DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN UNDERTALE, ETC., AND I'M NOT SPONSORED OR ANYTHING, SO ON, SO FORTH, AND WHATNOT.
AS I EDITED TO SAY LAST CHAPTER, I BELIEVE THAT I HAVE AT LEAST SOMEWHAT RECTIFIED THE RUSHED FEELING AT THE END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN (TWELVE ACCORDING TO THE SITE). I HAVE ALSO STARTED A TUMBLR BLOG TO POST WIPS OF ART, FINISHED ART, TALK WITH YOU GUYS, UPDATE IN CASE OF DELAYED STORY OR WHAT HAVE YOU AND SUCH. URL IS silvercrimsonthorn AT TUMBLR IF IT INTERESTS YOU GUYS.
THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE THAT HAS READ, REVIEWED, FAVORITED, ETC SO FAR. I HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING EVERYTHING SO FAR.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lori groaned in exasperation as she opened the front door, only to let in part of the two feet of snow that had accumulated overnight. Waving her hand over the spillage, she evaporated the snow in short order before closing the door. "Looks like Paps wasn't kidding about the snow, guys! If we're still watching Frisk and Asra tonight, Sans should go pick them up instead of letting Tori drive out here in this shit!"
She heard a clatter in the kitchen and jogged up the stairs, arching an eyebrow at her father, finding him practically climbing on the counters to reach something on one of the higher shelves. "You're where I got my short genes, and you genuinely think you're gonna reach something on the top shelf when you mock me about my height as often as you do? Ya coulda asked Paps when he gets back in, ya know."
Her father shrugged sheepishly in response and slid down off the counter, and Lori turned to find Sans zipping up his jacket and slipping on his boots. She grabbed his scarf and gently wrapped it around his neck, pulling him close and planting a kiss on his frontal bones after making sure his scarf was secure. "Headed to get Frisk and the two-for-one special?" He nodded.
"Stay safe, alright?" He offered her a lopsided grin and a shrug before blinking out of existence. Lori turned and drifted quietly into the kitchen and began filling the kettle to put it on the stove. It was cold enough outside that she was certain that the kids would be asking for some cocoa or some tea, and if Frisk and Asra were having a mug, Papyrus would certainly want one as well. She had to admit, a warm drink when the weather was so cold didn't sound bad at all.
"Hey, uh...Lu…"
Lori turned to her father and arched a brow at him. "Yes?" She glanced at the bowl in his hands and sighed, smiling softly. "What's that?"
He shrugged sheepishly, refusing to look her in the eyes. "Was makin' some meatballs to put in the crockpot for supper, but I know y'all need to eat magic food...could I get you to magic this for me or however y'all do it?"
Lori rolled her eyes and pulled a brightly coloured box out of the cabinet next to the fridge, and offered it to him silently. Once he had taken it and stared at it in confusion for several long moments she explained it calmly.
"Temmie Flakes. One cup per pound of food. That bowl is about...three and a half pounds? So subtract that since you can't tare the scale. Magic it yourself." She turned to deal with the kettle and hummed softly, voicing her afterthought. "Also, you might want to add some extra fiber to your diet since you're going to be eating flake-food. Tends to back up the pipes, if ya know what I mean."
He nodded and began weighing his mixture. "Right...duly noted." Lori watched as he noticeably flinched at the sudden shrieks of glee that came from the newly arrived children before tossing the prepared amounts of loose leaf oolong into the mugs and filling them with the hot water from the kettle. Picking up the bottle of honey and wrinkling her nose, she focused on the sweet contents, exciting the particles to make the thick, sticky substance pour more easily before tipping the bottle and letting the contents ooze into the "cool dude" mug on the counter.
As if on cue, the back door slid open, and Lori couldn't help but giggle at the taller of the two skelebros, trying to deal with snow caked in his boots and around his shins. She grabbed his mug and strained the tea bag, bringing it over to him as she told him to sit before calling for the children to go get their mugs. He did so, and she began the process of evaporating the snow clinging to him.
"Best part about this is the fact that we no longer need a humidifier, I think." She gently checked to make sure that no snow or ice had lodged itself under his patellae before continuing to go over sections and make sure that the spaces between his tibiae and fibulae were free of snow.
"I know, I know-" She cleared her throat, protracting her jaw slightly as she prepared herself for her impression, raising her index finger on her spare hand and wiggling it about as she spoke. "BUT HUMAN! WHY IS IT THAT YOU WOULD NEED TO MAKE YOUR HOUSE HUMID? DO YOU NOT WHINE THAT IT IS HUMID DURING THE SUMMERTIME?" She coughed gently and rubbed her throat with her free hand at the strain of mimicking Papyrus's voice. "I know. I know. I bitch about the weather year round though provided that it isn't one of the weird instances where I find myself inexplicably, shockingly, comfortable. But humidity in the winter is important for humans. We have little membranes in our noses that crack and bleed when they get too dry. And when we're inhaling dry air all the time, they dry out, and we get pretty frequent nosebleeds. Not really a big deal, but super annoying. I'll still probably cook up some potpourri to make things smell nice an' such."
Papyrus raised a brow bone at her. "THANK YOU FOR THE PREEMPTIVE EXPLANATION, HUMAN LORI, BUT I BELIEVE THAT YOUR PAPYRUS VOICE COULD USE SOME WORK! NYEH HEH HEH!"
Lori rolled her eyes and stood, having cleaned Papyrus off as best as she could. "Thanks for shoveling the first bit of the driveway, Paps." She turned and caught Sans in an embrace as he was walking out of the kitchen, pressing her lips to the side of his skull and giggling has his cheekbones flushed bright blue. "And thank you too, o magnificent Sans, for fetching the children. It's nice that Tori and Fluffybuns managed to make the best out of a bad situation and turn their broken furnace into a date weekend. Right before Christmas, too."
"'magnificent sans', huh? has a ring to it." He tried to strike a heroic pose, and Lori and Papyrus both had to stifle their laughter. Lori nipped and kissed at his jawline, gently running a fingertip along the edge of his foramen magnum, giggling when he lost his composure as a pronounced shiver ran down his spine.
"You're magnificent even without the posing, dearest. Don't have to...capitalize...on ideas when they're against your nature. Kinda like Paps isn't a lowercaser, you're not an uppercaser. Stick to tutoyer if you're not comfortable with vousvoyer, and vice versa. Or, well, in capitalization sense, at any rate."
Both brothers stared at her silently for several long moments before Sans spoke up. "You wanna run that by me again just in case?"
"Maybe, but we might want to shift gears so we don't aggravate Paps...again." Papyrus groaned.
"REALLY, YOU TWO. MUST YOU BADGER ME WITH THESE INCESSANT PUNS?"
Lori paused, pulled out her phone, and started typing furiously for several moments before putting her phone away. She shrugged, walked to the living room, and began browsing Netflix, a sly smirk plastered on her features as Papyrus's phone chimed.
A catchy, rhythmic tune blared loudly out of the speakers of his phone, and his skull tilted to the side in confusion. "HUMAN? WHY HAVE YOU SENT ME THIS STRANGE MUSIC VIDEO? I will admit that the tune is quite catchy...BUT WHY HAVE YOU DECIDED TO SHOW ME THIS…'BADGER SONG'?"
Sans howled with laughter as Lori's smirk widened. "I didn't want to keep badgering you myself, bro, so I figured I would let technology do it for me. It's catchy enough that it was one of the more prevalent memes of the late 200Xs."
Papyrus hesitated momentarily before putting his phone back to sleep, letting his long legs carry him quickly into the living room, and scooping Lori up into a tight hug. She flailed meekly to try to get him to release, sparking Sans' laughter again. He patted his brother on the arm and informed him breathlessly that he was pretty sure that he was the only one in the house that was supposed to be able to go blue in the face.
Papyrus squeaked in alarm and sat Lori down gently, blushing as she inhaled deeply now that she had the option. "What's the bone-crushing occasion?"
Papyrus sniffled and smiled brightly, his voice betraying the tears that threatened to show themselves. "I AM HONOURED THAT YOU THINK OF ME AS A BROTHER, HUMAN LORI."
She blushed brightly and gently scratched the nape of her neck in embarrassment. "Why wouldn't I, dude? I mean...like...ya know?"
Sans grinned at the adorable scene before him, jumping slightly when a light pull behind his sternum caught him unawares. There was no FIGHT...so why did his soul want to reveal itself?
0-0-0-0-0
Sans sat down on the bed he shared with Lori quietly, listening to her half-sing happily as she showered in their private bathroom. Leaning back to lay on top of the comforters with his legs dangling over the edge, he sighed and called forth his soul. The small silver heart-shape hovered above his chest patiently as he examined it, from the splotches near the left lobe at the bottom to the wide array of dark, lightless cracks that were scattered across the top right side of the point, and the other various little splotches and marks. Even damaged as it was, her soul was far more beautiful than his. How could he possibly offer this to her, when it paled in comparison.
She insisted that his aura was a cyan one, one of patience. But he couldn't see that. Just the dull silver of a damaged soul with EXP and LOVE. Not something anyone would ever want to bond to.
He had never let her see his soul before, and he was hesitant to ever let her see it. What if she rejected him when she saw it? Everything he was, everything he had done and had been, and everything he could be, laid bare. He could feel his sins crawling on his back. It was why he was so good at making others feel the same.
The squeaking of the knobs in the shower alerted him to Lori's impending return, and his soul retreated back behind his sternum with extreme haste. He sat up and did his best to put his negative thoughts aside as he saw her step out of the shower and put her hair in a towel, using another to dry her body off quickly.
Walking out of the bathroom quickly after hanging the towel used to dry her body, Lori plopped down on their bed and took his hand in her own. "What's wrong?"
He averted his eyelights and mumbled denials under his breath and she shook her head. "I know something is wrong. I stopped my little half-singing thing that I end up doing when I felt your emotions take that sharp downturn, and you were preoccupied enough to not notice. You wanna talk about it?" He sighed and laid back on the covers, remaining silent.
Lori frowned and pulled her legs up under herself, balancing in a lotus position for a moment before turning her body to face Sans. "C'mere, Vertibae." He sighed again and shifted, resting his skull in the cradle of her lap where she gently and slowly began to rub his temples, her fingertips lit with a faint green glow. "If you would really rather I not pry, I won't. But that doesn't mean I can't try to make you feel better and take your mind off things."
He sighed again and a faint smile played across his features. "thanks, lore. you're too good to me."
She shook her head, gently this time as to not disturb her towel. "No such thing as being too good to someone you love. You're you, and that's reason enough for me."
He sat up abruptly, startling her. "that's just it, lore. i'm me." The tears were coming hard and fast now, and Lori's hand drifted to her mouth in shock at his sudden outpour of emotion. "i'm me, and that's not good enough for you. you're too good, too bright, too loving...you don't need someone like me."
Lori pulled him close and held him tightly, not wanting him to slip into the Void to try to escape whatever conflict was about to happen, whether it was with her...or with himself. She let her eyes glow brighter than they otherwise would, having seen Papyrus calm his brother this way before. Pulling the towel off of her hair, she found a dry section and carefully blotted his tears. "I don't understand. Is this what had you so upset when I was in the shower?"
Sniffling and a tight, clinging embrace were her only answers, and she smiled sadly. "What makes you think you aren't good enough? For starters, I'm pansexual. The heart wants what the heart wants. And my heart wants you."
His grip tightened, but he gave no response. She traced the sutures of his skull with a feathery touch and smiled softly as his good eyelight glowed in response to hers, his tears lessening in intensity as several long moments passed like that. She could feel his fear and trepidation, the faint hum in his bones that she had grown accustomed to arrhythmic, almost as though he was trembling. The faint glow of his soul that could be seen through his shirt was dimmer than she was used to seeing...and dimmer than she would like. "What's dimmed your soul, love?"
He pulled away and sighed, and she could feel the spike in his shame, his soul dimming further. "Wrong question to ask?"
"when...when gaster…" He sighed, and Lori placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "when gaster had paps n me when we were kids, we weren't his children. we were his experiments. he created us artificially, kept us in sealed rooms that were just a step above cages...did horrible things to us…" He trailed off and looked at her sadly. "he broke my face trying to figure out how to fix his own eye, then nearly killed me when he destroyed the right half of my face when he was trying to fix my eye. he could've broken paps' eye too. but these plates," he lifted his right hand for emphasis, "were the first step. he put them in to see how we would react, after having been benign for so long."
Lori frowned softly. "I know that it won't change anything...but I'm sorry that all happened to you."
Sans stared at her for a long moment, unsure of what to say. "it's...it's not your fault."
Lori averted her eyes, her voice quiet as she asked, "Why did your shame spur you on to tell me all that?" His brow bones furrowed as he contemplated her words quietly.
"what?"
She shrugged. "Wing Ding Aster. The former royal scientist. And your plates read 'WDG-1 S' and 'WDG-2 P'. It might have been a stretch, but it wasn't that far of a leap."
"you...you knew?"
She shrunk away. "I figured most of it out. Like I keep telling you. I'm smart and a bit of a stickler for small details. Tell me this, though...did it change how I felt about you or how I treated you and your brother at all?"
He stopped, his mouth hanging open in shock. It hadn't.
She frowned. "What's really wrong? You know you can tell me anything."
He sighed. "'m damaged goods, lore. broken and scarred over. You don't need someone like me."
She arched an eyebrow and pulled him close, pressing her lips to his teeth gently. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that damaged people are just as lovable as the undamaged ones, sometimes more so." She paused, and guided one of his phalanges over the scar on her stomach. "Plus, this is only the beginning of my damage. And you know that. Being broken only means that you have an interesting history. The japanese sometimes fix their broken pottery with gold. Sometimes the broken things in life can be more beautiful than the non-broken ones. Just like you."
He nuzzled her neck gently, his voice barely above a mumble. "'m yours if ya want me, lore."
She ran her fingertips gently over the ridges of his spine and kissed him gently. "I always will."
0-0-0-0-0
Sans and Alphys bustled about in the lab, hastily speaking back and forth to exchange a flurry of information that Lori only mostly caught. Since the two were still adjusting to seeing Gaster again, Lori was not only their patient and research subject, but their translator as well. Various leads were hooked to her, and her soul was manifest, with a monitor placed directly on it.
While she had to admit that the leads and soul monitor were highly uncomfortable, she was managing to stay fairly well distracted between translating and general conversations with Gaster, and watching Sans flit about the room in a lab coat with glasses on. Even if the glasses had to be taped on, she had to admit that the look suited him well. Very well.
*I AM GLAD THAT HE IS ALLOWING ME TO HELP. THOUGH I IMAGINE THAT IT IS LARGELY DUE TO YOUR INFLUENCE. I HAVE SEVERAL IDEAS ABOUT HO-LORILAI, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?
She, in fact, was not. Several moments of observation more than proved that much to Gaster, and he moved to stand between Lori and her view of Sans, who was scribbling down numbers and observations about the readings on the various monitors.
*LORILAI, REALLY.
She coughed slightly and shifted on the exam table. "Sorry about that. You were saying?"
Gaster had become far more humanoid to Lori's eyes as time had gone on, and while his form was nowhere near a perfect reconstruction of what it had once been, it was still more than readily apparent to her that his physical hands had taken positions on his hips as his tone took on a sassy note.
*AS I HAD BEEN SAYING, I HAVE SEVERAL HYPOTHESES, AND IF NECESSARY, WE CAN DEVISE MORE.
Lori peered around Gaster, and sighed softly, holding up her hands and hesitantly beginning to sign.
*You're his father, and probably one of the older monsters around...is it normal that I still have yet to have seen his soul? With mine, it's been pulled out numerous times for observation, examination...but I have had several other monsters that don't know either of us that well thinking that we were already...bonded? That's marriage in the monster world, right?
*YES, IT IS. AND I DON'T BELIEVE THAT I AM THE BEST PERSON TO ASK ABOUT THIS KIND OF SUBJECT. PERHAPS THE QUEEN-
*I am NOT going to one of Sans' two best friends to ask about THIS. Are you crazy?
*YOU ASKED THE MAN THAT CREATED HIM WITH THE BONE THAT USED TO BE WHERE ONE OF THE HOLES IN MY HANDS IS. I DO NOT BELIEVE MYSELF TRULY QUALIFIED TO OFFER RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
She sighed and nodded softly, feeling defeated. "Yes, of course." Sans caught her attention and asked her several rapid fire questions, nodding, and taking down her answers. Turning to Gaster, he began conferring and sharing current readings, Lori functioning as an intermediary between the two, their conversation cold and analytical, and moderately uncomfortable for Lori as they discussed negative results as though she wasn't sitting right there and acting as Gaster's voice.
'Fuck, it's going to be a long day.'
0-0-0-0-0
When his door opened this late at night, he had, in all honesty, been expecting Sans. But there she was, looking tired in more than one sense of the word, nervous, and all around worn-down. She didn't respond to the chorus of greetings as she normally would, she didn't hold her head as high as she normally would...something was wrong with Lorilai.
He prepared her normal drink and set it on the counter in front of her normal stool, watched as she sat down as simply stared at it for several long moments. "Can you maybe put a shot of rum in this for me, Grillbs?"
He stared at her in alarm. He knew that she was old enough, but she never drank, or close enough to it. Something was wrong with Lorilai.
He shrugged and poured the shot and tipped it into her coke and grenadine, watched warily as she stirred it in with her straw and took a long drink. Sighing, she leaned forward on the counter, crossing her arms, and silently laid her head on her forearms. Her eyes were dim as she stared into one of the glasses lined up on the counter, no detectable glow as they shone a deep azure in the ambient light of the bar and Grillby's own fire.
Something was wrong with Lorilai.
"Can we talk? Like...and not have this conversation get to anyone outside of the two of us? I'll teach you how to make cordial and mead if it would be incentive…?" Her voice cracked softly as she spoke, rough as though she had been crying for a good while before getting here.
He shook his head. "No need for incentive. If you're the one in need of an ear instead of Sans, I'll still listen and afford you the same privacy that I afford him. The same as I would for any friend. What's wrong?"
Faint blue streams began to make their way down her face as she took another sip of her drink, taking full advantage of the bendable straw. She was silent for a long while, the only sound really coming from her being the occasional mild sniffle. "Sans is actually the one that I want to talk about."
He picked up one of the dirty glasses behind the counter and began cleaning it as he nodded softly. "What about the bonehead?"
Another long drink as she continued to stare off into space. "Did you know that some portions of the monster community that know of us, but don't know us personally, think that we're bonded?"
That certainly wasn't what he was expecting her to say. "Can't say that I did. Some reason that you mention it?"
She shook her head and took another long drink. "We've been together for over a year. He's seen my soul time and time again. But I still haven't seen his. He's never brought it out, he's never had his shirt off long enough for me to get even a partial look...He's seen the very essence of my being, and I figured out some of his history on my own before he told me. Yeah, sure...it's more than probably even you know…
"But don't you think that I would've seen his soul by now if he feels open enough to tell me some of his secrets? If we're close enough that people think that we've bonded? If bonding really is marriage, if not more impressive and close, don't you think that I would've at least seen a glimpse? I've seen basically everyone else's...but not his."
She sniffled and took another drink. "I sleep in the nude, I bare my heart and soul to him on a regular basis…" She sighed deeply and sat up, turning to face Grillby tearily. "He's my world, Grillbs. I get that earlier he was trying to keep a cool and level head, an analytical brain...but…"
"Have you tried telling him this?"
She scoffed. "He's terrified for my life right now. He doesn't need to be terrified that his relationship is crumbling too. That's what he would jump to, you know him."
Grillby shrugged. "But isn't it?"
Lori glared, her eyes flaring brightly despite the tears. "Like hell it is. I'm frustrated that he's still so closed off, sure, and it's a little depressing that he still doesn't trust me as much as he could, but I will be damned if I'm letting him go. He means more to me than life itself, Grillby. Don't you dare insinuate otherwise."
0-0-0-0-0
Lori floated quietly down the stairs and to the room she shared with Sans. Finding the door closed and not wanting to disturb the shockingly light sleeper overly much, she phased through the door and drifted to the floor, looking down to ensure that she wasn't about to trip on anything.
"hey."
Her eyes darted upwards and she blushed brightly. "Hi."
"you have fun at grillbs'?"
She shrugged lightly. "Eh, no more so than usual I suppose. We got to talking and lost track of time. Sorry about that."
He shrugged and waited for her to undress before pulling her into bed with his gravity and pressing his teeth to her lips. She giggled softly at the sudden affection and nuzzled his nasal bones with the tip of her nose.
"i missed you."
Another kiss. "I missed you too."
A nip at her neck. "i love you."
She stiffened, and gently pushed back from him. "I love you too. Very dearly. But we need to talk."
A/N: SO, LIKE I SAID, THERE IS A NEW TUMBLR PAGE FOR THE FIC! WITHIN A FEW MINUTES OF POSTING THIS ON FF DOT NET, I WILL HAVE POSTED A WIP FOR SOME UPCOMING DETAILS IN THE STORY THAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR A FEW DAYS.
ALSO, IF IT INTERESTS YOU, BASICALLY THE ENTIRETY OF THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO NOZOMI(HOPE) BY SLEEP DEALER ON LOOP. IT'S AN AMAZING SONG THAT YOU SHOULD TOTALLY CHECK OUT! LOVE YOU GUYS AND SEE YOU ALL NEXT CHAPTER! CIAO!