There is a fallen human on a bed of yellow flowers at the very end of the Ruins. They are unconcious, quiet as they lay there.
A yellow flower unlike the others pops out of the ground. It watches silently, soon a grin spreading on its face before it dives into the ground again.
The human wakes up, a little dizzy as they look around the room. It's the beginning of a cave system with sunlight entering from the hole on top. They only look up for a moment before standing.
Determinedly, the human walks through the gate at the end of the room. Darkness awaits them, only a spot of grass in the middle of the next room. The yellow flower pops out again.
"Howdy. I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower."
Despite the flower not recalling a thing, the human already looks bored. As if they've heard this all before.
.
It's sometime in the morning when Sans blinks his eye sockets open. It doesn't feel like he's gotten much sleep at all. Even though he spends 7 hours a night in his room, he keeps falling in and out of sleep – sometimes not getting a wink of it.
As Sans sits up, he groans. There's a lot of work to be done... Although, he can already feel something's wrong. Sigh. That can only mean more work.
And Papyrus calls him lazy.
After he gets out of bed and changes into his usual clothes, Sans glances at the sheets he's bundled up with his magic last night. It was probably to kill time, but it doesn't make much sense to him when he's fully awake. He sometimes does strange things while sleep deprived.
Finally, Sans steps out of his room, not even considering cleaning it even if it is a mess. It's too much effort when there's no point anyway. There's noise coming from the bottom floor as soon as he's out.
"SANS! ARE YOU FINALLY AWAKE?"
It's Papyrus' bold tone coming from the kitchen. The taller skeleton is quick to step out into the living room, now facing his brother, who's still upstairs. Sans lazily leans against the wall as he looks back.
"mornin'."
There really isn't any effort in his tone and Sans wears his usual grin. It doesn't impress Papyrus.
"YOU LAZYBONES... I'VE BEEN HERE MAKING BREAKFAST WHILE YOU WERE SNOOZING."
Sans shifts, yawns, then starts to head down the stairs with his slippers tapping against the steps.
"that so? is it spaghetti?"
"HOW DID YOU GUESS?"
Papyrus enters the kitchen and steps right back out with a plate of steaming spaghetti. It's just been cooked. Sans guesses the kitchen is a mess right now.
"id love to stay for breakfast, but i gotta go work."
Even if it is Papyrus' cooking, Sans tries to discreetly avoid the endless plates of spaghetti sometimes. After all, his brother still needs training in that area... Lots of training. Besides, he does actually have to work.
"WHAT'S THIS? ACTUALLY GOING TO DO YOUR JOB FOR A CHANGE?"
Papyrus' tone isn't mocking, but rather genuinely doubtful. Sans heads for the door while answering the other skeleton.
"i gotta do it sometimes, dont i? i'll be at my sentry station if you need me."
"ERR... THIS MIGHT TAKE ME A WHILE."
Papyrus will surely be stuck cleaning the kitchen for a good while, like he says. Sans waits a moment, watching as Papyrus gathers his cleaning supplies. He waits until his brother's back is toward him, then finally steps out the door.
When Sans steps out, instead of the outside, he actually lets himself into the room that really shouldn't exist in the manner it does. He lets himself into his lab – he's simply able to enter it from the front door.
.
After looking at his collective data, he notices that the timeline has been altered again. Several disturbances have happened, but yet he has no memory of it. Not even a vague sense of deja vu.
Sans sighs and massages his temple with his bony fingers. He has no memory, so he can't know who's responsible for all these changes. He knows that despite being unable to himself, there is at least one monster who can affect time. But he can't know if this yellow flower is responsible for the changes this time.
The fact that he still remembers the flower tells him something, though. He should be at his sentry post today of all days.
Sans opens the laboratory door and acts like it's nothing but usual when he emerges in a different place again. He's in the snowy forest outside town, out of view.
.
It's extremely boring at his station. There's no reason to tend to the others, since this one is right by the exit from the Ruins. If a human will pass through, it will be from here.
Sans rests his cheekbone into his palm. He's been sitting here for a long time and each minute seems to pass slower. He could almost fall asleep in this serene environment...
When he's about to actually doze off, Sans suddenly hears the snow crunch. He blinks once, then turns to gaze toward the sound. He sees Papyrus approaching from the distance with something in his hands.
As he gets closer, it becomes obvious it's a plate of spaghetti. Of course.
"SANS, I HOPE YOU'RE NOT SLACKING!"
Papyrus is instantly ready to scold him as he reaches the sentry station, then lowers the plate in front of his brother on the 'counter top.' Sans' eyes dart down to it.
"you know me, bro. just resting my sockets."
Sans doesn't bother to argue. It's much easier to agree, since it helps him keep the things Papyrus doesn't need to know under wraps.
"SANS! UGH... WELL, IN ANY CASE, I brought you some breakfast. I CAN'T HAVE YOU LOSING YOUR STRENGHT BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T EATEN! TAKE YOUR JOB MORE SERIOUSLY."
"thanks, pap. since you brought me this, i might as well take my lunch break now, right?"
Sans' permanent grin suddenly seems extremely irritating to Papyrus, who openly frowns as well as a skeleton can.
"I GIVE UP!"
Papyrus raises his arms in the air as if waving a white flag. Meanwhile Sans grabs the fork at the edge of the plate and starts to eat his food... Guess he's not avoiding spaghetti today. At least it's slightly better than last time. Almost edible.
.
It's much later that Sans still sits at his station. Papyrus and the spaghetti are both gone at this point. The boredom is getting a little too much.
"might as well go see if shes there..."
Not seeing the need to use his magic, Sans walks from his sentry station to the door deeper in the woods. The door to the Ruins of their old capital, "Home." Once he reaches it, he leans his back to the door and sits down, then lazily knocks on it with his knuckles.
Since he gets no response, Sans sighs. The lady he usually jokes with through the door isn't there today. Oh well. There's no reason he can't sit here either way.
Once again, as he sits in that position for a prolonged time, he starts to feel drowsy. He wishes he would feel this drowsy in his own bed... However, he's been unable to sleep properly for a long time.
Ever since he's started feeling like there's no point in trying anymore, he's started to sink into a depression that takes away his sleep. He still maintains the habit of resting in his room for an appropriate amount of time, but it really isn't much help.
Because of all this, Sans unintentionally falls asleep in crucial places. Even now, as he's supposed to survey the area for humans, he accidentally slips into unconciousness.
.
Sans stirs awake when he thinks he hears muffled voices. He wonders for a moment where they're coming from, then remembers where he is. The voices are coming from behind the door he's leaning against. Only one of them sounds familiar.
When footsteps start to approach the door, Sans slowly stands up. Is whoever's approaching about to come through? He decides not to take a risk and teleports out of the way, in the middle of the densely packed trees, away from the clearing. The space around him, to anyone seeing it from the outside, flashes black as he does.
The door opens not long after. A human in a striped shirt steps out and the door closes right after them. They don't even turn to look at it again.
Sans is shocked only for a second or two. The instinct right after that is the knowledge that he has to kill that human, and he numbs himself, following that instinct mindlessly. Before he's even realized it, his eyes have become devoid of their usual light as he quietly follows this human in the direction of his sentry station.
He sneaks around, he breaks a sturdy branch with his magic. He manipulates what the human can see and teleports to confuse them. However, he never musters the proper intent to try and kill them.
While Sans does this, he weighs his options – watching their back from afar. It would be too easy to end them, to show himself and to attack, but...
"If a human ever comes through this door... Could you please, please promise something?"
The words of that woman echo in his skull. He needs more time to think.
This human could be the last soul Asgore needs. Yet, he can't bring himself to kill them. Not that it matters even if he does. For all he knows, he might've seen the surface world many times by now.
There is always somebody to reset it all, isn't there? And Sans knows it's all his fault.
[A/N] If there's something specific you want to see or are curious about, drop a review. Fix my spelling mistakes also, please.