Mettaton's . . .

Not a single one. Frisk walked up to her workstand, feeling a little less than pleased with herself. Life just would not stop messing around with her. Haven't I paid enough yet? She had been on a good track for some time. Even with Chara's involvement, it seemed she was still able to get forgiveness through determination.

Through the entire weekend, she had not gotten one extra monster to forgive. Frisk didn't notice it at first. Maybe, now that Chara was gone, she could see a bit more clearly.

Chara wasn't just being fair to the monsters, saying 'can't forgive if they forget'. Frisk assumed Chara wanted to make it as hard as possible on her. It turned out . . . that when Chara's energy, her will, had gone deep into the starting souls inside of her? That Chara could no longer interfere. And?

And monsters really couldn't forgive without remembering. Even though it was terrible to remember, and so many were ready to fight and yell. They, had to, to have some kind of ground to understand how strong LOVE had been on her. Not only that-

"Out of the way, human!"

Frisk watched a green girl move past her. The LOVE that couldn't go with Chara or Flower's energy was redistributed Underground. Everyone had at least 6 LV, if not more. While not something that would make monsters start to kill each other? The kindness factor, toward her especially, was moving down. Way down.

I earned enough to live. I'm sure I will be free of the chains. Frisk tried to convince herself that it was okay if more than half the Underground still hated her. Still didn't forgive her. It was only the remnants of guilt that was deep inside of her that craved everyone's forgiveness. Besides, it seemed to really cheer Sans up. The better she had done, the less he liked it. The more monsters tended to diss her? She could just hear the cheer in his voice.

A part of her hated it, but she also understood. Sans was scared Asgore would take his family away. The Temmie made it clear to Frisk that Sans wasn't being over anxious, but now that Frisk couldn't even get one more monster's forgiveness. There wasn't much to worry about.

Except, there had been. While Sans made the point clear that the little half monsters she was having weren't going to be Flowey or Chara, because it wasn't their souls? It was still . . . their will. Part them.

And Frisk still didn't know how to take it all. "Morning, BurgerPants."

"Morning, Pacifider."

Hm? Frisk hadn't even lifted her eyes to see who spoke at first.

"Don't start that again," Sans warned her. "Keep your eyes up."

Sans? He wasn't supposed to be at her work. Frisk took a slight step back. What's wrong? Something's wrong with the kids. Sans senses Al knows something. Are they hurt? Is something going on with the babies?

"Whoa, easy there, Beautiful," Sans said, holding his hand out to her. "Nothing of the sort coming out of your mind. I just picked up a new job. Gonna go get dressed, then I'll start. So, just take a seat for now."

Take a seat for now? Frisk looked toward Burgerpants, who didn't look any happier than her. He also had on a different outfit than the usual one. She watched as Sans came out in a similar outfit. It had such a bright sparkle to the vest and hat, it almost disappeared on Sans. Except for the orange and pink stripes also going down it. They both looked like glittery white, orange and pink rainbows.

"There we go." Sans moved to where Frisk usually took care of monsters orders.

Wait. "Sans, what is your new job?" Frisk asked.

"Taking orders," Sans admitted. "You got demoted." He took a step toward her. "Some monsters just don't really like you right now. Sorry about that." He took his step back again. "You'll be adding sequins to the burgers with Burgerpants now."

That wasn't a two person job. Frisk looked toward Burgerpants.

"Oh. You got a new uniform too," Sans said. "It's in the little break room I just came out of."

"Does it look like yours?" Frisk asked.

"Yep," Sans agreed. "Just look for the label Pacifider."

"Pacifier?"

"Yeah. It's Mettaton's, Frisk. Don't go by real names. Go by nicknames. Right, Burgerpants?"

Burgerpants just looked at Frisk and shrugged.

"Pacifier?" Frisk asked again.

"Yeah. It's what monsters call you now." Sans dusted off his little area. "Half Genocider, half Pacifist. You're the Pacifider."

Frisk briefly bit her lip, but didn't speak up. She just went to get the new uniform on. Why did Mettaton upgrade the uniforms? When she came back, a customer was coming up. Pacifider.

"Oh, hey Sans," the customer said, instantly knowing Sans like everyone always did. "Didn't know you were working here."

"Yeah, my dame's kind of all over the place what with the twins and all. Figured I better stay close," Sans said.

Frisk bristled slightly. They weren't supposed to talk to the customers until they bought something. He was going to get fired if he kept that up.

"Yeah, that human thing." The customer wasn't showing much compassion to her. "Not good for much. Glad I'm not in your position. Think I'd rather eat it."

"Eh. Beggars can't be choosers."

"What's that on your outfit?"

"Huh? It's too new to have ketchup on it yet." Sans looked at his outfit. "Oh, that. Yeah. We go by nicknames here."

"Glitter Buns?"

"Yep."

"Why are you called that?"

Frisk couldn't believe it. Her eyes were wide, her mouth half open. She didn't know whether to laugh or yell or scold as she watched Sans turn around, take his uniform pants down, and reveal his . . .

"Cause they all I got," Sans said from between his own bony legs, wiggling the buns he had glued to his pelvis.

Frisk. Swallowed. Sans. Glued glittery buns. To where a butt would be.

"I always wanted buns, and plastic surgery just ain't cheap with a skeleton," Sans said, his 'buns' still in the air.

The customer was laughing his own 'buns' off.

Sans put his pants back on and paid attention to the customer again. "So what ya want? A Glamburger? You can have glittery buns, just not mine."

Finally, Frisk found an action she automatically took. She hit her palm on her head and chuckled. Then, she quickly quit.

Still, Sans clearly caught her. Even though his pants were pulled up, it was still clear the buns were still on. Only Sans would waste magic on a joke like that. Only Sans.

"Welp. Guess it's true," Sans said. He looked to the customer. "Girls really do like the buns, don't they?"

The customer was still laughing. "Glamburger, and here's a small tip too!" He paid the money. Sans took the money while Frisk and Burgerpants started to decorate the buns with sequins. "You should feel lucky that someone cares, Pacifider. Even if it is just Sans."

Frisk couldn't help herself. She glared at the customer. She didn't know what she hated worse. The word Pacifider he used, that she should feel lucky to have someone care when she had made many friends, or . . . Even if it is just Sans? Like Sans wasn't terribly important? Some monsters.

Yet, as always, Sans didn't seem to care. He didn't yack anymore with the customer though, giving him the glamburger and dealing with the next customer. Once again, not following protocol at all.

"Sans," Frisk warned him.

"Hm?" Sans just looked back at her. "Not mad I took your jobby job are ya?"

"No," Frisk admitted. "You aren't supposed to talk to the customers until they order something. It's Mettaton's rule."

Sans just shrugged. "He don't care." Sans went back to paying attention to the customer. When Mettaton came over, Sans just waved.

"Sans!" Mettaton came straight through the back, picked Sans up, and put him back down. "Look how you sparkle! Look how Burgerpants sparkles!" He gestured to Frisk. "Look how Pacifider sparkles! You wouldn't think she was once covered in dust now, everything always looks good with a bit of 'glim-glam'!" Mettaton shouldered Frisk. "Isn't it a great word? Glim-Glam. Sans came up with it."

Sounded like Sans. Didn't Mettaton just overhear Sans though?

"Sans has been talking to the customers before they order," Burgerpants said.

Frisk sighed. Burgerpants ratted Sans out already?

"I should care?" Mettaton just blinked at him.

Frisk looked at Mettaton and then Burgerpants. He always cared before. He made it real clear what the rules had been.

"Oh, yee of little everything," Mettaton said as he patted Burgerpants on the head. "When you come up with a fabulous new word, and fabulous new uniforms, and can guarantee at least 90% of your customers will pay whether you make conversation or not, then you can have a little more freedom. Until then? Let Sans keep up with his fabulous style. Because style is important."

"Completely," Sans said. His light-guiders seemed extra concentrated on Burgerpants. "Without style, Mettaton can't be Mettaton. And without my own style, Sans can't be Sans."

Clever, clever. Frisk understood now. By appealing to Mettaton's style, he had made Mettaton understand 'Sans style'. Which included fraternizing, probably extra breaks, jokes, and who knew what else? In the name of style. That is so Sans.

Sans stayed around though, until about 3:00. Some monsters enjoyed teasing or torturing Frisk in her 'lot in life', while some actually asked about her. The ones she had got forgiveness from. Yet, either way, they all enjoyed Sans a lot better.

But at 3:00, Sans time ended. "Frisk. Breaktime." Sans gestured to Burgerpants. "You? Fulltime. Bye. See ya when we see ya."

"That's not nice," Frisk stood up for Burgerpants. "How long will this take?"

"Well, I'm shoving my *low whistle* up your * high whistle*."

He just had to whistle the words too. However he managed to whistle. Frisk moved away and toward Sans. "You could just say we need to take care of business."

"Yeah, kay." Sans looked to the customers outside the stand. "Yo! Ol' Sans gotta go take care of some in and out business with his human. Be back in about an hour."

He didn't have to say in and out. Frisk didn't speak up, but she knew her eyes were speaking loud enough for her.

"What? Babe? What's with the look?" Sans asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

Do something wrong? Oh. Damn. That's right, they were supposed to be more of a couple. It got Asgore off Sans' mind that way some time ago. "Just. Less conspicuous in our activities," Frisk said to him.

Sans chuckled at her. "Right. Less conspicuous. You want to rent a room, or take Burgerpants' room?"

"Hey!" Burgerpants yelled from in the stand.

Dangit. Frisk could feel herself blushing. She had no idea how long she had been blushing over Sans' antics, but now her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Sans shouldered someone he was near. "She's a bashful one, huh? But she ended up with me. Wow, Karma was hard on her."

They laughed. Frisk wasn't laughing. She was just burning. She wanted to just yell at him! He didn't have to put things that way. They could just be a couple without anything else between. At least, she didn't have to be okay with the way he was putting things. It was-"

"Sorry, couldn't help. You're beautiful, Beautiful, when you get all pinkish."

Well. Uh? "Oh?" Oh, did I just say oh? Why did I just say 'oh'? Frisk watched him take her hand and lead her away to Burgerpants' room. Hotel rooms were expensive, and Burgerpants was her ally.

When they reached his room, Sans slowed down the acting. "How are you doing now?"

"I haven't had any pains or anything," Frisk answered as she moved to her position on the bed.

"Yeah. You do have a lot of energy in you now." Sans laid down beside her. "That's not what I meant though. You still doing okay on the whole mother thing?"

"Well, I've already had a couple of half monsters," Frisk said. "Al and Juleyard are wonderful. So." Yet.

"It's a little weird?"

Frisk leaned her head down deeper on the pillow.

"I get it. I mean, one minute it was just a couple little darlings in you. Then, it feels like you just kind of got . . ."

"Bamboozled." No, wait, that wasn't the word! "I mean, I didn't mean it like that."

"Hey, it's fine." Sans pulled out the insert. "They literally used your kids' power to get life back. It's gotta feel a bit bad inside emotionally."

Frisk felt Sans steady her leg. Looks like they forgot books, but they'd done this so many times anyhow. "I want to believe Flowey did it for good, and not for bad. But with Flowey? I never."

"Never can tell."

Frisk felt the insert inside of her for a few minutes as neither one talked.

"He did good," Sans said. "Power level is still fantastic, Frisk." He laid her leg back down. "Honestly? Um. It's all great. Like, great, great. Um." He moved slightly. "Well, Chara's been with you before. Paired with your soul, she probably has a good idea of what she's doing."

"Are they?" Frisk didn't know how to ask. "How would she know, Sans? How is their power . . .?"

Sans took a moment. "You remember how I said Flowey was gone?"

What? "Yes?" Frisk answered.

"Well," Sans said. "New soul and everything, not even complete yet. If he was gone though, if he and Chara were both gone, your levels wouldn't be, this? Well, steady. Like, they knew what they were doing. Still."

"Please don't say what I think you're going to say?" Frisk said. Flowey bit it as soon as he went into her. No pain, no suffering. Right? "Please?"

"Somehow. I think they still have the memories of who they were," Sans said. "Sorry. I can't lie. Unless the magic is just slowly balancing it out, I think they are still there."

Frisk closed her eyes and swallowed. "Flowey's inside of me, alive? Can he hear me?"

"Not in that sense, Frisk. He couldn't," Sans reminded her. "You ever have a weird nightmare and you can't really remember it? Then you see something that reminds you of it, but you still can't really recall like 90% of it? Just that one bit you see? Then, even that little fragment kind of disappears? That's. That's Flowey and Chara."

"Mostly gone."

"Yeah."

"Tiny bit . . . subconsciously helping?"

"Kind of, yeah."

"But that little fragment." Frisk remembered his words. "That'll disappear."

"Yeah, after this insertion. They won't be able to control their power anymore," Sans said. "It's been wading down since the incident, but this last one should be the one. It's not gonna hurt ya though, their energy, it'd be like you being monster with your own power. That's what Flowey intended, to give you a sort of 'monster power'. I'll just have to help you steady it out later down the line. It won't be nearly as bad though."

Flowey? Chara?

"Just a tiny part, Frisk," Sans said softly. "Neither's gonna respond if you try to contact them."

Frisk scoffed. "Why even bother telling me then?! If it doesn't matter, if there's nothing I could do, then it didn't do any good letting me know there's an itty bitty bit that's alive and probably suffering-!"

"They aren't alive, Frisk," Sans said. "They weren't even 'alive' when you knew them. You know that. The suffering's almost over."

"Right, because they are being suffocated inside of me." Frisk bit her lip hard. Real hard. So hard she was surprised blood didn't come out. She tried to hold back a sniffle. Somewhere inside of her, a tiny part of Flowey and Chara still existed, and it would fade away. She couldn't do anything about it.

"Frisk?"

"You shouldn't have told me," Frisk said. "Why bother? There's nothing I can do. So why even tell me? Are you mad about something still?" She asked. "Why? Why would you do that? Tell me exactly when they would really be killed, when I thought they were already gone?"

"Cause." Sans was quiet a few seconds. "I shouldn't hide it from you."

"Well, we hid the whole Flowey/Chara thing from everyone else, including your brother," Frisk said. "What makes me any different?" She waited. "This is just crueler, Sans!"

"Sry." Sans said quietly.

Wait. The way he said that? That tone. I messed up. "Sans, I didn't mean that so harshly." Honestly, what was wrong with her? "You're telling me the truth, whether I wanted to hear it or not. I'm sorry. I just . . ." Frisk saw his bony arm wrap around her lightly.

"Brothers hide stuff from each other all the time. Moms and dads, they hide stuff about all kinds of subjects from kids too." Sans was finally speaking to her. "I know the situation's different than normal. Asgore made it different, but it don't change that?" Sans seemed to take an extra minute. "That."

Frisk felt breath near her ear as he spoke. Skeleton. Breath. She felt his arms tighten around her again.

"Nevermind," he said. "I just didn't want you to figure it out somehow later and blame me. Trying to stay honest. Besides, any dishonesty and Al picks it up. He probably already figured out something about Flowey," Sans said.

But. That wasn't it. Frisk felt something. Sans, he was going to say something else.

"Sleep off a little bit," Sans insisted. "Burgerpants got it."

Yeah. "Few minutes. While I kill off the last . . ."

" . . . not gonna remember murder," Sans said softly. "Not gonna be bad. Not gonna feel guilt. No LOVE taking over. No watching someone else get consumed by LOVE."

Not something Frisk ever wanted to think about.

"No years of torture. No loneliness. Not anymore. All of that is over for them. Not contained in what was left of a grave or hanging onto some human," Sans said. "Not stuck as a flower. This isn't a bad ending, Frisk. It's just the ending they've needed. The timeline torture is over for them both."

"Yeah . . . just the . . . just the ending . . . to start again . . ."

Sans stared at her sleeping form. She'd be down at least a few hours. She needed it. Not just physically, but emotionally too. Not only that?

"Burgerpants got it." Sans didn't move. He checked her pulse. He checked her breath. He checked her one more time, to make sure the power wasn't being controlled anymore. No perfect waves. No perfect synchronization.

Flowey and Chara's influence had been gone for good. They didn't even have the power to regulate blood temperature anymore. "All good, Beautiful." He knew she'd be upset about the news too. It couldn't be helped, and it wouldn't help her knowing that Flowey and Chara were the equivalent of suffocating inside of her, the last of their will hanging on by a tiny thread he just cut.

If she'd just been a friend, he'd hide it. If she'd been nobody special, he'd hide it. Sans hid lots of secrets, lots of times. Didn't make anyone else feel what he had to feel. Know what he had to know. But he couldn't hide this from her.

Because, even if Asgore wasn't following the usual rules because of the situation . . . I had to tell you Frisk. You're mine. His human. His responsibility. The one he would live with, talk with, laugh with, and cry with for the rest of his life. Even if they never got married, she was his significant other.

No monster lied to their significant other, no matter how small or terrible the situation. Even if their significant other?

Didn't know they were the significant other.