"SANS!" Papyrus yelled, stomping out over the snow. "YOUR PUZZLES HAVEN'T BEEN RECALIBRATED YET! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU… UHHHH…. SANS… IS THAT… A HUMAN?"
"wha- a human? really paps? does this look like a human?" Sans asked, gesturing at Frisk, who was trying not to look haunted as their eyes darted back and forth between the skeleton brothers.
"WELL, YES. THAT'S WHAT UNDYNE SAID A HUMAN LOOKED LIKE, AND THEY DON'T LOOK LIKE ANY MONSTER I'VE SEEN."
"looks like a- whoah whoah whoah, paps, this is a skeleton! can't you tell?"
"…A SKELETON?"
"yeah! our distant cousin, in fact. They got stuck in a… meat sack… so they came to snowdin to see if I could help 'em out. but this is 100% a skeleton." Sans assured his brother.
Frisk covered their face with one hand, wondering where Sans got the energy to smile like that from.
Papyrus frowned, narrowed his eyes, and then shrugged as his happy-go-lucky attitude sprang forth. "OH! WELL, IT'S VERY NICE TO MEET YOU, FELLOW SKELETON! WOWEE, I DIDN'T KNOW I HAD A COUSIN! DO YOU LIKE PUZZLES? OR SPAGHETTI? OR BOTH?"
Sans at this, glanced at Frisk out of the corner of his way and shifted, moving in between Papyrus and Frisk. "uhhh… listen, paps, they're pretty timid so uh, how about you leave 'em with me for now? you kinda scare them."
"WHAT?! BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE NEVER SCARED ANYONE BEFORE!"
"maybe you're finally looking the part of a member of the royal guard!" Sans offered, and then grabbed Frisk's elbow and started pulling them away from Papyrus. "but I'm gonna take a snow check and go with our cousin here for the day, ok paps?"
"...FINE. BUT JUST THIS ONCE, SANS! BYE LITTLE SKELETON! I HOPE YOU GET OUT OF THAT MEAT SACK SOON!"
Sans and Frisk ducked out of view, and Sans sighed, shoulders sagging as the smile slipped a bit from his face. "knew we should've just taken the shortcut," he muttered. He reached up, snapped his fingers, and Frisk yelped as suddenly the ground seemed to tilt out from under them and they fell down, landing in the snow as Sans glanced down at them for a moment before stepping forwards into the town of Snowdin. "come on, then."
Frisk meekly followed the skeleton into Grillby's, where strangely only Grillby lingered. "Where is everyone?" Frisk asked quietly, and Sans turned back to them, eye glowing for a moment.
"i told them to clear this place for their own safety for a good hour… just in case." He walked over to the counter, sliding into a seat with ease, and Frisk followed hesitantly, still shocked Sans was even allowing them this.
"Sans… thanks. For at least hearing me out," Frisk started awkwardly, and Sans tilted his head, watching them for a moment.
"yeah… uh, look. there is one condition to this… whatever you call it. timeline works, I guess." Frisk blinked, then nodded, watching Sans to explain what he meant. Sans sighed again, scratching his head then pulled out a bottle of ketchup, opening it and taking a swig. "i don't want you near papyrus without me, buddy. at all. i don't care what excuses you make, but if i'm not there with the two of you, then you shouldn't be either, got it?"
Frisk swallowed and nodded, their hands tightening on their knees. That was only fair, they supposed.
"ok, great. …hey, grillby, mind hitting us up with two burgers?" Sans kept his gaze on Frisk, and they squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze. "right. well, you wanted me to listen to you, right? go ahead, kiddo, i brought you here so you can do just that. i won't cut you off, ok? just explain to me what's been going on and then we'll see if i believe it."
Frisk nodded, and forced themself to keep looking into Sans's eyes. "There's a SOUL without a body," they started quietly. "Their name is Chara and they take over people who happen to gain lots of LOVE…"
As Frisk quietly spoke, leaving nothing out and the details of what Chara was and what happened each time the RESET occurred, Sans's smile faded and a small frown made its way onto his face. Frisk started averting their eyes when they got to the RESET where Chara took over, shame flooding into their voice.
"I was an idiot, Sans... About Chara. I believed that if I gained enough LV… I could just go back, no harm no foul. Chara promised me that was what would happen. They said you wouldn't listen until I fixed the RESETS, which I could only do with LV 20 and the human SOULS. I'm… I'm sorry, Sans. Really, really sorry…"
Sans sighed, rubbed his forehead with both hands, the bottle of ketchup beside him empty. After a moment he shook his head, a bitter smile in place. "geez, kiddo, from the sound of it, it shouldn't just be you apologizing." Sans studied Frisk a moment longer and sighed. "part of me doesn't believe you, frisk. part of me doesn't want to believe it, because if what you say is true then these RESETS might never end. but uh, i've never seen a human's eyes glow red before like yours did. even after what you did to paps… i'm sorry, frisk. i forgot you were so young, and i've uh, really left you out to dry by yourself, huh?"
Frisk stiffened, eyes widening as the first spark of hope flickered inside of them. "R-really? Then, you believe me?"
"…welp, if you can bring me proof that it's a virus, kid, then i can say without a doubt i believe all of this. but… but for now, frisk, i'll help you out. we can look for the evidence together, at least. understand that i'll be watching you, so no more killing people, okay? …i don't feel like meeting your uh, friend again." Sans said, reaching out and tousling Frisk's hair.
Frisk stared back at the skeleton, and their red-rimmed eyes widened with excitement. "Y-yes! Thank you Sans, thank you!"
"…no problem, kiddo. sorry for uh, brushing you off earlier. i've been lied to about stuff like this before, but i guess i picked the wrong person to pick a bone with here."
Frisk grinned tentatively back at Sans, then sighed. "But where do we even start looking, Sans? I've never noticed anything out of the ordinary during these past RESETS."
"…how about for now, you just stay at my house, and we'll just start looking around. if it comes down to it, maybe i have some ideas. i've uh, experimented with my own RESETS before." Sans muttered, slipping out of his seat and stuffing his hands into his pockets as he wandered towards the door after yelling at Grillby to put the meal on his tab despite his earlier request for Frisk to pay.
Frisk blinked, then hurried after the skeleton. "You mean stay at your house for the entire time? Is… is that wise, Sans? Papyrus is there…"
"it's fine." Sans said firmly. "you better get used to my presence though, kiddo, because i'm not going to leave you alone anymore until we find what we're looking for, evidence to prove… or disprove… what you've told me."
Frisk followed Sans to his house, and watched with surprised eyes as Sans opened the door and gestured or Frisk to go ahead. Frisk hesitated for a moment longer, wondering if Sans was just playing a prank on them or something, but the skeleton seemed genuine this run. Taking a deep breath and offering a shaky smile, Frisk crossed into the threshold.
"OH! COUSIN! SANS, YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THEY'D BE LIVING WITH US! I NEED TO MAKE A SPECIAL DINNER TO WELCOME THEM INTO OUR HOME!"
.
Frisk sat on the couch, and they felt sweat trickle down their face. Sandwiched between two skeletons, one animatedly talking about the joys of puzzles and the other nodding along while watching Frisk out of the corner of his eye, the pressure of the situation was making Frisk uncomfortable. Despite Frisk's frequent interactions with the citizens of the Underground, Frisk had only felt personally involved with Chara since the third run had ended. Having someone finally watching Frisk, finally talking to Frisk and sharing all of their worries was strangely liberating.
Even if Sans was acting like he was Frisk's patrol officer at the moment.
The TV beeped again, and Frisk focused their gaze on Mettaton's performance. It was strange, they thought. Sans had told them to take a break from trying to get out of the Underground (for all the good that had done the 71 times Frisk had actually completed the pacifist route) and just focus on watching the RESETS whenever they happened, but just relaxing in the time being was an odd feeling to Frisk... even after staying at Toriel's like this eight times.
So here Frisk was, apparently Sans's and Papyrus's new cousin and an honorary 'monster.' Why Sans thought this would be a good idea, Frisk wasn't entirely sure.
"welp, I'm going to head off to bed." Sans stretched, yawning, and Papyrus eagerly stood up.
"WAIT, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FORGET TO READ ME THE USUAL BEDTIME STORY, RIGHT SANS?"
"…of course not, bro. come on, let's go find the book."
"WOWEE! COUSIN, YOU COME TOO! THE ENDING OF PEEK-A-BOO-BUNNY ALWAYS GETS ME, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE IT!" Papyrus announced, picking up Frisk and tucking them under one arm as he raced up the stairs.
Frisk peeked over their shoulder and saw Sans start to follow, before Frisk sighed and hesitatingly grinned up at Papyrus. Oh well. Frisk wouldn't accomplish anything by trying to make themself miserable, so why not try and have some fun?
.
Sans was reading his joke book on the sofa, still awake despite his earlier claims. His gaze drifted to the window, where the darkness hinted that every other resident of Snowdin was currently asleep. Sleeping had gotten harder for him though, since he had been killed. Since Papyrus had gotten killed. Sleep brought back those memories in vivid recollections, along with past RESETS that had also ended in tragedy and thoughts of long ago.
Tonight, at least, Sans didn't want to see those memories. He had decided to give Frisk as good of a second chance as possible, and Sans constantly blaming the kid wouldn't help anything. He was going to keep a close eye on them for sure, though. Sans knew oh too well that there was a difference between a second chance and completely letting his guard down and regretting it later. His fingers drummed against the sofa's arm for a moment as Sans wearily wondered if these nightmares would ever go away. Probably not.
The upstairs door creaked open, and Sans's gaze instantly shot up to his room's door. Papyrus always oiled his door hinges, so that must mean it was his own door opening, where Frisk was staying. After all, there was no way Frisk could stay alone with Papyrus at night and Sans preferred the sofa to sleep on anyways, there were less sheets to have to tidy up after the night. It also offered an excellent point to keep an eye on the two doors upstairs.
Small footsteps echoed around the house as a small shape came down the stairs, pausing at the foot of the stairs as the figure shied away from Sans for a moment.
Sans, realizing his eye was glowing blue so he could have enough light to read the joke book in, dimmed his eye to its normal white pupil, and set down the book. "hey, kiddo? why are you up- frisk?"
The child, suddenly looking small and scared- not at all like how scary they had looked while holding a knife- clutched the blanket around them tighter and looked away from Sans's face in embarrassment. "I had a nightmare…" They whispered, and Sans blinked in surprise.
"o-oh." They silently stared at each other, then Sans scooted over and gestured for Frisk to come climb up beside him. "…c'mere, kiddo. i'm up for the same reason."
"…ok." The human gingerly sat on the edge of the sofa's seat, and Sans could barely make out the shaking of their shoulders in the darkness of the house. Watching this display, Sans couldn't help but feel guilty. At this moment, he couldn't imagine the inner turmoil the human that had loved making friends when they first fell down here had gone through to make them listen to the SOUL that had told them to kill Sans and his brother.
"…I… I keep s-seeing myself, Sans." They finally spoke, and Sans turned his head a bit to listen. "Again and again, s-stabbing everyone… you… Papyrus… Toriel… everyone." They covered their face, taking huge, jagged breaths as they tried and failed to calm themselves down, and Sans suddenly realized with alarm that the human might be having a panic attack.
"hey, hey. shhh. it's over, frisk. it's over. you're not doing that stuff anymore." He pulled the human close to him, wrapping them in a comforting hug- but how comforting could it be, when he was one of the reasons for their fear?- and letting them cry onto his shoulder just like he had done for Papyrus when they were younger.
"I'm sorry, Sans." The human cried, pressing their forehead against Sans's shoulder. "I am so sorry."
"…i know, kid. i know." Sans murmured. "you RESET though, kid. even when you could've taken the easy way out and just given in. i'm proud of you, frisk."
"But… but what if I'm not strong enough?" Frisk wailed, pulling back from Sans as Sans saw their tears glint in the dim light offered by the glowing rocks outside. "Chara said… they said we were the same. They said I'd kill again, and they'll…they'll come back for me when I snap."
"you won't snap again." Sans said firmly. "ok? i'm here. i'll be watching you so you'll be fine, got it?"
"B-but-"
"frisk. you're going to be fine." Sans said, pulling the human back close so their head rested on his shoulder. He shifted, allowing the human to lay down on the sofa beside him, and smiled down at the child. "i'll watch over you while you sleep, ok? if you get a nightmare, i'll try and wake you back up. i promise."
Frisk sniffed, the small body quivering for a moment, and then they nodded, curling up into a small ball. Sans waited in the dark, and as he heard their breath deepen and their eyes drift shut, he sighed. What mess had the two of them fallen into?
.
.
.
Knowing that one day Frisk might make it to the surface permanently fills you with DETERMINATION.
((This chapter was hard to write! But here it is, the start of rebuilding the friendship between Sans and Frisk. I'd imagine a bunch of you guys are excited to finally reach this point. Thanks for reading and as always, please review!
Also, merry christmas to any who celebrate it and a fabulous day to everyone else!))