The roar of a car motor was all you could register for a stuttering gap of time.

The voices hit you next - men, angry, and only half-hushed. An insistently piercing throb in your head came next, and the sudden wave of pain and nausea made you silently dry heave.

Everything else crashes around you then - the lingering smell of the sickly tart drug that had been pressed to your mouth and nose, the rough bite of rope cutting the circulation of your wrists tied behind your back, the disconcertingly soft caress of a strip of cotton cloth covering your eyes, the shifting inertia of a car's movement, the rub of some kind of rough, beaten upholstery against your face, side, legs, smelling of old dirt, sweat, rusty iron…

Your stomach lurched again as you recognized the rusted metallic smell as being that of spilled blood, however dried. The car you were in took a sharp corner then and your focus went to fighting to keep your balance on your side. You bit your lip to quiet your soft grunt, realizing that you desperately hoped that the men wouldn't notice that you were awake - but you lucked up, as at least two of them swore loudly as the car turned.

Cotton still clouded your mind, but you struggled through it. As discreetly as possible, not sure if one of the men was turned to watch you, you shifted to where your nose wasn't pressed against the floor of the car and took several deep breaths to better clear your head. The scent of the drug rolled through your gut again, but it was faint enough that you were able to push past it.

The speakeasy, you remembered. Dancing with the blonde. Stopping in the alcove, catching Sans' eye, the man appearing behind you with the drug while the blonde helped keep you from moving…

A twisted scowl flashed across your face to match the anger and dread in your chest. Those bastards.

Had anyone caught them? Your mind raced - you didn't know why they kidnapped you, for intel or retribution or otherwise - but no matter what, it was bad news. Vaguely, you recalled some kind of commotion right as you were passing out. A distraction, maybe. It wasn't like they could have just waltzed past the guards with you over their shoulders.

If they had gotten past the guards, though, if their commotion had been successful, or successful enough… your chest felt too tight. You did not want to think of that as a possibility. Not yet. There was a sharper ache then as you thought of Sans - with a vengeance that startled even yourself, you hoped that he had caught at least a glimpse of them with you.

The car took another sharp turn, the thin tires screeching against ill-paved roads as another one of the men swore. You heard the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked, and suddenly the air in the car shifted, blowing and whirling wildly - they must have rolled a window down.

The gun went off, several times, the crack of the shots whipping through the car mercilesly. Your heart froze.

More swearing, and the air stilled once more after the furious pump of the window crank.

"Some kinda shield demon, boys," one of the men snarled, breathless. You wanted to snarl right back at the slur he had spat. He must have been the one who leaned out to take the shot.

Wait.

If he had tried to take a shot, then that must mean…

"Can't shake 'em off our tail yet," another one groaned.

A fierce pride in what might as well have been your extended family filled your breast, alongside something that was dangerously close to hope. There was a hot prickle of wetness at the corner of your eyes. You shook it away. With it shifted your blindfold, and you abruptly were able to get a sliver of a view of your surroundings.

You were in the open-style trunk of a surprisingly new model of car, facing towards the hatch-style back of it with the rear end of the back seat behind you. Very, very dimly reflected in the window at the top half of the hatch door were the backs of the heads of four men. One was driving and the other was in the passenger seat moving in a way that seemed to imply he was reloading his gun.

None of them were looking back towards you.

"Don't go the usual route," the one with the gun hissed at the driver.

You had to help. For your own sanity, and to help whoever was on the chase. To help you, too, but you tried not to think too hard about the consequences if you were caught by the men. You gritted your teeth and searched desperately for something to help you escape or fight, anything, as you discreetly struggled against the tie at your wrists.

Your reward for your struggle was just the hard pain of a deeper rope burn on your wrists, which you suspected had been started well before you regained consciousness.

Something hit the car then, send it squealing and skidding across the road. One of your legs shot out instinctively to brace yourself against the trunk as the men in the front swore viciously again. You felt the wind pick up in the car again as the car straightened. At the same moment, your foot shifted slightly as something beneath it gave way.

Looking down in surprise, you realized that your foot was wedged against the socket for the taillight. It was pushed in slightly, and you felt the slight chill of rushing air concentrated there even as the air in the car as a whole whipped up as the gunman readied himself.

Your body worked almost instinctually. You heard the gun cock, and you pulled your leg up just slightly, scooting closer to the taillight, waiting -

The man shot, the sound cracking through the car, and you kicked. The shattering pop of the taillight busting out mixed imperceptibly with the man's following shots, and the wind picked up harder around your foot and you tensed, waiting to see if they had noticed… but now the other men were loading guns, attention on whomever was chasing you. You felt a brief moment of mixed relief at this - but it passed.

Now what.

Your heart raced as you heard the man up front swear as he pulled his torso back in the car, but the wind only rushed through the car harder as you heard the windows of the back seat crank down. A gun much closer to you went off.

"A right, up here!" The man up front barked at the driver. A few moments passed, and the car took a sharp right. You heard something screeching behind the car a short handful of seconds later. "Two down and a left," the man ordered again.

A stroke of insight, and you knew what to do.

Twisting your ankle painfully and bending your knee in ways it didn't quite want to go, you managed to get your foot out the hole left by the missing taillight. You tried hard to not think about how ridiculous your foot looked on the outside now, still done up in a heel. You needed to focus, to make this clear. Breathing deeply and letting your dress hitch up slightly, you counted the intersections you passed - marked by a rough screech of avoiding traffic, horns blaring around you - and as soon as you were through the second, you twisted your foot so that your toes pointed to the left. A few seconds later, the car screeched in its turn and veered to the left. Again a handful of seconds passed, then a faint screech amidst the honking horns behind you again. Shots rang out from your kidnappers.

"Hang a right," the man up front said before the wind obscured the end of his words as he clearly leaned out again. You twisted painfully, your foot now pointing the other way, the sharp metal of the car's lining cutting into your skin.

Quicker this time you heard the screech of a pursuing car behind you.

One of the men closer to you swore again. "How in the fuck are we supposed to get the dame to the hole when-"

"Next left-" cut the man's words off, and you pointed your foot again. Even quicker, hardly two beats behind your turn, came the drifting screech of your pursuants.

"Focus on your bullets," barked the man up front again. With the adrenaline and pain coursing through you, you realized at last that it sounded like the blonde man, with all hint of his former blandly charming facade dropped. Anger boiled through you, but you concentrated on your task. "Right!" He said, voice nearly lost as he leaned out once more. His shots and the shots of the man in the backseat on the opposite side rang out. Your foot trickled with blood as you twisted to match their instructions, and you bit at your cheek.

The next shriek was blood-curdling and human, and it came from one of the men closer to you.

You felt the car seat at your back shake with movement - the second man in back swore as he apparently pulled the other back in, the metallic scent of blood strong in the air as it whipped through the car, then the blonde up front yelled "right-" again and you shifted to match the direction, the car nearly rolling as it took the turn a moment later but there it was again, the sound of a car on your tail now only a beat behind you-

"Is that a god-damned bone-" you heard the blonde swear, then the bit-down screams of another man- pleading, pleading to not move it, while his backseat companion sounded lost and horror-struck all at once as he tried to figure out what to do.

"Do you know how to get to the wharf from here-?" you heard the blonde say to the driver. You didn't hear a response from the driver because then the blonde was swearing and now the gunshot came from inside of the car.

Your head twisted because why would he do that and finally, finally the blindfold fell fully off, and through the thin windows above your body closer to your feet you saw a car racing at your side. An enormous fish woman was leaning out one door even as it raced down the street and you realized that it was Undyne, her crimson hair whipping out behind her like a streak of fire and blood and suit jacket seeming discarded, her crimson sleeves rolled to the elbow as one hand grasped a handle inside the car and the other lifted an electric blue spear. Out the other side leaned another figure, one partially obscured by the car, but your heart throbbed as you caught the familiar twist of Sans face-

And it skipped a beat wholly when you caught the flash of blue fire in his left socket. His right was completely dark, and his grin was stretched wide and tight. You had no idea how he was balancing well-enough out the other side of the car, but you felt a twist in your gut when you saw the easy and smooth way he leveled a tommy gun at the front of the car.

His gaze flashed through the car, searching for something, and for just a moment he caught your gaze. There was something that twitched in what you would only be able to describe as relief on his face at that moment, but then the tight grin was back and his eyes were tight and almost wild as his gaze flashed forward to the front of the car. With a shudder and a lot of hope you dragged your foot back in, hissing at the pain but trying to ready yourself for the worst.

Only a few seconds had passed since they pulled up beside you. The blonde was swearing again now. There was the clatter of a discarded pistol, and another shot rang out - this time the driver swore, but the blonde apparently paid him no mind as he emptied his chamber towards the adjacent car. There was movement in the backseat again and you heard the rattle of a gun, of a tommy gun being lifted - there was a flash of green as Undyne's spear shifted and blocked the following shots, and in a blink the blue hue returned to it and with a blur of movement it crashed through the car and you heard the crunch of bone and the wet, bloody gasp of the second man in the back seat. You flinched, but a guilty satisfaction slipped through you.

"Wanna test me any more, pendejos?!" You heard Undyne's roar whipped into the rushing air even as it vibrated through the shell of the car. The driver apparently stepped on the gas at that, and you rolled with the burst of speed the car took on. Your shoulder smashed into the hatch door of the trunk, causing you to swear. Your ankle throbbed, and you grit your teeth as you looked back at the car to your side.

Sans had extended his hand, his crimson glove now coated in a blue glow that matched his eye.

" a."

His voice echoed through the car and before the shiver could even run down your spine you felt the car lurch. Blue obscured any clear sight out of the car. The driver shouted and the blonde tried to fire off further rounds, but the car at your side didn't seem to be there anymore. You rolled backward as inertia dragged you towards the front of the car.

You heard commotion up front and you almost sat up, you wanted to see what was happening, but the spiking pain and a gut feeling stopped you-

"I'll shoot the broad," you heard the blonde snarl loudly.

Everything went deathly still. The men in the backseat were no longer conscious, and the men up front held still as they presumably faced whatever was in front of the car now. You didn't move a hair.

You had the distinct impression that a gun was leveled in your direction.

Moments passed.

"Yeah, that's right," the blonde called out. You could almost feel the tremor in his body through the car, but his voice was snide. "So just let the car down, and maybe we won't have to-"

A crack and the shattering of glass happened at almost the same time he screamed.

Suddenly the car dropped, just a fraction, bouncing as it hit the ground. The wheels didn't even have the time to dig in as the blue glow dissipated before you caught a flash of a different kind of blue - Undyne's spear, striking straight through one of the front wheels. A second pierced the rear wheel on the same side only a moment later.

You heard the doors wrenched open and Undyne snarled, the sound nearly in the car. From the sound of the pained scream, you guessed she had just wrenched the blonde from the front seat.

"OUT YOU GO!" You heard Papyrus' voice now, his jovial tone taking on a dark color even as you could almost picture his usual bright smile. You heard a stammering protest - the driver, probably, but the car jostled slightly and his voice was removed.

The trunk's hatch door opened then, snapping open with alarming speed. You squinted at the rush of backlighting behind the figure that now stood in front of you.

"Sans," you said, simply. You didn't know if you could pin what emotions were rolling through you, even as your voice caught in your throat. You couldn't quite make out his features with the light of a bright streetlamp behind him, but then he was stooping and his gaze was roving quickly over you, his trademark grin nowhere to be found as a dark frown had replaced it. His eyesockets behind the lights of his pupils seemed somehow darker than usual. His gaze caught on your foot, your shoulder, your face. Anger and concern pulled at his features, you realized - your heart skipped, even though now was not the time, and you realized how badly you wanted to reach for him, to get out of this trunk and feel his steady presence at your side-

You shifted, and immediately winced with the throbbing pain of your shoulder and wrists. His eyes locked onto yours, his look softening just slightly. He reached out, pausing just before you.

"may I?" he asked.

Whatever it was, you nodded desperately.

Without hesitation, his eye flared briefly blue once more, and a blue glow lit up his hand as he gestured gently. You felt yourself lift up, weightless, and your eyes went wide. Suddenly the binding at your wrists loosened and fell away, and you were able to gingerly move your arms to your front, the prickle of returning blood flow slowing your movement. He stood straight and you drifted towards him, and suddenly you were settled in his arms, the blue glow fading from you as he stepped back.

"got her," he said as he moved back around the car. He moved with purpose, but his grip on you was gentle and steady, one arm scooped under your thighs by the crook of your knees and the other along your back under your shoulder blades. Your wrists ached but you leaned towards him, one hand resting on his chest. You wondered if the shock was setting in, not for the first time since being near him in the past month. Your mind was vaguely noting how sturdy he felt, again, how despite being made of bone he was surprisingly comfortable to rest against, and warm. He smelled faintly of earth, of salt and old books and, strangely enough, pine.

Undyne had tied and gagged the blonde, who looked definitively unconscious and had a bloody, mangled arm. Next to him slumped the driver with a blooming bruise showing at the edge of his hairline. Papyrus was pulling out of the back seat of the car you had been in, one hand around what appeared to be an extremely long bone club.

"THEY HAVE MET THEIR END," he reported. His tone wasn't jovial, simply matter of fact, a slight grimace of distaste on his face.

"remove our traces, throw them in the back, and let's go," Sans replied, his eyes flashing to the two men bound at Undyne's feet. Undyne was already throwing open the back of their car, a longer version of the one you had been in. She unceremoniously tossed the men in the back and slammed the hatch down. Papyrus double-checked the other car, waving his hand with a crackle of something orange on his right hand. He nodded after a moment as if satisfied, and Sans moved towards their car.

The screech of tires, of tires belonging to multiple cars, hit your ears. By the time your head swiveled to look towards the source of the noise, one of the cars was not 20 feet from you and Sans, and it wasn't slowing down.

Sans' grip on you tightened and his eye burst into a blue flame. Suddenly, you were falling, falling through darkness, darkness darker yet, and it pressed in on you and you pressed closer to Sans, too determined to scream but your eyes couldn't tear themselves away from that horrifying darkness even so-

And then the screeching was off to your right and Sans' stepped onto solid ground with you held tight. You were now off to the left, closer to the car you had been kidnapped in, and Sans had gripped you close to his chest. You felt the ripping buzz of magic against your skin, hot and warm and electric, pulsing from Sans.

Instinct pulled your sight outwards once more. Your eyes caught Undyne and Papyrus bracing themselves, Undyne pulling an electric-blue spear from nothing and Papyrus now wielded two bones. The car that had almost hit you roared past them, and a rain of bullets poured from the car. Undyne whipped her spear faster than your sight could comprehend and somehow blocked against them, her spear leaving a shield-like afterimage of green. Papyrus lifted his bone weapons and readied himself. The realization that you had effectively teleported was crashing through you, but you couldn't give it the attention it was demanding as you caught movement over Sans' shoulder.

"Sans, behind us-!" You said urgently, your hands gripping at his suit.

Time seemed to slow in a strange, stuttering moment as one of Sans' arms slipped to grip you around your waist. His other arm shifted from your legs and you felt them fall without his support, but you stayed secure in his grip as he pressed you nearly flush against him. The hand he had removed lifted as he spun to open his stance towards the approaching car, blue trailing brilliantly behind him in those trailing moments…

And then time crashed around you as if breaking through a seal, and before the tommy guns that had leveled directly at the pair of you could fire Sans made a flippant gesture with his hand and the car was blue and rolling, flipping over and over itself and crunching against the road as horrified shouts were cut off as rapidly as they began. Sans face was half-lit in the city streetlights, dark shadows contrasting with the light on his face in a way that could only be described as otherworldly. His eye was still alight, and there was an unbridled fierceness in his expression that shot through your core.

His gaze shifted to Undyne and Papyrus and you followed it. The other car was turning the corner, shot through with spear-sized holes and more than one bone buried deep within it. It sped away, with no intent to return from the looks of it.

"let's go," Sans growled. Undyne shot a furious look after the car as if she desperately wanted to chase, but ground her teeth and nodded with the more serious Papyrus. Nothing moved or made a sound from within the overturned car across the street, though a soft hiss was escaping the engine. A dark liquid was pooling at one corner of it. You looked away.

With an uncharacteristic swiftness, Sans walked to one side of the ready car, the back door already ajar. "hold on," he said then, just to you. Your eyes met his, and his gaze was almost soft. You realized why as he bent down and slightly adjusted his hold on you to step into the car. You tensed at the accompanying fresh rush of pain and your hand on his chest gripped his shirt, but he moved and settled quickly. You rested in his lap now, his arms still around you. Undyne sat in the back seat with you two, and Papyrus slid into the front passenger seat. The driver was a cloaked figure you couldn't see.

You realized you were shaking.

Your chest was tight, so tight, almost crushingly so. A small part of you tried to swear internally and brashly at the shock, tried to blow it off and so you could just fake it till you made it. The majority of you was spent, however. You didn't feel like you had an ounce of strength in your body, and an empty nausea rolled through you again. Was it the drug, or the adrenaline? The shock? Or perhaps it was the way that your body and mind and very soul couldn't make sense of the way that you and Sans had fell into nothingness only to step through the other side into safety-

Dimly you registered the careful slip of warm, worn leather against the skin at the top of your arm, where Sans' hand still held you. He was sliding his thumb in small, soothing circles.

The shaking didn't stop, but you felt more grounded.

Without fighting the instinct, you leaned further into Sans. His movement stilled for a split second, but continued soon after. Your head was close to his collarbone now, where the plane of his chest began near his shoulder. The hand that you still rested on his chest slipped slightly, gripping the lapel of his jacket weakly. You felt his chest move, shifting in a slow exhale. How strange. You didn't know that skeletons could breathe.

"try to breathe, canary."

You looked up, realizing you had a mile-long stare, and tried to re-focus on Sans' face. He came into focus and you saw his gaze was trained on you. His trademark grin was there, but softer and you swore a little tense even still. He searched your eyes. You didn't know what he found. You were sure it wasn't precisely pleasant. Your hand gripped slightly harder at his lapel.

"you're here. you're safe," he said quietly, his eyes not leaving yours. You lost yourself in them, searching their darkness for something to hold onto. The pinpricks of light that served as his pupils were glowing softly, softer than you had ever notice, their usual guarded ease nowhere to be found. You felt him draw in a deep breath, purposefully, and you tried to mimic him, your breath coming in short, hushed gasps. You hadn't even realized. He exhaled slowly, his thumb still moving in steady circles on your arm. You attempted an exhale with him, your gasps slowly slightly, stuttering out of you. You hated how weak you felt. You hated what they had done to you.

Sans took another deep breath. You copied him as best you could, your gasps fewer and more drawn out. You hated the way your body trembled against your will. Sans exhaled and you followed once more, your eyes desperately trained on his, painful heat at the corners of your eyes. You hated the pain that throbbed an insistent reminder at your wrists, your shoulder, your foot, your head. Sans inhaled, and you did too. You hated the way your hate was ebbing, an empty echo taking its place. Sans exhaled, and did the same. The numbness was edged by pain and the echo of fear you hadn't allowed yourself to acknowledge earlier. Sans breathed as one with you, slowly, so slowly. Your body still shook, but much less. Your chest didn't hurt quite so much.

"Il Sangue," you said at last, your voice cracking and small. The hate didn't return. You were just so tired.

Sans nodded once. His eyes had taken back up a hint of their guard. You didn't find any words to say for another minute.

Then, "Where are we going?" you asked, weariness slugging through your veins. You couldn't quite find the energy to be worried, not after that, and the small warmth that was keeping you anchored in your chest, the small warmth that was steadied by the presence of Sans' arms around you, of you pressed against him gently, that warmth was implicitly trusting Sans. He hadn't lied to you. You were safe, safe with them. With him.

The guard was back up in his eyes, but you wondered if that was a hint of worry that pulled at his grin. "to report in," he said.

"You heard somethin', didn't you?"

With a start, you remembered that Undyne was in the same seat next to you. You looked to her, your legs dangling from Sans arms near her. Her one eye was trained on you. It wasn't accusing, and you knew that she wasn't exactly asking.

With a slow nod, you replied, "I think so."

She exhaled sharply. "Well, somethin' good came outta this, then-"

" e."

You heard the woman's teeth snap as her mouth closed, her expression twisting into a scowl at Sans' voice. It had rumbled through the car, not loud but certainly not quiet. It had passed through you, leaving you not scared, but… almost heated. Undyne's eye slipped back to you.

"Didn't mean it like that," she managed by way of an apology.

You nodded, understanding. "If it had to happen anyway, I'm glad if we're able to get something out of it," you said. Your voice had some strength back in it, but you sounded worn out even to yourself. You had so many questions, so much wasn't quite clicking… but your head throbbed, and you felt that strange sense of cotton in your mind once more. It seemed the drug hadn't truly worn off yet.

"BROTHER," Papyrus said from the front seat. You turned your head slightly to look at him and caught him looking back to Sans with a cloth extended, dangling from one hand. His gaze shifted briefly to you, apologetic.

Sans sighed, but nodded. Carefully, he slid the arm that had still been supporting your legs out from under you, letting your legs rest against the smooth leather of the seat. He took the cloth and brought it to you, towards your face.

"security reasons," he said to you, his voice low.

You stared at the blindfold for a moment, your heartbeat threatening to speed. You clamped down on the panic before it could take you, breathing out carefully, steadily. You looked back up to Sans, a tired determination in your gaze. You nodded.

He kept his other arm wrapped around you as a gentle blue flickered in his left eye socket, the other growing dim for a moment. The blindfold, surrounded by blue, slipped itself over your eyes and tightened till it was comfortably snug. You couldn't see anything, but you felt the tingle of magic that had been present on the cloth fade away.

You felt something shift in front of your face.

"I can't see at all," you said softly, the hint of a smile behind your words. The movement stopped, and you heard Undyne bark out a laugh. "I can still feel you waving in front of my face, though," you said, the smile a little stronger in your words.

You felt Sans' chest huff out just slightly.

"settle in, then," he said. The ride was apparently going to be long enough. Your options flitted across your mind fairly quickly - they weren't many. Without your sight, you were very aware of Sans arm still cradling you, and you were leaning against him in a way that was alarmingly familiar, and you felt your cheeks heat even amidst your exhaustion. You were very aware of the way you were sitting on his lap, of his oddly large bones, and even more oddly the almost comforting presence of them below you, to your side, around your shoulders… And you were again aware of that softly earthen smell, the smell of old books, or parchment, the distant hint of a forest…

Before you knew it, your head was resting fully against his chest, your cheek rubbing against the fine woven wool of his jacket. The smell of pine, of something cool mixed with warm earth and salt, it was right against you now, strong but not overpowering, filling you with an overwhelming sense of Sans.

Stars above, that sense was so enjoyable.

You were exhausted, and the feeling came unbidden. Your cheeks were warm, and your heart fluttered ever so slightly at the open acknowledgement. His embrace, and it certainly was one, was strong and sure and you would be lying outright if you tried to tell yourself you didn't enjoy it, even in the circumstances. Your face heated further, but you didn't have the energy to fight it off. The skeleton beneath you shifted slightly, and you realized that a hint of tension in his bones had just eased slightly. The hard line of his jaw shifted and fell within the loose tangle of your hair. His chest moved so slightly, so slightly, and you felt the tickle of a breath in your hair. He was breathing slowly, and you felt a warm thrum of something from his core.

Overwhelming exhaustion and an unexpected comfort pulled you further into a welcome rest before you could think much further on it. With a slip of a sigh, you fell asleep in Sans' arms.