Sans teleported just outside of Grillby's, stumbling and managing to fall into a snow drift. He stood, and not bothering to brush off the snow, he straightened his sleeves, and prepared himself for the inevitable attention he would draw from the other regulars.
Then, taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped into the warm interior of the restaurant. Sure enough, most of the patrons greeted him happily, as he made his way to his usual seat at the bar, he dropped a few puns to satisfy them.
Then he finally plopped down onto his seat, resting his elbows on the bar, he said to the barkeeper, the fire monster that owned the restaurant, "hey grillbz, a bottle of the usual?"
Grillby watched him a moment, then reached under the bar and pulled out a bottle of ketchup, sitting it in front of Sans, he leaned close so only he could hear and asked, "Are you feeling ok? I know what it means when you order ketchup again."
He was referring to Sans previous alcohol problems, though he didn't know it. Alcohol used to be the only escape he had from the horrible memories, thoughts, and nightmares, but he only stopped because he had once hurt Papyrus in a drunk stupor. So, he had tried other things, and the only thing that quenched the urges was ketchup, so, whenever he was upset, he would drink ketchup instead of risking hurting someone again.
"Sans." He startled back into the present timeline, and saw Grillby staring at him with what would've been a concerned look, if he had been able to change expression.
"don't worry grillby," Sans waved him off, taking a halfhearted sip of ketchup, "i'm just fine."
"Sans. I'm your friend, you can tell me anything, I can help," he gave him a meaningful head tilt, "Remember how I helped when Papyrus had HIS episode?"
"yeah..." This didn't make Sans feel any better. It had been one of those times where what seemed the impossible happened. All of the mockery and rejection had gotten to Papyrus, and he had been down for a few months, being more like Sans than himself.
Sans knew that Pap could still be triggered into another episode to this day, he just did what was required to make himself feel better. But, gosh- If Papyrus found out how Sans had been feeling... what if he blamed himself? Sans couldn't do that to him, now that he finally seemed to be in a better place mentally. Only thanks to Grillby though, without him, Papyrus would probably still be feeling like that. Sans felt so, so useless when he couldn't help Papyrus. So the least he could do now, would be to keep his brother happy.
Someone tapped his arm, startling him back into the present yet again. It was Grillby. With a solemn expression, he headed towards the back door, gesturing for Sans to follow.
'you've done it now sans,' He thought to himself as he reluctantly followed, 'you spaced out one times too many and now you got everyone worrying about you.'
HP: 0.75/ 01