two weeks off. I meant to update yesterday but my brain had turned to mush and dribbled out of my ears by that point so I was in no fit state to write anything that looked remotely like English.
Really happy to see all the kids again though, they are strangely less feral than usual which is always nice. The holidays seems to have done them some good.

Anyway, enough about work, here's a new chapter for you guys. I had a lot of fun writing this one. Hope you enjoy :)


"Knock knock,"

"...who's there?"

"Needle,"

"Needle who?"

"Need-a-lil money for some clothes,"

You chuckle, pulling your head out of the railing of shirts as you dig out your wallet and pass Patero a tenner, much to his surprise.

"Uh- really? I was jus'-"

"What? Did you change your mind?" You ask in a deadpan tone, smiling softly when Patter, after a brief reflective pause, stares at you incredulously.

"Did you mean to make a pun there?" He questions, frowning with frustration as you nonchalantly shrug and put the wallet away.

You try to hide your grin as his wheedling gets louder and you tease him further with shrugs and silence.

It has been just over a month now since you started your new job. That's over four months since your Patter joined you.

Patero seems happy enough, both about the everyday stuff and your job, but continues not to be that curious about the people who go there, which gives you a slight pang in your stomach. You don't know much about Monster culture and you're often worried that you've cut him out of that world.

But he does seems happy... well, most of the time... you think he's been improving a bit lately at least: he's been smiling more.

He's been laughing a lot more too and enjoying his cooking. Often what you make isn't all that stellar so you both much prefer cooking side by side; he just seems to have a better knack for matching flavours together... and making it taste not like styrofoam.

Ice Cream seems to be his obsession right now, which is helpful in keeping him cool in this oddly warm winter weather.

Yeah he does have a habit of getting a bit frustrated now and then- but he's a complete cutey and you're filled with something everytime you see his face scrunched up with brain freeze.

You are unending and unwavering in your efforts to keep him smiling. Which is probably why you will react the way you do when you see that smile put out by cruel, thoughtless words.

You've taken him shopping to get some new clothes, (how he's growing so bloody fast you don't know- he's only a little bit smaller than you and he's only eight) and he's finally stopped needling you about the pun to he go try on a few hoodies and shirts he liked. With a smiling sigh you slouch against one of the grubby walls of the changing room and stare absentmindedly up at the spiderweb of cracks across the ceiling.

Your gaze is brought back down to Earth with the soft squeal of a child. You look to your right and see a blond woman, only a few years older than you, jigging a smiling toddler on her hip.

"They really need to repaint the walls in here," she smiles at you, nodding to the ceiling you had been gazing at.

You hesitantly nod back and for some reason, maybe it's the good mood Patero's put in you or maybe it's the giggling child pawing at his mother's chest, you decide to try for a verbal response.

"The curtains are in need of a good wash too,"

"Oh yeah, gross! Hey Jake! Don't touch the curtains too much, 'kay?" She calls out, nodding in a satisfied way when she hears a muffled "Okay!" from the other side of the changing room.

"You here with your kid too?" she asks in a more normal tone of voice.

You nod and then, slightly unsure of what to say, you simply reply with a:

"... He grows too fast,"

"Yeah! I swear they're like mushrooms sometimes. Especially this little one," she laughs, jiggling the little boy again to his chortling delight.

Your eyes soften slightly and you open your mouth to ask about her child, only to stop when you see the sudden frown on her face.

You follow her gaze to see Patero carefully pulling back the curtain, trying not to touch it as much as he can.

"They let anyone in don't they. Hope they wash those clothes after that freak used them,"

There is a long silence.

She turns to face you when you don't reply but you're no longer looking at her. You're looking at your Patter.

He heard what the woman said. You can tell by the stilling of his body and the way his eyes grow distant, then lock on you.

His smile is gone.

Right- well- usually you don't like conflict, you do it when necessary but otherwise... you much prefer to calmly explain things or to go a different route to sort out your problems. The thing is... the thing is he is looking at you now. Patero is watching you as you listen to him being insulted and You. Aren't. Doing. Anything.

You can't just leave this woman to wallow in her own hurtful bigotry, you have to do something but your mind draws a blank.

So, for the first time in a long time, you just let the words you are thinking tumble out of your mouth.

"You will not talk about my son like that," You inform her, turning your head, your eyes unwavering on hers.

The woman freezes at the same time as you as those words sink in. Her eyes widen in shock as she looks at you then at your Patter with disbelief.

"I- it's your so-?"

Your dazed thoughts are cut short as you hear her stuttering attempt to speak. You interrupt her.

"He is not a 'freak' as you so put it." You hate words like that. "I hate words like that. When someone says it, all it does is put a label on the one who uses it. Do you know what that label is?" Your voice is soft and pleasant as your eyes flicker from her smiling child to her bewildered, hurt expression.

"He-hey you can't talk to me like-"

"There are many words for this label," You interrupt her again, tone still kind and warm and your eyes intent on her shifting gaze, but your voice is loud and abrupt in the silent changing room. "Bigot, racist, prejudiced… I could come up with more but I think these words can be painful to hear. I don't want to use words in a way that hurt you. I don't want to be the sort of person who does that..."

The woman's mouth parts as she meets your eyes, seeing the emotions pouring out of them as you survey her.

You take in a deep breath, pushing down the horrible clenching feeling in your stomach and turn to face Patero… who is staring at you with a parted mouth and huge eyes.

"Hey Pater, any of those fit you okay?" You ask, trying to keep your voice from shaking.

Slowly he nods and lifts up a stripy t-shirt.

"Cool, let's go get that then. Do you want to try anything else on or are you good?"

He hesitates for a moment, eyes travelling behind you, to that woman, before snapping back to you. He toys at his lip with his jagged teeth for a moment, then a faint but determined look lights up his eyes.

"I- uh- I'd like t'look at some hats… Mahd," he murmurs quietly, and a rush of startled warmth rushes through your face, causing all expression to freeze on your face as you process those words.

Did he just...?

A surprised smile replaces the forced one on your lips.

"O-Okay... ice cream to the one who can find the most ridiculous hat. Looser has to wear it!"

"Y-you're on!"

And so it is, half an hour later, you're running through the mall with a hyped up child on a sugar-rush to rival all sugar rushes on your back, sporting a day glow pink, butterfly hat on which makes it look like your head is being attacked by insects.

You both are laughing hysterically as he cries out:

"Mush! MUSH!"

His words get a bit garbled after that as you almost topple forwards and you both have to stop moving while you get both your breath and balance back.

Tears are streaming down your face and you cannot stop laughing, which only sets Patero off again. Neither of you notice that people are stopping and staring at you as you both gasp for breath with aching chests.

It is only when your eyes catch on a somewhat familiar figure that you calm down enough to take note of your surroundings and remember you are in a public place, surrounded by rather large amount of freaked out looking shoppers.

Your delighted smile fades as you take in the skeleton standing before you, staring at you over a frozen grin, his pinprick eyes flittering from you to Patero in rapid succession.

You falling grin catches on your face though and deepens to a soft sincere smile as you notice one of your current students staring up at you with the widest eyes you have ever seen on them.

Perhaps, if you weren't so surprised yourself at seeing them, you would realise that this is the first time you've seen these expressions on Frisk's and Sans's faces, almost like a bombshell has been dropped on their heads.

You shift Patero slightly on your back so your right arm is free to make a thumbs up motion then pull your hand from the left side of your chest to your right.

'Good morning.'

Frisk quickly signs back, a huge and wondrous grin on their face, and you feel Patero slip off you to stand by your side.

The children look at each other, with wide, startled eyes. Frisk's mouth parting and Patter's jaw dropping as his eyes cautiously shifted from Frisk to Sans and back again. Your own eyes travel once more to the person standing just behind Frisk, who has been staring at you with a glassy grin, seemingly for a while now.

"Hello again," you say to him and he blinks twice, coming out of whatever thought that had been consuming him and grinning anew.

"sup' teach, like the hat," Sans returns, nodding to you as he takes in your appearance.

You lightly wince at that, scratching your head embarrassedly as you surreptitiously wipe the water from your eyes.

"Yes, I think I'm setting a trend,"

Patero tugs lightly at your sleeve and you look down to see him giving you a flat, faintly worried, look.

"Oops, sorry Pater," you say, mistaking his expression for irritation that you hadn't introduced them yet. "This is Frisk, one of my students, from that school I told you about, and their… uh…"

"friend-slash-baby sitter: sans," Sans supplies with a small nod, the little dots of light in his sockets now focused intently on the nervous looking Patero.

"Frisk, Sans, this is my… son, Patero," You give Patero a careful glance as you say those final words, check to make sure he was okay with you introducing him like that. He seemed okay if the small, reserved smile was anything to go by.

There is a beat of silence.

"…son eh?" Sans smirks. "have to say you guys look son-sational together,"

There is a puffing silent laugh coming from Frisk and you look down to Patero to see him smiling with wary delight at the pun.

"so what you cool kids up to?" Sans asked, absent-mindedly ruffling Frisk's hair as he spoke.

"W-we're goin' to the park to play volleyball now," Patero spoke up in a small but progressively more even voice, paw clenched tight on your sleeve.

"volleyball? Well I DIG that,"

"...it's a HIT with my friends," Patero returned with a larger smile, his paw loosening from its death grip on your arm.

Sans started chuckling faintly, his eyes subtly moving from your arm then back to Patero again.

"mind if we tag along? or we could set up a play date another time?"

You and Patero exchange a glance at that. You think he looks cautiously pleased by the twisted smile on his lips, so you nod and quickly agree.


And so it is, just over one hour after that foul woman almost ruined the day, that you're sitting on a park bench, watching Patero have the time of his life battling against a surprisingly agile Frisk.

San's seems to be texting someone as you both watch but you have a feeling he's very good at dividing his attention. Whenever Frisk hits the ground hard or falls over, his thumb freezes on the screen, eyes gazing steadily into nothing, until the kid laughs and gets up.

You awkwardly shift on the splintery bench where you're both sat, trying to think of something to say.

"...They're good at this," you finally comment as you watch Frisk attempt a slam dunk. Your Patter isn't taking that lying down though and quickly returns it.

"yup, frisk takes after me with the agility thing," Sans hums distractedly, balancing his phone on his potato shaped- stomach. You mentally shrug at this and continue to watch him as he puts down the phone and finally turns his lamp like eyes on you.

"i take it Patero doesn't take after you too much,"

"…Eh, you'd be surprised," you nonchalantly answer, keeping the faint frown of irritation hidden under a breezy, uncaring attitude as you turn your gaze away to watch Patter return another volley.

"mmmnnn..."

You can feel him staring as you look out at your surroundings.

"Fine," you mumble to yourself when his steady unblinking stare gets to be too much. "Well we're obviously not related. He's my foster kid, took him in when his Mahd (that's his Dad) past away,"

"...how'd he die?" He asks in a toneless voice.

You frown and turn to him for the first time since you started speaking, to find mere pinpricks of light looking back at you out of the pitch black, tunnel-like sockets.

"... I was told it was a car accident. Someone was driving drunk, killed herself as well as him when she went up on the pavement and crashed,"

There is a long moment of silence, then Sans puffs out a tight sigh and looks away, much to your relief.

"monster community's tight, would've thought i'dve heard of this..."

"... As far as I can tell he didn't really like company even from before he and Patero moved here. But still that's... strange. Social services told me they were looking for family but hadn't found any. Would've thought..." your voice fades away as you think of that first person who called you about Patero, about how Fran isn't in charge of looking for family members herself. What if...

"i could get someone to ask around if you..." Sans starts to offer, but then he then sees your face and the words he is about to say curdle in his mouth.

"...course they'd probably be happy to leave the kid with you if your both okay with that. no one'd try'n take him from you,"

You start to breath again.

"Uh, I... well if Patter wanted..." You find your lips moving of your own accord as you turn to look back at Patero hit another serve, throat tight and aching with an odd, horrible burn. "Yes. He needs to know if... well so he can have a choice if there's anyone left."

"i'm sure he'd choose right..." Sans pauses and follows your gaze to you son again.

"...How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," you murmur to yourself with a strange, laughing twist to your mouth.

"didn't peg you as a fan of winnie the poo," Sans murmurs, slouching back against the bench.

"Used to love it when- well, I still do," you return with a small sigh "and you?"

"paps discovered it recently. i mainly like it for the name,"

You send him a disappointed look at his crude humor which he sees through as clear as a window, sending you a shit eating grin as you try to stop your mouth from quirking up.

A comfortable silence reigns as you both sit on that creaky wooden bench, watching your charges go head to head with unsurprising gusto.

The quiet moment strains though as you feel Sans glancing at you several times, and as you turn to see the words obviously building up behind his toothy grin. You look away and simply sit, staring blindly into space until he cracks.

"how'd you end up with a monster as a foster kid anyway? if you don' mind me askin'"

You felt the tension leave your limbs, only realising you had been clenching your fists when you see the indents of your nails on your palms.

Raising your eyes up from your hands, you realise Sans is waiting for answer as he steadily gazes at you.

"He wanted to stay with me, I was his teacher once and he asked if he could- well- I wasn't going to say no, especially when that first social worker was so-" you cut yourself off when you saw Patero pick up the ball and bound over to you with a grin.

"Hey M-Mahd, Sans, wanna join?" He asks. You look over to Sans who grins at you both and puts away his phone.

"hang on a min, i think there's someone coming who'd dig this game much more than this lazy bones,"

You quietly smile as Patero grins and laughs at Sans's weak pun and tries to return with one of his own.

"You'd be a fool t'pass this up,"

"heh you're alrigh' kid. is this where he takes after you teach?"

"Hardly," you return "I can't make a joke to save my life,"

"That's not true! You made one earlier... right?"

You shrug, keeping your own shit eating grin hidden as Patter starts fuming again only to be cut off as a booming voice cuts through his protests.

"OH! HELLO STAR TEACHER!" You jump up and spin around quickly, lips turning up in surprise as you see that familiar skeleton bounding towards you with a huge toothy grin.

As he arrives he turns to Sans with a questioning glance.

"SANS IS THIS WHY YOU SAID IT WAS SO IMPO-"

"sup bro," Sans cut in with a lazy wave, watching you from the corner of his eye as you continued to surprisedly but happily gaze up at Papyrus. "these 'cool kids' need an extra player for their v-ball game. thought they'd like to see a pro in action."

You watched with unconcealed amusement as Papyrus's chest puffs out with pride.

"AN EXCELLENT DECISION SANS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL OF COURSE ASSIST IN THIS SPORTING ENDEAVOUR!"

"This's the Papyrus you were telling me abou'?" Patero whispers to you, staring up at the skeleton with a surprised expression.

"AHAH NATURALLY YOU HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT MY GREATNESS TO- UH... I DON'T BELIEVE WE HAVE MET?"

"Oh! This is my son, Patero,"

Patero blinks twice, a small frown dimpling his brow but when you look down at him he beams at you. You don't see Sans's eyes narrowing into thoughtful slits over his perpetual grin as you beam back at your son.

"...?!" Papyrus exclaims, looking at you and then Patero with surprised, googling eyes. "...WOWIE STAR TEACHER! I DIDN'T KNOW HUMANS COULD HAVE -"

"hey paps weren' you gonna show them how to play volleyball?" Sans interrupts to both your and Patter's relief.

"AH YES! PREPARE TO BE BEATEN STAR TEACHER AND NEW MONSTER FRIEND!"

Papyrus is true to his word (for the first match at least) as he excitedly slams down the ball with such force that, as you watch the punctured ball ooze into a puddle of plastic, even you have to say it:

"I prefer mine served sunny side up."

You turn to smile at Patero as his head spins and he glares at you.

"I knew it! You did make a joke earlier!"

The glare turns into a grin and then a laugh.

Papyrus however does not find this new side of you so amusing.

"NOOO! NOT YOU TOO STAR TEACHER! JUST FOR THAT YOU ARE GETTING SANS ON YOUR TEAM!" He shouts, putting something away into his pocket and stomping off to the bench Sans is dozing on.

You turn to Frisk, confusion evident on your face, only to receive a smirking shrug back.

You turn back to find Sans being plonked down on your left by the irritable Papyrus. He's looking just as bemused as you.

"wha'?"

You shrugged.

"Papyrus wants you on our team,"

He raises an eyebone at that.

"rrriiight... well, hate to burst your bubble bro! (or volleyball in this case) but we have nothing to play with,"

"DO NOT WORRY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS THOUGHT OF AN AMAZING SOLUTION TO OUR WOES! IT IS A TRUELY BRILLIANT PLAN, WORTHY OF A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD (if that were still a thing). YOU REALLY WILL BE BLOWN AWAY BY THIS BRILLIANT PLAN!"

"you texted undyne huh,"

"I TEXTED- SANS! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"

Sans shrugged, a smirking grin plastered on his face.

Patero seemed to take pity on Papyrus though, perhaps recalling your previous light hearted teasing and relating to Papyrus's confused plight.

"He can see her, over there," he states, a soft look similar to yours on his face as he watches Papyrus turn and squint across the park.

Sure enough, in the distance, you can see the bobbing sway of red hair as a blue figure belts across the park at full speed, a sack of what is presumably volleyballs attached to her back, a mushroom of dust and torn up grass marking her trail.

Your smile almost splits your face.


"C'mon! Put some backbone into it!"

With Undyne in the game, punctured balls becomes the norm for almost every round. It's lucky she brought so many spares.

"Whack it like you're killing it kid!"

It's unlucky that she isn't on your team.

"My pet goldfish has more bite than you two!"

That doesn't stop her from trying to give you and Patero advice though.

"Stop trying to pass to Sans!"

Yeah that's a good one. You have been passing to him out of habit and need to stop. Sans is more like a boulder than a player. In fact Patero seems to be using San's head as a bounce point to pass to you.

Sans doesn't seem to mind this if his lazy grin is anything to go by.

Things start to get really fun though when you and Patter set up a slam that Undyne, not Frisk or Papyrus this time, misses.

Her roar echoes across the park and suddenly there's a big blue spear in her hand and a ring of smaller spears surrounding the court.

"welp. i'm out," Sans states and vanishes off the court.

It takes you a moment to collect yourself after witnessing the giant blue glowy spears and Sans's disappearing act but recover yourself you do.

"Looks like powers are in Patter," you smile evilly, wiggling your eyebrows at your kid.

Patero stares at you incredulously, then at the other team, then back to you again.

"...Really?"

"Yeah, let's flatten them!"

He grins, shark teeth flashing bright as his dark eyes light up like a Christmas tree.

With a soft circular movement of his right hand, the ball is picked up by a small current of wind from the other side of the court and lands in your palms.

"well this just got interesting," states Sans from the sidelines, opening a bag of peanuts.

"Let's do it!" You grin at Patter before serving the ball high into the air.

And when you say high, you mean high.

"Let's do it!" echoes your Patter.

The game then starts in earnest as the ground ruptures around you, almost shaking you to your knees. Odd, bone-like structures burst out of the ground, almost tripping you over as you danced around them.

"What the-?!"

"NYEHEHEH! CAN YOU BEAT MY AMAZING SPECIAL ATTACK STAR TEACHER?!"

You blink in surprise and look to Patero who is grinning determinedly at you.

"Definitely!" You return as you move, feet dancing one in front of the other as you weave through the twists and turns and use the odd structures to kick off of and strike back at the hit from Frisk.

Undyne quickly returns the volley with her spear and with seemingly enough force to drill through rock. Somehow though, when your palm collides with it, the force doesn't seem as strong as you presumed and you easily return it (much to Undyne's frustration.)

The game only continues to get tougher and rougher though and you have no clue how you are holding your own facing against three opponents, two of which are warrior monsters with-

Wait, no, that's a lie. You know how you're managing to escape the curb stomp: Patero.

"Air scooter!" He shouts out and you jump out of the way just in time to see him whiz past, perching on top of a ball of compressed air as he bats back the ball with a one handed strike (the other hand bending and contorting across his body as the wind swirls beneath him)

"gotta say, the kids got some moves," comes the voice of Sans, surprisingly close to you, just a few inches to your left.

"That ones my favourite," you state, not looking his way as you get into position again, eye literally on the ball "we saw it on this cartoon called Avatar. He's been obsessed with learning all the mov- Patter! Air funnel!"

You jump forwards and hold you arms out as Patero spins and sweeps both his arms back, pulling the ball towards you in a funnel of air that dissolves just as it reaches you, allowing you to smack back the ball onto ground of the opposing team's side.

"Boom! You hungry? You hungry? Coz you jus' got served!" Cries Patero, sticking out his fist to you as you pound out a fist bump before he excitedly bounds around the court.

"stop egging them on!" Sans shouts after him with an ear splitting laugh.

"I- you're pun-ishin' us with tha' joke," returned Patter, chortling as he notices Papyrus stomping his feet on the ground, presumably in irritation from all the puns.

"so he worked that one out himself?" Sans asks you in a lower tone as you watch the other side regroup (Frisk leading the tactics meeting with a determined grin on their face) and as you smile at Patero pausing in his funny, leaping dance to raggedly catch his breath.

"...Well we used the TV show at first, there's a lot of martial arts and real world practices used in it. I did a bit of research and it turns out it's based mainly on Bah- Baguah- wait a moment I can say this...Baguazhang martial arts. We looked at this and also found a form of meditation to help his breathing and finer control."

You pause as you consider whether you should tell Sans about the 'magic of air' book that you 'borrowed' from the school. But, well, you and Patter had only used it a little and you don't really fancy Toriel hearing about you ta- borrowing magic books. Your pondering is cut short however as Sans steps in front of you with an odd look on his face.

"...what?"

"Well, it's also called circle walk-"

"no-i mean you- you taught him all that?" He asks in a weird, almost strangled voice.

You're saved from having to answer him as Frisk serves and Patero shouts out another move that you race to comply, circling around him, to act as a bizarre mirror to your Patter as he draws a leg back and spreads out his arms in a wide swooping motion, pulling air particles tight into his body.

As the game continues you feel yourself grinning in earnest, jumping up higher and making larger leaps for the ball.

"Help me up Patter, air blast!" You shout as you leap up into the air, fist outstretched and fierce grin on your lips as your eyes latch onto the ridiculously high arch of the ball.

Air whistles past your ears and suddenly you are thrown upwards, further and faster than you anticipated. A swooping feeling fills your stomach as you leave the ground behind you and soar into the sky, eyes watering with the rush of wind.

But you're still grinning as the tears stream out behind you, you don't care that you're too high as you punch down on the ball and keep on going, your cheeks aching with the burning smile you give your opponents-

Who are staring up at you with wide eyes, arms falling limply to their sides in surprise.

Your smile fades as your hair starts to float up around your face and small spheres of teardrops fly upwards. Suddenly you realise what's happening.

You're falling.

Wind buffets at you desperately, as if it is trying to keep you up or to slow you down, but it's not strong enough. All it does is spin you in round as you plummet down, faster and faster, until you finally-

Freeze.

You blink rapidly, breath like ice in your chest as your eyes cross and focus on the blade of grass tickling your nose.

Then you drop to the ground and it takes you a moment to regain cognitive thought. It takes you even longer to realise several people are shouting your name and you are lying face first in the grass.

You sit up just in time for a gigantic Skeleton to plough into you.

"STAR TEACHER ARE YOU OKAY?!"

You stare gormlessly at him.

"Wow," you say, meeting the dark pools of his eye sockets that somehow conveyed a concerned gaze.

Then you blink and shake your head, loosening it from his tight grip.

"I'm fine, thanks," you say, dusting yourself off and standing up, offering him a hand when he doesn't move from where he had knelt beside you.

"You okay?" You ask.

"Heh... NYEHHAHA! HUMAN YOU ARE TOO KIND TO BE WORRIED ABOUT ME WHEN YOU WERE SO NEARLY INJURED! I TRULY DO HAVE GOOD TASTE IN FRIENDS!"

You feel your lips twitch up at that as he takes your hand and you pull the surprisingly light skeleton up.

It is only then that you realise that Patero is not next to you. Instead he is still stood in the exact same place on the court as he was earlier.

"Patter! You okay?!" You ask, rushing past Papyrus towards your son, stopping just short of touching him.

Patero doesn't say anything, simply staring at you.

"You okay?" You ask him in a gentler tone, your hands itching to cradle his lowered face.

He joltingly nods once and you find yourself releasing a relieved gush of air.

"...I- I'm sor-" he haltingly starts to apologise but you cut him off as soon as you see that quavering downturn to his lips.

"Don't be. That was my fault, I told you to do that and- well it was really fun actually!" You laugh slightly as you remember flying into the air. "I felt like superman Patter!"

"But you're not!" He suddenly shouts, his dagger teeth gritting and dark eyes flaring with an emotion you have never seen in him this strongly before.

You pause, confused as you watch him freeze and sharply look away.

"Patter?"

"...Sorry M-Mahd. I jus'..." He falls into silence and you gently kneel down before him.

"I'm fine. Look at me Patter. You caught me, I'm fine,"

He looks down at you, eyes tracing over wind tangled hair, grass stains and the soft tear tracks crossing your cheeks.

"It wasn' me who caught you,"

Your tight smile fades slightly.

"...What? But-"

"Hey you okay punk?!" Comes Undyne's voice, interrupting your confused questioning as you turn around to give the worried fish monster a thumbs up- only to be swooped off the ground in a tight hug.

"...Hey Undyne, who caught me?" You ask once your mind has stopped spitting out static and allowed you to detangle yourself from her.

You feel a tug on your sleeve and you look to your right to see Frisk signing something with a gentle smile.

'S-A-N-S'

...Oh.

You turn around to see Sans being hugged off the ground by a squealing Papyrus.

He catches your gaze over his brother's shoulder and gives you a little nod.

You smile at him, a sincere feeling of gratitude flooding through you as you mouth your thanks, amused when the guy just stares blankly back at you. This silent staring competition is interrupted though when Papyrus does a strange dancing spin and almost drops his startled brother.

You start laughing with delight.

Oh what a weird day.

"Why are you laughin'?! You could've got hurt! I almos'-"

Patero shuts his mouth with a click as you twist around and pick him up under his arms, spinning him around with you as your laughter grows and grows.

"How awesome are you Patter? I don't think I've had a day quite like this ever in my life. Thank you,"

He squirms in your grip and you let him go, but not before ruffling his hair and giving him a shit eating grin.

He hesitates but eventually a small, almost tired, smile curls tightly on his lips.

"Oh it's on," he declares as you turn tail and run.

It doesn't take long for Undyne, Frisk and Papyrus to join in this new game.

The broken remnants of the volleyball game lay forgotten on the grass as you run.