"No, that's a for-profit school. They're going to use you as an investment instead of as a student because the whole point is to make money off you in any way they can. In any case, I think for a start you should just be taking some program and design classes at the local college—they're pretty monster-inclusive, aren't they?"
"WELL, YES, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE A FULL-TIME STUDENT TO TAKE SOME OF THOSE COURSES AND I SENT IN MY APPLICATION AS A NON-STANDARD STUDENT ALMOST TWO WEEKS AGO WITH UNDYNE AND ALPHYS' RECOMMENDATIONS. THERE STILL HAS BEEN NO RESPONSE."
"College mail is brutal," Tabatha sighed. "But we still have to be patient because they have their own schedules we have to respect. In any case, have you started your Legend of Zelda indoctrination? I have a copy of Ocarina of Time on my 3DS that you can use."
As the two friends continued their back-and-forth discussion, Sans continued to glare at the TV screen with an unusual amount of bitterness. He'd been in a mood for days, grouchy and with a severe lack of punning—the jokes now barely had any contextual sense and seemed more like someone wearily acting out a gimmick. Papyrus had worried that his brother was sick or being overworked, but the stocky monster managed to dodge all the concerned questions and investigation. It was starting to strain on everyone's nerves, but there was no resolution in sight.
"Alright, that's enough college searching for now," the brunette remarked, closing the laptop. "You gotta go train with Undyne, right?"
"OH YES!" Papyrus declared. "EXCUSE ME!"
The following ten minutes was a rush of activity and goodbyes as the younger brother gathered his workout bag and drove off, leaving his friend alone with the still-glowering comedian. The cushions dipped as the empty seat became occupied by another person and the cheerful atmosphere faded into a more serious tone.
"Alright Sans, what's wrong?" Tabatha sighed as she settled into the couch.
"dunno what you're talking about, kiddo," the skeleton grunted. The human rolled her dark eyes before reaching over and shutting off the TV.
"Don't underestimate my intelligence, mister skuklity skulking skullface. Spill."
The stocky monster didn't reply right away, still staring at the void that was the blank screen in front of him. Then he groaned and slouched even further into the cushions.
"i just don't see why Paps is so into going to college," he grumbled. "i make enough to keep everyone here fed and have fun. so what's the point of him spending money on classes that he probably won't ever really use? i can take care of him just fine."
"He's going to learn, to get new skills."
"he's done great without school up 'till now."
Tabatha looked over Sans, reading his body language and between the lines of his crabby responses. Then she frowned.
"Have you ever thought that maybe Papyrus has more to do with his life than he's already doing?" she prodded. "That he could be happier being independent—being himself?"
Her words were swallowed up silence and she knew she'd hit a nerve.
"Sans," the brunette stated firmly, "Papyrus is an adult."
"i know he's an adult."
"Then why are you treating him like a child?" The skeleton gave her a dangerous look, the iris in his left eyesocket flashing cyan. "I know he's your little brother, but he's got his own life to live, his own talents to discover and develop."
"don't try to lecture me about our relationship," Sans bit out, his sockets hollow and dark as he clearly repressed a far greater display of rage. "you don't know what we've been through."
"I've lived here long enough to know that you smother him," Tabatha shot back. "You want him to be happy, but whenever he expresses interest in anything new, you try and get him off the subject. You just act like you're living the same week, over and over, same routines every day, like you're stuck in them. You don't like it when things are different, and this...it's a huge difference, especially because your brother is the one pushing so hard for it in the first place."
"you don't know what i've seen. you don't know what nightmares i've been through. you don't know what it's like to lose someone so close to you because you couldn't stop it."
"Did you forget my EXP?"
That drew him up short. Sans blinked and the lights returned to his sockets. That's right: Tabatha had 5 EXP from some sort of...accident with someone close to her. But it wasn't enough to totally quench his frustrations.
"we're fine the way we are," he insisted.
"Yes, you are fine. But you could be more than content you know. You could be happy," the young woman suggested. "Papyrus deserves happiness...and so do you, Sans."
Sans's resolve was breaking—his emotions were getting jumbled and were far too close to the surface.
"i can't lose him," he mumbled out, burying his skull in his hands. not again.
A warm hand touched his clavicle before the skeleton was pulled against Tabatha's soft chest in a tight hug. His sockets widened in surprise before he returned the gesture, gripping her shirt.
"You won't lose him," she promised. "No matter what happens, he's still your brother. Always has been, always will be."
"how'd you get to be so good at this?" he mumbled against her shoulder.
"I had someone do this for me...a long time ago. Not anymore, but it's always stuck with me. Just always hope it'll help somebody out when they need it."
Sans shifted back so he could wipe away the magical tears that were beginning to fall. He smiled weakly at his human friend who decided to help him along with a grin of her own.
"SANS! HUMAN TABATHA! LOOK!"
Papyrus came racing into the house with something clutched in his fist.
"UNDYNE CANCELLED TRAINING SO THAT SHE COULD HAVE A DAY TO WORK ON SOMETHING WITH ALPHYS. BUT LOOK WHAT WAS IN THE MAILBOX!"
The pair on the couch realized that it was a letter in the young brother's grasp and stared at each other in mild shock.
"congrats bro," Sans replied, climbing off the human's lap and coming over to the taller monster to playfully slug his arm. "we need to go out and celebrate."
"BUT I HAVEN'T EVEN OPENED IT YET!" Papyrus protested.
"doesn't matter. first college mail, we should go out somewhere."
"REALLY?! IT BETTER NOT BE GRILLBY'S!"
"nah, i got somewhere sweeter in mind."
"So there's really spiders in all the food?" Tabatha asked as they walked down the street. "I couldn't really tell."
"eh, Muffet's got some oddities, but it's probably a spider thing. doesn't stop her baking from being great though."
"I DO NOT USUALLY EAT SUCH UNHEALTHY THINGS, BUT IT WAS MOST DELICIOUS," Papyrus agreed. "A FITTING CELEBRATION!"
"Congrats again on getting accepted," the brunette continued, "You really deserve it."
It was late afternoon and the trio were on their way back home from eating out at Muffet's cafe, all full of pastries and warm drinks. Cars passed in a rush, including one silver four-seater that had driven by at least four times now.
"I WILL LIKELY STILL WANT TO LOOK AT THE OTHER SCHOOLS AND SEND IN APPLICATIONS BEFORE ACCEPTING," the guardsman trainee remarked. "THAT IS WHAT IS USUALLY DONE, YES?"
"Well, yeah, but I only did my first year before I decided to take time off to work and I got into my choice school right away, so I didn't wait. But with what you're wanting to study—"
There was a screech of breaks as the silver car came to an abrupt stop by the curb. They all whirled around and Tabatha's faced drained of blood—to the point that she was almost the same color as the brothers beside her.
"Tabatha!" a woman's voice cried. The driver has leapt from her vehicle and grabbed the young woman by the shoulders roughly. "I finally found you! Why did you hide from me?! Do you have any idea how worried sick I've been?!"
The brunette was struggling to get out of the middle-aged woman's grasp, but wasn't making much progress as she was only backed up against the wall of the dress shop they'd been walking past and trapped there.
"How dare you!" the woman began to shriek. "It was Joseph, wasn't it?! Conspiring to take my only remaining baby away from me?! Oh, I'll see to it he never so much as looks at you again!"
"It was my idea, not Uncle Jo's!" Tabatha protested. "Please, let me go! I can't live with you anymore!"
"Lies! You're lying to protect him! Just like you always do, right to my face too!"
It was here that Papyrus decided to intervene: taking hold of the woman's hands, he pulled her off his human friend, who slid down the wall and curled up into a defensive position, hands protecting the back of her head as if she expected to be struck.
"What are you doing?! Unhand me!" the stranger spat, whirling to face the skeleton who held her bound.
"MA'AM, I MUST ASK THAT YOU CALM DOWN AND EXPLAIN WHAT IS HAPPENING," Papyrus scolded her gently but firmly. "YOU ARE HARMING MY FRIEND."
"How dare—you can't tell a mother how to speak to her child!"
The taller monster glanced at his brother, who had his arms around the still-curled Tabatha's shoulders. Their gazes connected and Sans' eyesocket flared cyan before he tightened his grip on the young woman and vanished from sight.
"MA'AM, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING, BUT YOU MUST CALM YOURSELF BEFORE YOU DO A VIOLENCE," he commanded. "PLEASE, I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE YOU GET IN ANY TROUBLE."
"You have no part in this! This is between me and my girl and—"the woman noticed that her self-proclaimed "daughter" was gone and blanched. "She's gone," she whispered. "She's gone and...you."
Really, there was only one right way to handle this: Papyrus let go of her wrists and fled as fast as his long legs would take him. The stranger wailed and screamed at him as she gave chase, but he soon left her behind when he hid in an alleyway that was too narrow for most humans to fit through very far before the dumpsters blocked their path. He heard the woman sobbing as she ran by, sounding almost insane.
Papyrus' Soul throbbed, magic pulsing through his bones and giving them a faint glow as he tried to process what he had just seen and heard. But no answers came.
Tabatha was hysterical when she and Sans landed in her bedroom after the swift extraction from the crime scene: she refused to relax out of the tight, defensive ball she had curled into and constantly whispered things like "stop" or "please, no" and "not again. I can't live through it again". The stocky skeleton had tried to talk to her to snap her out of it, but she seemed beyond his reach. Placing his palm on her collarbone, he called forth his magic to reach her Soul, establishing a connection between them. He sent feelings of comfort through the link, but she rejected it, her fear snuffing out any and all attempts to soothe her. Helpless with what to do, Sans ripped her comforter from the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, holding her close and letting her feel the energy of his own Soul through their connection.
After about fifteen minutes, the human finally began to show some sign of change: she lifted her head and looked around, clearly registering that she was no longer out in the streets and was instead inside her home. Then she looked at Sans, staring at his ignited eyesocket before more realization began to set in. Her dark eyes widened before they filled with tears.
"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed, dropping her head in shame. "I'm so, so sorry!"
The monster pulled her against his rib cage, letting her cling to him as she continued to cry and apologize in a wavering voice. When she ran out of tears, he tilted her face up so he could see her face and Tabatha flinched away from his gaze.
"if you don't wanna explain, ya don't have to say anything," he offered.
"No," the young woman refused, her voice thick. "No, you—you have to know Sans. You have the right to an explanation."
"not when you're like this," he insisted. "your Soul's on the verge of cracking."
"B-but you have to know."
Sans shushed her and pulled her head down to rest on his clavicle, stroking her hair. It took what felt like forever, but her breathing evened out and the fear began to fade, though it was still very much fresh and raw.
"She's my stepmom," Tabatha mumbled against her friend's blue hoodie. "She wasn't always...like that. When my dad married her, she was pretty normal. She had a son who was a few years older than me...I was eight, he was twelve at the wedding. His name was Gareth...he became my best friend."
The old scar on her Soul was aching his magic told him and the skeleton ceased petting her head as he listened to her story.
"Gareth was the-the nicest person I've ever met—maybe even nicer than Papyrus. He would give help to strangers, always have a compliment to offer up...we weren't family by blood, but it was almost like we were made for each other. I was...thirteen when it happened."
Her breathing hitched on the word "it" and the aching in her Soul spiked. Sans tightened his grip, pulling her closer and continuing to send her comforting waves of magic.
"I was bullied in middle school...they took my backpack and stuck it up in a tree. Gareth went to go get it but when he was climbing...th-the branch broke. H-he went painlessly, instantly...but he was still dead. His mom didn't take it very well: she locked herself in her room and cried for weeks and weeks...she'd scream out randomly that it was my fault, that I took her baby boy from her, but then she'd start crying and going 'the poor girl, my poor girl' like she couldn't decide if she hated me or felt bad for me. When she finally came out...she smothered me. Didn't let me out of the house for a solid month before my dad insisted I go back to school...but then she never let me out of her sight. She called the office and my teachers regularly to make sure I was there, became convinced they were lying to her and would randomly show up just to see if I was where they said. When the school told her off, she got me a cell phone and texted me, insisting I tell her what I was doing at any random time...she wouldn't let me do extracurriculars, made me stop doing dance...it was like this all through High School. I got used to it, but sometimes...sometimes I would disappear to attend dance practice or hand out with a friend...and then...then she really began to lose it."
Tabatha swallowed as her arms wrapped around her torso, like she was holding herself together.
"Whenever I came back after 'vanishing', she'd scream at me. Ask me if I wanted to die just like Gareth, who didn't tell her he was going to the school that night. My dad tried to reason with her, but she was beyond his help. I just kept thinking 'it'll be over when I move out'...and then she followed me to college. That's when I called my dad and told him I couldn't take it anymore. He called my uncle and we decided that I needed to disappear. I've been moving from property to property ever since, protected by Uncle Jo. I had to stop going to school—she knew I was there and had enough pull as my stepmother to find me if it came down to it."
"that's why you've been so jumpy," Sans breathed out. "she saw the video of you at the concert after it went viral."
"My uncle called to let me know," the brunette confirmed. "The usual procedure is for me to go to a new property out of town until my dad reports she's stopped combing the streets for me, which can take months. But because I was living with you two, I just had to stay in as much as possible, minimize the time I was out in public and was able to be found."
"why didn't you just tell us?" the stocky skeleton asked, feeling his friend tense up, her fingers hooking in the material of his hoodie.
"You two...you've been so kind to me...I didn't feel like I could burden you with knowing my unhinged stepmother was hunting me. It would make you two targets if she figured out the connection..."
Her breathing became shallow again as panic began to overtake her again.
"Oh no...she saw you, she knows. I can't stay here, you're in danger—"
"you are not going anywhere, Tabatha," Sans informed her firmly.
"But she'll find you, she'll interrogate you, find some way to get you—"
"you think this is the first time i've had to deal with a human who wanted to mess with me and my bro?" he interrupted. "we can protect ourselves just fine. and i'm not about to let one of the gentlest, most selfless humans i've ever met exile herself from her home just 'cause she's got a problem she needs to be safe from."
"S-Sans?"
"i'm gonna protect you, tabby cat. me and Paps both. and i'm gonna tell Tori and get her and Asgore on board so you'll have a few safe houses to run to if you can't make it home. Grillbz should probably know to not let her in, but he'd protect ya no matter what happens."
Tabatha was silent as she stared blankly at the wall beyond Sans' shoulder.
"Why would you do that for me?" she mumbled, her voice so soft he wouldn't have been able to hear it without her face so close to his skull. "I thought...you'd want to keep Papyrus safe from me now that I'm...I'm a danger to him."
"maybe back when you first moved here i would've," the monster Judge admitted. "but not now. you're as much my friend as you are my brother's and i always protect my friends."
The young woman didn't respond to that as she was interrupted by a huge yawn. Shifting her position in his arms, the skeleton laid the human burrito down and fixed the comforter around her, tucking her in. She didn't let go of his hoodie with one hand, so he took it and laced his phalanges with her soft, fleshy fingers. Almost as a reflex, Sans began to tell her a story of when he and Papyrus had first moved to Snowdin and how he and Grillby had built their friendship. He was making the third fire-related pun when he felt her lose consciousness through the link he left unbroken between their Souls. Their hands were still tightly clasped together.
It was early evening when the door opened and Papyrus crossed the threshold of their home, haggard from running the whole way. Sans was sitting at the kitchen table drinking from his stash of ketchup packets when he heard his brother come in and he quickly wiped his mouth to hide the evidence before he stepped out to welcome him back. The taller of the pair went straight to the bottom of the stairs before pausing.
"IS TABATHA WELL?" he asked with a low voice.
"better then she was when we arrived. she's sleeping now."
"THEN I SUPPOSE I HAD BEST NOT DISTURB HER," Papyrus muttered, letting his hand drop from the banister. There was a tense silence as he continued to stare upstairs, immobile as his elder sibling looked on.
"she's told me what's going on," Sans broke the quiet tension in the air. "that lady who went after her was her stepmom. she's...not well. been after Tabatha for years—it's why she's been moving around so much."
The brothers moved to the couch as the story was repeated. While Papyrus was now able to make sense of many things he'd found odd about his human friend—including the identity of the Gareth whom she loved so much—he couldn't help but be hurt at how she had not told him this herself. Yes, she was in distress and needed her rest, but did she really have to tell Sans?
His jealousy surprised him. Why was he, the Great Papyrus, upset that his brother had learned the truth first and was now relaying it? Wasn't it a good thing that the big mystery that surrounded Tabatha's life was in the open? Now he could protect her.
The feelings though, of both the jealousy and the desire to keep the human safe, they were stronger than they should be. They...were not feelings that one had for a friend.
The tall skeleton had to excuse himself to his room, making an excuse of he needed some time to think about what he had learned—which was true, in a sense, but not about Tabatha's newly revealed past.
His feelings...how did he not realize it? For so long, they had been affectionate towards his kindly friend, but ultimately platonic. Now...they were in the realm of very not platonic.
His mind recoiled at the notion. These were not feelings one should have for their friends! It was inappropriate! But if he stilled his thoughts, listened to the pulse of his Soul and allowed his feelings to just be without repressing them, he found that the warm protectiveness, the call to be her guardian seemed to quiet all his anxieties—if she was safe, then they'd be fine.
Papyrus had heard stories of love. Monster folk wisdom said that a Soul would only develop more than unspecified affection for an individual who was compatible, who was right to be made a mate and spend the rest of their life with. But he himself had never felt such a thing. He loved his brother very much, but even that seemed cooler than the drive he had to make sure that Tabatha was protected and happy—a drive he had never fully realized was there until just now. Yet this had to have been developing for a long time. When had it started being more than friendship? No, when had he started wanting it to be more than friendship?
"OH SWEET ASGORE," he breathed. "OH STARS. WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO?"
And just like before, no answer came.
And here we are! Sorry it took so long—I traveled home for Christmas and airport Wi-Fi is weird. But the mystery is finally revealed! Thoughts?
And before I go any further, so many thanks to all my reviews! Y'all killed it!
Kagayaku Hoshi-Chan: As a gamer and as someone who watches gamers online, it sometimes surprises people how I can be an intellectual and still enjoy virtual entertainment. I've had to hone and use that argument before, hence why it's so developed. And as for Mia, she'll be popping back in, but I think she's mostly gonna be a background character.
UltimateGamer101: The friend zone—the little space between "boy friend" keeping it from being "boyfriend"—is an evil thing. But it is weakening!
KHR-Yunalesca: If you look at Grievous' helmet, it actually kinda resembled Papyrus' skull shape and they have the same body type, funny enough. And Sans would probably curl up and die if he ever caught a glimpse of our world and the rampant self-shipping. And I'm glad your finals went well! Have another stress relief chapter! ;)
TabbyCat: The ship name will be tricky though...Mia+Sans...
Flightstrike: Thanks so much! Have a virtual hug!
BoneMeal: Cliffhangers are satisfying to write—mostly due to the dismay of the audience. And you better believe that your name is a bone-i-fied skeleton reference!
Potato: Oi! You time-travelling cake stealer! Why didn't you bring any for meeeee?