Over at Hometown's premiere convenience store, " 'Sans ", the owner was having an overall good day as he stood at the cashier's counter and did nothing. Nothing really happened today other than a few regulars stopping by and an early morning ramen deal with Alphys, but you could say that was the charm of this quiet little town. That's what Sans the skeleton thought; if nothing happened, then it was a good day.
"Although, personally, it's kind of hard to say nothing happened with the new kid around." The short skeleton silently remarked.
Right on time, the town's local nerdy bluebird assertively placed a shopping basket on the counter.
"At this point Sans, I'm starting to think you are the person leaving baskets in the corner over there." Berdly accused with a suspicious glare as he pointed at said corner by the freezer section.
It happened again, Berdly was walking around the store and at some point a basket would just appear in the same corner. The student wouldn't put it past his boss to be pulling another prank of his.
"Woah, me? Why would I make myself, or you, do more work? Also, how can you prove I ever moved the baskets? It could've been anyone, besides, you don't exactly have a basketcase of evidence to use against me."
Ba-dum TSH!
Sans winked and his smile grew wide at Berdly's short groan of frustration which he tried to cover up with a derisive scoff.
The trickster got him good.
"Har… har…. har." Berdly mimicked his deer friend's sarcastic laugh and walked away to put the basket back where it belongs.
The newest and only employee under Sans's watchful eye sockets was quite the spectacle to have around. It was rare to have a day without Berdly showing off or making a show of something whether it be ranting about video games, having a serious conversation with Sans about what was the most efficient box-packing technique(of course, Sans won that argument, he practically invented efficiently stored boxes!), or going on a micro-organizing spree on a random section of a shelf. Berdly would completely ignore his surroundings when he did the third option, and the skeleton would watch him with a proverbial(one time literal) bag of popcorn in his hands. Today was the end of the teen's first week working at the store and yet the bluebird has already left a mark on the place.
Case in point, Sans watched Berdly easily put the lone basket on top of the basket stack. The monster didn't even have to tippy-toe to reach the top. The once huge stack of baskets(aka the Throne of Evil's) he had set up was now split into two, sadly more accessible stacks. It was tragic really, the comedic value of his store decreased by 35% with that change alone. Alas, Sans knew it had to happen eventually as it was obviously impractical, and thus let the blue avian menace chop it in half.
It still hurt to let it go. He had to resist the urge to keel over and moan in pain as the bird did the dirty deed.
In a nutshell, Berdly often made nothing days into something days, as Sans would put it.
The kid really did remind Sans of his brother the more he thought about it. Both of them really spice up his day with their own special flavors of goofiness.
The skeleton monster broke out of his inner thoughts and switched his attention to other, more mundane matters to attend to. He mused to himself that the workday would end soon as he looked out the windows and saw the outside world was basking in the golden hues of the setting sun. He usually closed the store around this time, or a little bit after it got dark. The store didn't really have official hours of business, but once it got dark business froze to near zero. The laid back residents of Hometown didn't like going out after dark, and it was perfect for Sans's slack-off nature to close up shop and go to dreamland as fast as possible. For now though, doing nothing was still on the schedule.
"Hey Sans, seriously, are you the perpetrator behind the reappearing basket?" Berdly asked.
"… nah. Swear on my bones, it's not me."
"Then, do you know who's the real culprit?"
The skeleton's eyes twinkled and Berdly instantly knew that he knew.
"All I'll say is pay attention to the deer girl the next time she stops by. She likes it cold."
"Noelle!? No."
Berdly almost didn't believe it, but she did come by today. He even had a conversation with her about how he was working at the store now.
"Okay, fine, I'll see for myself if you're telling the truth. Anyhow, is there anything else you need done before closing time, boss?"
"Nope, I'm peachy over here." He said with a wink.
The bluebird nodded and trotted out of sight to go make himself busy.
Sans expected that conversation to be the last exchange for the day, but some time later the door opened and clicked shut. Someone entered the store.
"One last customer to end the day off." Sans commented to himself, as he went to greet the customer.
"Howdy there." That wasn't the usual greeting, Asgore must be rubbing off on him.
Strangely, the person that came in was a new face that Sans had never seen before. He was kind of surprised, he thought he had met everyone in town already.
"Hello." The new person casually waved and greeted him back, his voice low.
That was all the store owner got before the monster hesitantly grabbed a basket and headed in Berdly's direction and disappeared into one of the store's two aisles in search of groceries.
The new monster looked a lot like that purple horse/dinosaur girl, Susie, Sans remembered. Except the monster was a male, and was taller, and was significantly older.
Sans's first impression was that this was either Susie's dad or uncle. Definitely family of some sort, they both walked the same. Eerily similar clothing style too. His jeans were ripped in a few places below the knees, similar to Susie's. The monster was wearing a worn out button-up shirt with a black undershirt that was only visible because it poked out at the ends of his shirt that weren't covered by his untucked shirt tails. Strangely, Sans didn't catch the actual color of the button-up shirt, he was distracted by the loose purple mask hanging around the monster's neck. Sans knew there was a better word for the mask, but he was drawing a blank.
"… neck warmer? Oh, right, neck gaiter. That's the one." The skeleton mused to himself.
If that purple article of clothing wasn't a clear connection to Susie and that monster, Sans didn't know what was.
A little bit later the new face walked up to the counter and dumped the contents of his basket onto the cashier's counter. Then he returned the basket to the pile and came back like it was normal.
Sans found it humorous.
"Usually people wait until after they buy their stuff to return the baskets."
"Forgive me for not knowing." The man replied dryly, enough to be a bit brusque as a result of Sans's jab.
The skeleton nodded his head, eyes moving to the side in exaggerated contemplation.
"Eh, you're forgiven. It's not a big deal anyway."
After Sans 'forgave' the customer, he went to do his job and check out the items. The customer huffed at the cashier's response, amused.
"Okay… My first time… uh… shopping here." The monster added as the cashier's station clacked as Sans typed on its keyboard.
His steady voice lost some of its volume. Looked like he was psyching himself up to ask the obvious question. He looked even more uncomfortable when he put his head down.
"You're new here… right?" It was so breathy it was like a whisper. It might have sounded awkward if it weren't for the fact the monster's voice unintentionally made it sound like an attempt at intimidation instead.
It didn't faze Sans though, he could tell the guy wasn't used to speaking more than your average Maine resident. In other words, Sans knew the 'intimidating' vibe was most likely not intentional.
"Yep, still a bit green around the gills, but I'm settling in nicely. I thought I would've met everyone by now, but I guess I was wrong, heh. The name's Sans by the way, Sans the skeleton."
"Hm, guess the sign out front wasn't lying then."
The man's voice regained its volume now that the obvious subject was breached.
Sans's smile sharpened.
"Yeah well, sans myself, the name of this store wouldn't be done any justice, would it?" Sans tallied up all the groceries with a final press of a key. "Cash or card?"
The corners of the monster's mouth lifted for a split second, and then an amused snort escaped his snout.
"You really used the word 'sans' in a sentence. Cash."
Sans finished bagging up the groceries.
"Alright, that'll be 24 dollars."
The older version of Susie nodded.
One 20 dollar bill was placed on the counter, and then three 1's.
The customer nervously glanced from his wallet to Sans, who smiled like always, and then he poured out coins onto his hand and almost slapped them on the counter. Both monsters counted up the change.
Sans went left to right: A quarter, a nickel, two quarters and a dime.
Susie's maybe relative was off by 10 cents.
"… Hey, it's only 10 cents. You can give me a break and let it slide." It sounded more like a demand than a plea.
Sans counted the coins again, and then locked eyes with the purple monster.
…
Sans still wasn't fazed, which in turn fazed the monster as he fell under the skeleton's unbreakable poker face. The customer's nerves cracked a bit as he awkwardly glanced at the money and then back to the shopkeeper.
"Please."
…
Suddenly, the skeleton started looking down at the floor nonchalantly, seemingly searching for something.
"Huh, I swear I left some change on the floor somewhere around here. It would solve the problem for us." Sans stated.
The man began to look around the store's floor too. Susie's probable relative turned back toward the aisles and exclaimed,
"There!"
He walked back and picked up a dime that was lying next to the shelf. He brought it to the counter and proudfully showed it to the shopkeeper.
"Found it." He said, smiling sharply.
"Well would you look at that. Problem solved."
Sans took the coin and the rest of the money and put it in the cash register. He handed over the customer's bag of groceries.
"Here you go. Have a good one."
"Yeah, thanks."
The purple dino/horse man grabbed the bag and walked away, but before he reached the door he stopped by the two basket piles and placed his bag on the floor. He then took out two things: a chocolate bar of the crunchy variety and a small bottle of whole milk. Those two were actually the more out-of-place items compared to the rest which were more nonperishable.
The monster unwrapped the entire chocolate bar, threw the wrapper in the trash bin, and proceeded to scarf it down. When that was done, he moved on to drinking his white milk. Unlike the chocolate which he consumed with a vicious fervor, he calmly drank the milk, savoring the taste, taking time to stop and swallow it. When the container was empty, he tossed it in the trash as well. Then, the Susie lookalike picked up his bag. As he did, he made eye contact with Sans who had an intrigued look on his face.
"What are you looking at, skelly. Mind your own business." The man grunted, evidently not liking the look Sans was giving him.
Right after, he walked out the door with not a care in the world.
Now that the customer was gone, Berdly(who had reappeared and took a spot leaning on the aisle shelf while the monster ate his snack) breathed out a sigh of relief and walked up to the counter.
The student leaned on the counter, resting on his crossed arms.
"That was tense, Sans. What were you going to do about those ten cents… originally I mean? If the dime wasn't there." Berdly asked hypothetically.
"To be honest, I was gonna let it slide. Ten cents isn't anything to make a fuss about, and truth be told, I wouldn't have expected you to pull off something like that." Sans then chuckled light-heartedly.
Oh, that's right! The dime wasn't just conveniently waiting on that random spot on the floor. Sans almost missed it but when he was thinking about what to do about the customer's little problem Berdly had appeared from the aisle he was hanging out at with a worried expression and placed the dime before ducking back out of sight. Thanks to that, Sans all of a sudden had a way to bypass the issue entirely.
"Oh please, it was nothing. I just happened to be prepared for that specific situation, that's all." Berdly reacted shyly(for Berdly standards) which was strangely uncharacteristic of him.
"Heh, does that mean that was your dime?"
Berdly froze for a second and then rubbed the back of his head while he looked to the side.
"Y-y-yes, it was mine. I was messing with it, and then I overheard and I fumbled to put it on the floor as quietly as possible, huhuhuhuh!" The bluebird rushed out the words, ending with a stammering, awkward laugh.
Frankly, Berdly couldn't believe that what happened actually happened to the point it was embarrassing for him. That was saying something since he was the type of person to boast about any of his 'wondrous' feats, big or small. To summarize in Berdly's own words, "Everything lined up so conveniently that it was shameful."
Sans looked at Berdly quizzically, he didn't really understand why the kid was embarrassed, but to each their own.
"Well kid, it was a good thing you did, and from what I hear you were eavesdropping the whole time, huh?"
"Uh y-yeah, he passed by me when he was shopping and I decided I should keep an eye on you to prevent any unnecessary conflict." The bluebird answered semi-confidently.
In reality though…
"So you were worried I'd… get myself in trouble?"
The skeleton then did the thing where he raises a brow even though he doesn't have eyebrows.
"Okay, mother duck."
Berdly sighs in annoyance. "Grrr… yes! I was worried you would… get on his nerves or something. That guy just… I think he's scary, ok! There I said it! I know you were waiting for me to admit it!"
"… I don't know what you mean." The poorly veiled lie plus the sudden smugness in Sans's grin was enough for his employee to roll his eyes.
"Ughhhhh."
Berdly was officially annoyed as heck.
"Alright, alright, you got me. I was waiting for you to say that. You're right though, that monster has quite the intimidating figure."
His employee took a deep breath to compose himself.
"Yes, Sans, he does. Anyway," the bluebird cawed, "since this is the first time you've met him. What did you think of him?"
"eh, he seems okay to me. He wasn't too unnecessarily rude like another purple girl I know. Speaking of which, is he related to her?"
"Yeah, he's Susie's dad."
"Wow, that's what I was thinking. … now that I think of it, he didn't tell me his name. Oh well, guess I'll ask him next time."
Sans off-hand comment got the nerdy bird thinking.
Now that he thought of it, he doesn't really know his name either. Berdly was always too scared to ask, but he has heard what some of the grown-ups call him.
"Hmm, interestingly… I've only ever known him as Susie's dad, but I think the teachers at school just call him Sam."
"Sam…" the skeleton's eyes looked to the side cheerfully. "Like Sammy and Susie?"
The teenager shrugged. "I don't know, maybe?"
Aha, a mystery then. The shop owner looked outside, the previously golden sky was now a telltale red.
"Probably, probably not. No use speculating about it. I think it's time to close up shop." Sans said. He wanted to go home and be lazy.
Berdly perked up at the news. Looked like he was ready to go home too.
Sans and Berdly closed up the store, and then they walked out the front door to lock up the building.
"It's weird. Susie's dad hasn't been in town for a while." Berdly idly remarked while the skeleton next to him turned the key which made the door lock click into place.
"What do you mean?"
The bird turned to face Sans, somewhat surprised. Admittedly, Berdly was talking to himself, but he decided he might as well vocalize his thoughts.
"Well, normally Susie's dad comes and goes, you know, sometimes he's in town and sometimes he's not. But recently I noticed he's been gone longer than usual. I suppose I'm simply wondering about the 'why' of his inevitable reappearance."
"Well, it's not our place to question his personal life." Sans interjected, switching out the store key on his keyring for his house key.
"Yeah, I know that. It's just… fun to wonder what he's up to. For me at least, I don't know why him specifically, hmm, maybe because he scares me. What am I saying? I sound like Noelle when she talks about ghosts."
When Berdly finished talking he yawned. He yawned long enough that he felt the need to lift a feathered hand to cover his mouth so Sans didn't have to look at his open maw.
Sans chuckled at that. "Heh, looks like you need a nap. Take care, Berdly. See you around."
"You too Sans. Goodnight!" Berdly exclaimed before he started going back home.
"Goodnight." Sans hollered back.
The bone man walked the very short trek from the store to his house. With a jiggle from his keyring, he opened the door and went inside. After locking the entrance back up, he put his keys down on the nearby table next to his pet boulder(it was actually a considerably large pebble, the rock's smaller cousin, but Sans would swear up and down that it's a boulder). He then sidled on over to the living room couch and sat on its right side. After a moment of sinking into the soft couch cushion, Sans looked up the stairs toward his brother's room.
"Hey Papyrus, I'm home! Have you eaten dinner yet?" He called.
There wasn't a response except for the sound of something falling, and then something tousled… no, something trousled.
"... everything okay up there?" Sans was a bit puzzled.
In answer, the door upstairs opened and a ball of paper flew out and landed on the couch. Papyrus's door closed itself right after.
"Nice throw." The lazy skeleton commented as he unfurled the paper.
It read: I am reorganizing my room! I will be busy! Yes, I had spaghetti for dinner!
Sans nodded his head. "Alright, good to know."
It appears the lazy shopkeeper has the rest of the house to himself, again. His brother has been doing this frequently since they moved in, hiding up in his room doing… whatever it was he did up there. Sans hoped Papyrus would get out of his room for a day and actually visit the town. He should really get Kris to come over sometime, the kid seemed really eager to meet his brother. Maybe that'll do the trick.
Food for thought, is what Sans thought, but a plan for another time for a more well-rested Sans.
Sitting the paper down on the opposite cushion to be his couch buddy, Sans grabbed the remote on the armchair and turned the TV on. His plan was to put on something to take a nap to, then he would eat dinner, and then it would be time to go to bed.
"Maybe there's a cheesy, poorly dubbed anime I can enjoy."
The late night anime hours were goldmines for this. Sans checked the channel list, and then he found a good candidate. He put it on, and rested his eye sockets as the corny dialogue of the anime characters filled the room.
Before he fully drifted off, he thought about his day.
"You know, today was a nice day."
And that was all he wrote! After that he shut off his brain.
A few seconds later, one could almost see Zs escaping the skeleton's nose as he lightly napped in search of dreamland.
END
Author's nonsense: You may have noticed that I never specified what button-up shirt Susie's dad, Sam, was wearing. The reason is that I literally can't decide, one second it's this type of shirt the next it's this shirt. The only thing that's constant is that it is a button-up shirt, and since everything else was already in my head that's all I needed to have him go on a grocery run at " 'Sans ". I left it up for interpretation. You can choose whatever you want that you think fits him.
Man I feel weird writing that heh heh. What a detail to be so unsure about.
Anyway, take care out there! Goodnight!
