Hello, dearies! This has been another hard chapter to finish. Partly because I had some crucial finals in the way. But, I managed to succeed at all of them, yay! Let's celebrate by giving you a rather sad part of the story. :D You might wanna argue that I'm going against canon Sans a little bit, but hey: my only source of info and inspiration is the original game itself, and nothing I do contradicts anything explicitely given. I try to make everything as believable as possible, out of sheer respect for Toby's work.
Also, I noticed in the stats that there are some folks from mah crib Czech Republic reading this story as well! To je super, ahoj! :D

Chapter X: All The Time
(Sans's perspective)

The small basement has always been very tidy, much unlike his room upstairs. This was a place that he wanted to keep clean, for it was a little bit like a shrine dedicated to his dad. He used to keep all of Gaster's blueprints down here until monsters moved to the surface. Sans also had a few of his own memorabilia hidden in the drawers, mostly pictures of people he used to know before he and Papyrus moved to Snowdin; that eventually led to losing touch with almost all of them.

The only thing that the skeleton left behind was a busty horror of a machine, his attempt to build one of the projects out of Gaster's blueprints. Sadly, Sans was no scientist, and no amount of quantum physics books could give him the proper education he would need to be even remotely as great a scientist as his dad used to be. He gave up on that project a long time ago, and even after he had been given the opportunity to study any human university, he no longer had any desire to be anything more than a science enthusiast.

One of the reasons Lynx impressed him was, of course, that she wanted to do it, too. Unlike him, she still had her whole life ahead of her, and could dare to actually study what she loved. Or maybe she was just brave enough to do so. Unlike him.

He breathed out.

Sans wouldn't be able to count how many times he sighed thinking about her and everything that happened for the past three hours or so, since he ran away from her and decided to hide in Snowdin until he was able to speak to anyone again. He didn't doubt that she was at home at that point, probably cursing him to all of hell's nine circles at once. He couldn't blame her.

His little plan felt good before, but that was only because he forced himself not to think about it too much. When he was confronted with the whole reality of it, he realised how selfish, cowardly and stupid he's been. And how smarter Lynx was compared to him. Sans was good at many things, but apparently, being a good friend wasn't on the list.

why did i even stop seeing everyone in new home? he asked himself. At the time, he kept convincing himself that he just had too much work as a sentry, but remembering how he always tried to avoid work as much as possible, he knew that was a load of bullcrap. As long as he could remember, he never kept anyone close unless they were seeing each other on regular basis. Long distance relationships, of friendly or romantic nature alike, were too much of a commitment.

And Sans was always terrified of commitments. As strange as it might sound, he never had trouble making new pals wherever he came; in the long run, however... He was simply a lonely type. When he was a child, he had to learn to take care of himself; and he also learned that taking care of anybody else was dangerous for his feelings, and an enormous responsibility he was just never ready for. Eventually, Papyrus and some of Sans' friends, like Frisk, did their best to prove him wrong, and even though they've gotten through to him a little bit, there was still a lot of work to do in that field, that was for sure.

Plus, Sans has always been refusing to deal with unpleasant business. Underneath his ever-shining smile, obnoxious puns and pranks, good-hearted nature and caring heart, he was really, really fragile, and he never let anyone see that -except for Lynx.

Oh, Lynx. Why did everything have to turn into a total chaos?

The skeleton grabbed a bottle of ketchup next to him and finished what was left of it. He then sent the empty bottle through the air to the corner where it met its three predecessors. Those were all he had left in the underground.

Maybe it was about time to go home? Sans knew it would be reasonable, but his thoughts still weighed him down. He hid his face into his hands and tried for the thousandth time to figure out who should apologise to whom.

Little did he know that Lynx was about to solve this puzzle for him.

Through the haze, he didn't hear the crunching of someone's footsteps in the snow outside, until they were right behind the door. A second later, a shy and gentle knock-knock lightly echoed through the basement. "Sans?"

For a moment, he wanted to pretend he wasn't there, or even disappear somewhere far away. But he realised Lynx never went home. She must have rushed through the Waterfall area in hopes to find him. She was apparently ready to make things right, and dammit, if she could do it, then he should man up and try as well.

Not saying a single word, he gestured lazily towards the door. It shined with a blue colour a tiny bit, and slowly opened at his will.

Without missing a beat, Lynx walked in and looked around before her eyes saw him sitting on the floor, giving her a look which basically said there was no point to giving her any kind of look. Any kind of emotion shown might have been wrong at that point.

"I had a feeling I might find you here." She took a few steps towards him and stopped at a fair distance, like she was afraid Sans might blow up in anger.

"really? why's that?"

"Well, I thought you'll be at Grillby's, but I saw footprints leading here before I could reach it." She smiled faintly. "That kind of gave it away."

"would you look at that. when it comes to tracking someone down, you definitely have the snow-how."

Lynx grinned again. "So, um... I assume that since you make puns, you're not that mad at me anymore?" She sat down on the ground, her back leaning on the counters.

Sans sighed. "i would, but... i don't really have the right to be mad, do i? only cast a stone if you're without sin, or whatever."

"You've read the Bible?"

"once or twice. it's funny how a book changed billions of lives all around the world, throughout entire centuries."

"Yeah. ...sorry, I'm not in a mood for philosophical debates."

"right." Sans scratched the back of his skull. "so... you wanna begin, or should i go first?"

"I'll start." Lynx took a deep breath. "So, yes, I broke my promise and went into the underground by myself... again. The second I got outside, I felt terrible about it, I am really sorry and I never want to do that again."

He smiled lightly. "you never got into trouble in your whole life, did you?"

"Well... no, actually. Not that I never did anything that was against the rules as a kid. After all, breaking the rules is sometimes the only option." Lynx looked at him almost amusedly. "Remember that?"

This time, he even chuckled. "yup. if i hadn't taken you inside the mountain that thay, none of this mess would have happened. but that statement doesn't quite explain why you had to go here yesterday in the first place."

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't like feeling left out, and... I wasn't thinking straight. I was curious and stupid, that's all I can say."

"i guess it was partially my fault too, like 20 %. you know i would bring you if i could, but i didn't want alphys to see you."

"Why not? What exactly would happen if Alphys knew that I've been down here?"

Sans took his time before he answered. Confessions were hard, especially admitting he did something bad.

"honestly, if you were caught in the underground, there would be standard trespassing fees -a few hundred bucks and/or a few weeks in jail, plus a criminal record, of course. but the true reason i didn't want you to come down here on your own was... well..."

"Well?"

Dissolving into particles didn't seem to be such a bad idea all of a sudden.

"at first, i was worried you might get lost and noone would ever find you again. but lately... i just didn't want you to think you don't need me. it was kind of an excuse to keep seeing you." If Sans had a functioning circulation system, he would feel all of his blood rush into his face.

To his surprise, Lynx nodded. "I thought that might have been the case. It sounds like you."

"explanation?"

"You're not one to talk about what you carry inside. That be nothing. 'cause you're a skeleton."

He snorted; Lynx smiled and continued.

"Look, we talked about this before. You don't have to be afraid to speak to me. I know you've been through a lot, and that keeping your distance is how you deal with things. But you have to realise: unless you're willing to step up and face your challenges, the world is just going to continue spinning without you. And you can trust me with everything.

Well, I know what happened yesterday kinda contradicts that," she added; "but I'm seriously serious this time. I don't want either of us to play games anymore. It's dumb and it can only make things worse."

"what if telling you the actual truth would also make things worse?"

Sans didn't just suddenly think about this, it has been on his mind for a painfully long time. Ever since he became attracted to Lynx -against his own will, one might add -he kept considering the pros and cons of both situations, which were either profess his feelings, or keep his bony mouth shut. He concluded that both scenarios would probably end up hurting someone, but silence was the path of less resistance and, ultimately, of less pain.

That being said, if there ever was a good time to say it, it would have been now. Now that they have opened the heart-to-heart discussion. Apparently, the time has come for them to clean the mess out of the way, so they might as well get rid of all of it.

At least that was what he thought. But...

"Sans..." she said, and he looked at her. Lynx sighed and he could see pity written all over her face. "I think I know what you mean by that, but... I don't want to hear it. At least not right now."

Before it sunk, the Titanic broke into two separate pieces. It then disappeared below extremely cold water and its wreck ended up approximately 12,500 feet deep in the ocean.

That was about how the skeleton's heart felt at that moment.

"Don't get me wrong, I like you," she continued, and he managed to patiently listen to what she had to say, even though she already half lost him. "I really do, even if being your friend means you drive me crazy sometimes. And I have thought a few times that us being together would make sense, but... I don't think it's something we should be dealing with right now. I don't mean to blame you for anything or even hold grudges, but as a friend, I have to say this again: you can't just sit around and let your problems solve themselves. You might... miss your chance."

They both remained silent. Sans' gaze was in the ground. Her speech wasn't as bad as he imagined, but the fact that he might have actually had a chance with her had he not been such an ass filled him with a fair amount of self-loathing desperation.

"wow," he said quietly after some time. "i'm really an idiot, ain't i?"

"It's never too late to stop being an idiot," Lynx spoke up. When he took a quick glance at her, she was smiling, sadly but encouragingly. "You're a great guy, Sans. Your only problem is that you let things get in your way."

"cheers to that," he nodded and reached out for a ketchup bottle which he completely forgot wasn't there anymore. "oh, right."

He stood up to gather all the empty bottles that were lying on the opposite side of the basement. When he was walking past Lynx, he felt her hand softly grab him by his wrist, causing him to stop.

"I'm really sorry, you know."

Sans turned his head and his eyes found hers.

"don't be," he said. "i'm gonna be fine."

She stood up, and they hugged. He realised that one hug can say more than a thousand words worth of apologies.

"Can we please forget that all of this ever happened?" Lynx told him when she pulled away. "I want my old friend back. I don't want to worry so much about... well, everything."

"your old friend never left," he replied with a wink. "you don't have to feel bone-ly."

She giggled, and Sans knew things were going to be alright. Eventually.

"Crap, I almost forgot!" she exclaimed all of a sudden about a minute later when they left the basement. "Sans, you might want to sit down."

"gee, what now?" Luckily, right next to the basement door was a bench, and he sat on it.

"I'm sorry, I should have started with this..." Lynx was suddenly uneasy, but somehow in a good way. "When you left the old lab, I stayed there for a little while, and..."

"you sure know how to keep the audience in suspense."

She took a deep breath and looked right at him. "There was... someone else down there. I saw him for like a milisecond, and then he disappeared."

Sans sprang up on his feet again. "someone else? a human?"

"I... don't think so. He, well..." Lynx obviously had to suppress a lot of excitement. "He looked more like a skeleton."

"a what?" he took two steps and stood directly next to her. "can you elaborate on that?"

She closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to remember. "He was dressed in black, all I could see from him was his head. White and round, with a few lines drawn from his eyes -or maybe they were cracks, I couldn't see them that well."

Sans' head spun; he had to lean on her shoulder for a second to regain balance. at least i know why i was supposed to be sitting. Everyone who knew Gaster good enough to know what he looked like said more or less the same thing: his face was pale and resembled a cracked wallnut.

"oh my goodness." He looked at her with an awe. "lynx... you might have found him."

"Holy fu- Sans, this is huge!" she actually laughed out loud and hugged him again for a brief moment.

All the months of endless search, despair, secretiveness... Within a snap of a finger, it was all worth it. And he had Lynx to thank for it. Without her, he might have never even thought to pay visit to the old laboratory in the first place.

"lynx, do you think you could spare some more time in the underground? i have to go there asap."

"Of course! I want to see the happy ending." She smiled like she had been given ten puppies for Christmas. "But don't get your hopes too high. Like I said, he might not even be there anymore."

"well, if that's the case," Sans stretched out his hand happily and Lynx took it, "we might have to keep coming back there all the time."