In another world, Wing Dings had thought that he left the house alone. He didn't see anyone following him, not until Sans pounced at him from behind a conveniently thick lamppost, uttering an awful shriek. An awful shriek which Wing Dings ended up mirroring, jumping and stumbling backwards.
As his soul thudded in his chest, his face burned with nonexistent blood when he came to recognize the little white shape of his cousin, laughing at him from beside the post.
"W what are you why are-" WRONG FONT. "-Why are you here?" Wing Dings sputtered, slapping the red out of his own face. "You followed."
"Of course I 'followed,' Wingnut" said Sans, sneering. "I wanted to know where you were going. Grandpa Semi's gonna kill you, we're not allowed to go outside without him, ever."
In his enthusiasm to satisfy his curiosity, he'd forgotten all about the rules. Wing Dings whirled back around, towards the direction of the house (or where he thought the house was,) tense at the thought he might see Grandpa Semi barreling out after him any second. But as he did, Sans just sighed. He was sticking his hands irritably into the pockets of his Alien PJs. "I mean, he doesn't know you're out yet but he's going to."
"You... didn't... tell him?" Wing Dings asked, with an inclination of his head.
"No! You know how mad he'd be that I woke him up?" Sans sneered. "So you got until he wakes up on his own to go back home or else you'll be in big trouble."
Bemused, the other folded his arms. "...You too."
"Nah I got it figured out!" Sans jerked his thumb at himself, grinning proudly. "When he finds you I'm gonna tell him that I saw you goin' out and was just tryin' to get you back inside. It's true and it makes me look good."
The lid of Wing Dings' good eye raised like an eyebrow, and he offered just a small snort for his younger cousin's logic. "well i'm not going to get caught, so as long as you don't tell on me you may as well think that."
The streets, meanwhile, were all pretty dark, just a little bit of light given off by the lampposts being all there was to keep monsters from losing their way entirely. There was more light to see and search by during the daytime, or what everyone probably just assumed was daytime, but it would be too late by then. There was also the fact that there were only so many places he could check. Wing Dings knew he couldn't go east, since New Home east of them was still under construction and he knew who would be there, with that.
And how far would he be able to go? Well... he knew approximately how long it would take to go a distance like the one between his own house and Grandpa Semi's. It was about nine o'clock at night now, and generally Grandpa Semi got up at about six every morning, sometimes earlier. If (and this was assuming he didn't lose his nerve or get lost) he kept going for the next five hours-
"Why did you leave anyway?" Sans was saying, poking him on the arm.
Wing Dings tensed right back up. "...I. Saw... a..."
Sans tugged sharply on his sleeve. "If you say it slowly in wing dings I'll get it, it's so annoying how you keep stopping and starting."
Another flush of red on his cheeks; Wing Dings scratched his eye to cover it. "i couldn't sleep. i saw something outside the window, from in the living room."
"What was it?"
"I don't know." He stepped back from Sans, rubbing his arms. "It couldn't speak. But it told me to join it." With a crooked, beckoning hand. In fact, that was all that he could see of it. "I just wanted to find it."
Much to Wing Dings' displeasure, Sans wouldn't let go of his sleeve as he whipped back and forth, looking. "That's it? Are you stupid? What if it was a monster trying to kidnap you?"
"it wasn't."
"How do you know?"
Technically speaking, he didn't. But even so, he hadn't even considered that possibility. Somehow it didn't feel possible. "Kidnappers don't just know when to pop over."
"They do if they stalk you."
"You're the only one who was stalking me," Wing Dings spat, and Sans growled at that. The former proceeded to pull his hood over his face, muttering, "It just wasn't. It feels like I should look for it. Like it's important."
That seemed to do the trick, but Wing Dings didn't like that look he was getting from his cousin; it was the same kind of look that he'd gotten when they first met and Sans had seen everything wrong with him. "Well, do you even know where it went?"
He'd been trying to get to that when Sans jumped out and scared the crap out of him. Wing Dings pressed his hand to his chin, trying to recollect his thought processes from then. East was out of the question already, south was back towards Grandpa Semi's house. Continuing from that... going north felt right.
"That way," he said finally, pointing.
Sans followed his gaze and stuck a little bit closer, eyes narrowing at the shadows with suspicion. But when Wing Dings began walking in that direction, the littler skeleton followed. Although he wasn't following quietly. "So just so I know... What are you hoping we'll get when we find your kidnapper monster?"
"Aside from kidnapped?" Wing Dings offered, peering into a darkened window. Sans didn't laugh at that, though, so he wrung his hands and moved on. "I want to know what it is and why it was there. Why it... called to me."
"You said it couldn't talk."
"Not like that! ...i don't know." How likely was it that the strange beckoning monster had taken refuge in a Waterfall Fishin Bait Shop? Wing Dings wasn't sure, but as long as he was already out here, breaking the rules, and as long as he was already in front of this shop window, he sort of wanted to break in anyway. Get some bait.
Sans was picking up bits of rubble on the sidewalk from where someone had been smashed into the building, and and for a second he wondered if they'd had the same idea. But Sans just tossed it from hand to hand. "Well this is all better than being in school I guess. Although... kinda creepy to see the streets so deserted."
They were both so used to seeing the plentiful, if rude, monster foot traffic during the day; it was even enough that whenever one of them spoke, it was in a more hushed voice than usual. Right now the city was so still. Still as a grave, Wing Dings thought.
Not that he knew what a grave was. He'd seen the phrase in a human story once.
From the looks of things they were well into a shopping area, one he'd seen before with all the display windows. Past the bait shop were clothing stores (a lot of the same, monsters rarely wore anything other than the kingdom colors of red, gold, and black) as well as a dry food joint, a Haberdashery, and multiple little instrument shops. Some, like an inn the two passed, seemed to even have people still manning the inside, and Wing Dings and Sans crawled under the window to avoid being seen.
Sans couldn't stop giggling each time they did. Wing Dings shushed him in both wing dings and aster.
There was no sign of the creature with hands that Wing Dings saw. But, for example, a junk shop filled with human trash sure looked interesting to him.
Another one to catch his eye was a pharmacy. With an inside unusually colorful in gold and blueberry, the display boasted of healing pills and drinks to resist the hots and colds of the Underground's most intense environments. There were even "dry drinks" for denizens of Waterfall. Wing Dings stared at that one for a while, fascinated by the contradiction.
New Home might have even been peaceful were he alone, but he wasn't. Sans played with his rubble, staring sullenly at dusty streetlamps as he followed, and Wing Dings was sure he was staring at him too. Every so often he would tense up and stop moving. Wing Dings finally had enough while contemplating finding a way into the Convincing Store, seeing his cousin's anxious reflection in the window. "What, what is it?"
"Footsteps," Sans said. "I think your kidnapper monster is following us."
Wing Dings' soul quickened. He held a hand behind his back, a bone unfolding between his fingers.
And yet he'd heard no other footsteps besides their own. The cracked sidewalk which they'd already traversed was empty too, despite his brief hopes. Well, it was fun to keep windowshopping. Although he felt bad for getting sidetracked, the intention to get a souvenir just wouldn't leave his mind. He-
"Oh, you can do an attack after all." Sans had peered behind him and taken the bone bullet away. "Cool. Me an' Papyrus made a bet you couldn't."
"a-a bet?" Wing Dings tried to take it back, but just ended up causing Sans damage and the bullet poofed in his cousin's little claws.
- 1 HP
He cringed, and Sans gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, a bet." He brushed himself off, as if the pain didn't bother him. "Since it didn't seem like you could. You act like you can't do anything except write."
"...i can do other things."
"Well yeah you can make one-" Sans wiggled his fingers. "Ooonnnne bone attack." His smile turned into a smirk, as he added, "But I mean even I can do that."
Wing Dings would frown if he were able. "Can you?"
"Sure I can, I learned how. "
Wing Dings folded his arms. "Show me."
"Show me the other stuff you can do."
"THERE YOU ARE I FOUND YOU!"
That loud, yet little, voice came clanging across the street and Wing Dings' bones grew cold. It was Papyrus, scuttling over the pavement to them in his PJs and shining his light at them like he was an aggressive guardsman. On his face was the biggest scowl, but Papyrus already seemed to have a scowl as his default expression.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sans said as the tiny skeleton caught up to them.
Papyrus planted his hands on his hips, like a mother that was shorter than both of her children. "I was looking for YOU two! You weren't in the house! You're gonna get in trouble! Plus! I wanted to come, too!"
"Yeah well that's Wingnut's fault, not mine," Sans muttered. "He was the one who came out here in the middle of the night."
Better than coming out in the middle of the day.
Wing Dings started to say as much, but Papyrus was only half listening; he grabbed both of them by the arms and was trying to drag them back with him, his little feet going nowhere fast on the pavement. "Well we gotta go back! Now! We're not supposed to be here!"
He continued like this for a few moments, tugging and tugging with all his strength, but Papyrus couldn't budge either of them an inch. When he finally stopped to frown at them, Sans only mused, "Y'know, for how Grandpa goes on about that, nothing much has happened so far."
"I know how long night lasts. If I can't find the monster in time we'll head back before Grandpa Semi wakes up." Wing Dings added, tapping his fingers. Papyrus gave him a scowl, one of limited understanding; before Wing Dings could even start to repeat himself in aster, Sans murmured the comic sans version into his brother's not-ear.
Even then, Papyrus didn't look convinced. "It's supposed to be dangerous out here."
"During the day, but I don't see anyone out at night. They're all in their homes," Sans said, surprisingly converted to his cousin's incautious attitude.
"Maybe that's because-"
"WHAT?"
"He said maybe that's because-"
"It's because," said a fourth voice, and the boys all froze. "Most monsters know that anyone sticking around at night is itchin fer a fight."
Wing Dings turned slowly, Sans and Papyrus following suit. Three monsters strolled into view under the dim night lighting; two Loox Aways and one lizardlike Hardark, a lamp full of coals swinging held in their teeth. They were each smiling unpleasantly at the two boys, and Wing Dings tensed from the sudden dustiness of some of these buildings.
Sans' permanent smile was contorted in a grimacing way and he spoke first as the monsters continued to approach. "We're not itchin' for nothin'." He tried to make his voice deeper than it was.
The Loox Aways and Hardark stopped. Loox Away shook his head? body? and replied, "That's good. That'd make it easier for us to mulch ya."
"They're just a couple of babybones, though," Hardark uttered through their clenched teeth. "Maybe we...?"
"Don't matter," said Loox Away. "C'mon, you need the EXP."
Papyrus was shifting to Wing Dings' side. Ooh, Wing Dings would have liked to do something like that too, as he checked over each of these monsters.
Loox Away - ATK 32, DEF 26
- I'll pick on you
Hardark - ATK 12, DEF 12
- There's nothing but inconvenience here
Having looked them over for a moment, Wing Dings edged Sans and Papyrus behind him and stretched his smile wide. His voice, which he'd meant to sound strong, was a croak as he translated himself. "Go away."
The Looxs Away laughed, and after a second Hardark did too. "Don't you know how to start a fight? We come over, we don't go away."
"No fighting," Wing Dings croaked.
But as he did, Hardark and the two Loox Aways approached, swarming at them like rivals. The rest of the city seemed to fade, their focus melting into the battle, as the three monsters sized them up. It was a panicked feeling; Wing Dings had never been in a fight before, not a real one. Sure, he and his father had practiced this kind of scenario before (there were few monsters his age who hadn't) but he wasn't at home and he didn't have anything to eat.
"We're not scared of you," Sans said.
Wing Dings sent a small wave of bones ahead as Papyrus screeched and jumped back. Bullets were flying, coal lumps and particles and trailing bubbles.
The bubbles slid past him, but a coal piece struck him in the side. -4 HP
None of his bone bullets hit.
"Leave us alone!"
Instead of wasting time talking, Sans should be jumping in to help, if he really could make bullets. But Wing Dings wasn't going to waste his own time saying anything to him about it. He wouldn't even focus on dodging now, like Papyrus was choosing to do. He had to concentrate on hitting.
He swarmed more bullets in a sparse wall around himself, and sent them outwards. Kill them, you have to kill them, kill them.
Where was his wicked itch now?
Too busy being scared-
-10 HP
The bubbles that popped in his face nearly knocked him over. He almost missed how one of his bone bullets hit Loox Away, as the monsters circled around them.
-2 HP
Oh.
Maybe if it were a larger attack... maybe if it were something cooler, something different than this. What else could he do?
Do something different. Do something better. Wing Dings' soul pounded. What had Uncle Aster been coaching him on lately?
Well, mainly how to speak in-
"Ow!"
It really did knock Sans over; a coal, not a bubble. While the Loox Aways made circles around them, Hardark had zeroed in on his smaller, less dodgy cousin. Scraps of coal flew as their lantern swung wildly.
"Stop it!"
You stupid.
More coal flew at Sans, but the next time Wing Dings was ready. They shattered against a wall of bone, bone which also unfortunately shattered on impact. Wing Dings had thrown himself up beside Sans; one of the flecks of coal hit the side of his head, but it merely stung.
His eyelights met with Sans' for a second.
Papyrus was hollering somewhere behind them. As Wing Dings confronted the hissing Hardark, the Loox Aways were both zeroing on him.
For the first time Sans didn't talk. He scrambled to his feet, scrambled towards his brother. He threw something white and crooked at Loox Away. When it hit...
-2 HP
And Wing Dings, he got hit by more splinters of hard coal bullets as he contemplated. -4 HP Something better, something better. This wasn't the gold star material. He was back in the practice fight, failing again. Kill them, kill them, kill them.
But he didn't want to kill them. He barely knew them.
He wanted them to go away.
...That's right.
Loox bubbles popped in Sans' and Papyrus' faces, dealing damage and a loss of balance each. Sans' bullets went wild, and Papyrus didn't have any.
Wing Dings' eyelights flashed and a weary wave passed through his bones; he sent another attack. It rebounded through the streets like a frisbee, striking first one, then the other, and then the last so fast it was out of turn.
Mid-throw, Hardark's white soul changed color. So did Loox Away's, and Loox Away's.
There was a beat while Sans and Papyrus were picking themselves off the ground, and Wing Dings was frozen behind them. He was holding his own arms so hard that a creature with blood might have bruised.
After that, one by one, the monsters shrieked and raced forwards. Wing Dings and the brothers shrieked too as they each dived out of the way.
At first he assumed that the attack hadn't worked, but instead of rounding on them with another set of bullets, the monsters continued running. Scattering in three directions they raced way past the children, up until the point where they smacked straight into walls.
With load groans, the three turned around and rejoined the same direction, only to end up smacking into a new wall. Hissing, particularly Hardark, they whirled right around and raced out of sight around a corner.
"Uh." Wing Dings loosened his tight grip on himself, tension giving way to shock as Sans laughed next to him.
"Holy! Shit! Did you see what you just did? You turned 'em orange!"
"I! WANNA TURN THEM ORANGE-"
"I've never tried that in an actual fight." His shuddering, relieved breaths turned to small, slight wing dings laughs, and he dropped his arms back down to his sides.
Perhaps too soon.
Because the orange-soul monsters were rounding the corner again, barreling at the same speed as they were before.
"Ahhh, they're coming back-," Wing Dings grabbed Papyrus and Sans both by their shoulders and spun them as he, too, turned. With a hard shove he sent them running, his own feet clacking against the ground at a rapid pace.
He was certain that this would be how he died. He could hear them monsters yelling with rage behind him, while Papyrus and Sans scattered. Their orange glowing souls shined in the back of his vision like a highlighter. If only he'd had the will to do something a little more than just making them run.
Wing Dings was out of breath, and he'd lost sense of which direction was which, by the time he realized that he didn't hear anyone chasing him anymore.
He scooted to a stop; far off behind him, Sans and Papyrus slowed down on the street too. Sans was wheezing like he was going to pass out, but Papyrus just shivered and looked around hard as if ready to take off again at a moment's notice.
Wing Dings wondered if the scrapes and signs of damage on them were also how he looked at that moment. He was still tired; a growling came from where he would have had a stomach. More to the point, he was pretty off-course from where he'd intended to search now. Not that it really mattered when he'd never quite figured out what direction the strange monster had actually gone in.
Wing Dings brushed on his cloak sleeve. This part of the city seemed bare-bones, especially when they had just been through a shopping district. Apartment housing? There were no decorations or signs of people living here, just dreariness.
Sans slunk up next to him, not saying anything as his breathing slowly returned to normal. Papyrus followed at his heels. The littler one spoke in a whisper, but somehow it didn't sound very soft, "Did... did we lose them?"
"I think so," Wing Dings whispered back, and Sans repeated it so Papyrus could understand. Looking around one corner, it seemed that those monsters had either overshot and missed them, gone in a new direction, or maybe the orange wore off by now and they were trying to catch their breath somewhere. Any of those options brought some warmth to his soul.
It started to fade as his focus shifted, and he became aware of clanging, thumping, hammering, and hissing from somewhere nearby. The noises seemed to just spook Sans and Papyrus, who crept a little bit closer to the only one of them that could do more than make puny bullets. But Wing Dings had a worse thought in his head, and he slowly peered around the opposite corner.
Construction work.
Uncle Aster in the middle of it.
Maybe this was how he died. Hoping that it was just a nightmare vision, Wing Dings rubbed his eyesockets and then looked again, pleading to not see his father standing there when he did. But... he did. There he was, building up brick and stonework with his magic.
Had he misjudged the directions after all? Misremembered something? There were the telltale scaffolds and workers of a city still being constructed. And where they were, he knew that his father would be too. How could he have miscalculated?
The reaching hands reappeared in his mind's eye. How could he have been so misled?
Wing Dings gripped the edge of the building he was peering around, feeling sick. Uncle Aster wasn't in his immediate vision, but that just meant there was a chance that he'd spot Wing Dings before Wing Dings could spot him. He retreated, hand covering his broad permanent smile as he tried to think.
He didn't have a lot of time before, to his horror, Papyrus screamed, "UNCLE ASTER UNCLE ASTER!"
Sans had clapped his hands over his tiny bother's mouth, but by then Wing Dings' father had turned his head in their direction, a bone he'd been using to lever a beam up dissipating.
It fell to the ground with a loud bang, and Wing Dings' soul practically fell down into his feet with it.
Buildings close to the construction work, whether or not they'd been occupied before it started, were usually cleared out until the work was complete. One such building that used to be a bar sat there abandoned for that reason, the only thing to hint at it's purpose being that empty bar with stools attached.
It wasn't quite abandoned after Uncle Aster marched the three children into it. Glaring, he pointed at the barstools, and obediently each of them sat down in one. Wing Dings wasn't used to spinny chairs. It might have been nice, perhaps in a different world with different circumstances.
His father didn't say anything for a long second, arms folded. As the children exchanged looks he finally uttered, "Stay right here," in a low tone. "I need to excuse myself to take you home. I'll be back in a minute."
With that he turned on his heel and marched out, Wing Dings checking for any steam that might be coming off of his skull.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Sans and Papyrus turned to bickering among themselves, Sans half-turning his stool to better face his brother. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I WAS TRYING TO GET YOU BACK HOME I THOUGHT UNCLE ASTER COULD HELP!"
"Yeah and what exactly do you think's gonna happen when we get back home, idiot?"
Wing Dings pressed his hands over his face, secluding even his always-open-eye in darkness. Going back to Grandpa Semi's house, facing Grandpa Semi, leaving the house, going back home with father, and...
"WELL! I wasn't the one who went out in the first place!"
"You did though, you literally came out here-"
"You know what I mean!"
The strange thing that spoke with hands was long gone, and it even shriveled up out of his mind's eye too. His hands weren't enough coverage. Wing Dings pulled his hood down, way way down. He suppressed a harsh gasp, a bubble bursting in.
If he'd killed those monsters back in the shopping district it wouldn't have mattered. They wouldn't have gotten caught.
The orange tint he'd bestowed today only twisted his heart; he could see the mark those three had left on his health like an underlined number, the wrong one that the teacher needed to put special effort into pointing out.
"Shut up," he said suddenly, and that brought the arguing to a stop for a second. It looked like Papyrus didn't need Sans to translate. "I can't think like this."
Sans inched off his stool, standing with his hands in his pockets. "Don't tell me to shut up. Maybe this is all your fault."
"MY FAULT?" He could be loud too.
While Wing Dings also scooted off the chair, Sans growled, "Who else's? You're the one who started all this. And you led us right over to Uncle Aster! And! And,"
His good eye half-lidded and bad eye closed, Wing Dings folded his arms. "You didn't have to come with me."
"Papyrus is stupid 'cause he's a little kid but what's your excuse?" Sans sneered, even as Papyrus squeaked in protest.
"What's yours?"
"What's yours?"
Wing Dings glared at things other than his cousins. "I'm not stupid, I was curious."
"Yeah that's the same thing, stupid."
"Stop it."
"Make me, freak face!"
The bone bullet slammed into Sans' stomach, and though sadly it didn't knock him off his feet it still doubled him over.
-4 HP
His eyelights keen and sharp, Wing Dings knelt over Sans, suddenly feeling more of a second wind. He imagined breaking the human flashlight gift in his cousin's pocket, and prepared to send another bone his way. But something clanged into his head and threw him off with another loss of HP.
Sans' bullet.
If it was a fight - still aching, Wing Dings just repeated his attacks, a peppered wall of bones that he flung forward - then it wasn't one to last long. Sans started running his bones along the ground, aiming for shins and ankles.
Wing Dings' next attack missed; his cousin was apparently slipperier now than with Loox Away. But he evaded the next attack from Sans, too.
He hoped that Sans would be the one to throw insults instead of bullets, but he apparently learned his lesson for tonight. It was bones, and just bones. Same for Wing Dings. He'd thought that surely the older of the two of them would still have an advantage.
But like before, this fight a set of rules, ones he couldn't break. No matter how quickly his next turn came, Sans would always have one too. No matter how fast he moved, he could only move one time each instant, because god forbid he move twice at once. God forbid there were ever more than one of him. Forget the practiced patterns in his bullets; he didn't want time or distance, he wanted it all NOW.
And he wanted to be over there instead of over here.
And he wanted for Sans' hits to not hurt his already hurting body.
And he wanted to have already won.
They were both yelling, throwing attacks and blame. But with some turns succeeding in doing damage, and both already so injured, it didn't last for very long. Sans outright lunged and the fight collapsed into the two boys struggling on the ground, Papyrus trying to take part by slamming his tiny fists on both of them.
Neither were really making progress this way, but Wing Dings couldn't stop and evidently Sans couldn't either. Their skulls slammed against the floorboards with muffled thuds and cracks as one or the other got the upper hand, shoving and choking and growling.
They shouldn't have been able to bite but Wing Dings felt snaps and pinpricks of pain, the feeling of Sans' teeth against his arms and throat. He couldn't concentrate on his attacks anymore, so Wing Dings just scratched too.
He didn't know how much it hurt Sans, but he hoped in that moment that it hurt him a lot.
And he'd never known how loud Papyrus was until today. As soon as he got up, he was going to hurt him, too, a lot.
Sans yelled much louder, the next time Wing Dings raked his face with his clawlike fingers.
Then the fight was over.
Sans and Wing Dings were ripped away from each other, both their souls turning dark blue. Papyrus, too, yelped and scrambled some distance away.
"Wing Dings." He'd completely forgotten about his father, but evidently the reverse was not true.
His eyes were more furious than they'd been before, more than he'd ever been at any slip out of aster or schooling mistake. Wing Dings couldn't breathe, and his hands went quickly to his hammering blue chest. Even Sans had gone completely silent, starting to sweat.
Wing Dings started to speak, but his father cut him off with a hiss, which was just as well, because he was probably about to say something in his normal speech. "Be quiet."
On top of all the nicks and bruises Sans just gave him, the fight with the monsters from earlier still hurt. The child had begun to rub the injuries unconsciously as he tensed up, anticipating a new one. It just wasn't fair, Sans started it that time.
But all the pain started to fade with a flash of green - a flash of green that was mirrored in Sans, who's health had also taken a hammering now that Wing Dings looked closely. And what put him at a loss for words was that no new blows accompanied it, even as Uncle Aster was glaring over at the three of them.
Sans and Wing Dings touched roughly back to the ground, feeling heavy but not enough to impede walking. Papyrus' soul turned blue too; he didn't respond, at least finally quiet after all that had happened. Wing Dings' smile screwed up; so it was back to the child leash days? like he was going to just play cat and knock everything over.
"We're going back. I have to miss work," his father said as he broke out into a pace, half-dragging the three of them along with him. "So how about you all go wake up your grandfather, and we'll have him pick what to do with you."
Mercifully, Grandpa Semi was already awake when they got back to the house. Unfortunately, he had woken up to find all three of the boys gone and he naturally assumed the worst. They could have been killed, or kidnapped, or very badly injured, or they could have broken something of someone else's and then there'd be a fine.
That was what he said in his booming voice while he was beating on all three of them, and indeed he'd said it just a moment earlier when he was beating on Uncle Aster.
It was Wing Dings' first time being beaten by that cane. But come to think of it, he'd never seen someone strike his father that way either, so coming back to this house had been a bittersweet event.
His father was still rubbing his shoulder when Grandpa Semi delivered a final smack to the side of each boy's head, and then swung the cane back to the ground to resume its usual function of supporting himself. When Wing Dings half-turned to look over, gingerly holding his skull, his father regarded him with a chilled expression.
"I'm-" No that was wrong, "-sorry," he said. Amazingly, his father didn't seem to notice, or at least care about, the slip this time. He just directed his eyes elsewhere, his son's apology acknowledged.
But Grandpa Semi caught it too. "DAMN RIGHT YOU'RE SORRY," he snapped. "WHY YOU THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE IS COMPLETELY LOST ON ME! YOU BEEN LOSIN BRAIN CELLS? YOU WANTIN TO GO OUT AND GET YERSELF KILLED? HOW BOUT YOU GO AHEAD AND WALK AROUND OUTSIDE TELLIN EVERYBODY YOU'RE FREE EXP AND SEE HOW EMPTY IT LOOKS AFTER YOU MAKE SOME NOISE YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
Wing Dings started to shiver, but then Sans said, "i mean. this wasn't his idea?" Everyone else turned to look his way, even Papyrus who was just bitterly feeling his wounds. Sans paused, but he squared his shoulders and continued, "i went out first. he just followed to try and get me back inside. still stupid, and no one told pap to come along, but still."
"WHAT," said Grandpa Semi, delivering another blow across Sans' shoulders. "THAT'S VERY DIFFERENT. YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING EARLIER!"
"Yeah, well," said Sans, glaring at nothing in particular. Whereas Wing Dings couldn't stop staring at him. There were small shallow gashes where he'd clawed his face. Wing Dings was sure he had marks on him too from where Sans bit him. Not too deep, they'd heal in about a day or so if allowed.
"Wing Dings is old enough to make better decisions," his father murmured, and then added a little louder, "If you wanted to keep Sans out of trouble, you should have told an adult that he left."
For a moment the lie was the truth and Wing Dings experienced a bitter twinge inside himself; which adult was he supposed to tell, exactly? Grandpa Semi? But then his gaze met Sans' and they both stayed quiet. He nodded.
Grandpa Semi's wrath seemed to have abated, and he ended the matter with a loud HMPH. "THAT'S RIGHT. ...WELL. THIS HAS BEEN MORE THAN ENOUGH EXCITEMENT FOR ME FOR ONE NIGHT."
"I think it's time I took Wing Dings home, then," said Uncle Aster, standing and taking him by the shoulder. "This won't happen again."
"But-" Even as he was turned around, Wing Dings watched Sans and Papyrus. Their faces were inscrutable, sulking, as they watched him back, and in only a moment they'd disappeared behind the front door. Sans' words were ringing in his ears so much that he didn't notice if his father said anything, dragging him along down the cramped pathways of New Home.
He might have paid more attention if Uncle Aster did more, if he'd punish him in the same way as Grandpa Semi had, but he didn't.
Because, so it seemed to him, he'd bought Sans' lie.
After all the aches, bite marks, and bruises he sustained earlier that night, Wing Dings got a pat on the head.
And when he did it felt like, just like when he went to so much trouble to find out what the heck that was beckoning to him outside the window and got nothing for it, breaking Grandpa Semi's rules and causing trouble for everyone he was supposed to not cause trouble for, and yet Sans taking the blame in his father's eyes, was just like-
Cheating.
Even with that, though, that was the last time Uncle Aster brought Wing Dings over to Grandpa Semi's house. But it wasn't the last time Wing Dings saw Sans and Papyrus again.
Author's Note: Whoo, done... qwq this turned out long and difficult.
Next Chapter: The Preliminary Test