:):
You're right, undershield, Sans is going to be slowly introduced to the wonderful world of parenthood and all of the headaches that come along with it.
hehehe
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Only Weaklings Cry
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Cracking open a bleary eye to total darkness, Fearia struggled to pull herself from her fever induced dreams. They had been plagued with disorienting flashbacks of things that may or may not have happened; mostly revolving around her sister. Some of them however, the more unpleasant ones, had involved her father.
With energy levels already in the red, the little girl forced herself into a sitting position, the soft blankets falling to her lap. Where was she? Where had she been before? Completely confused, she tried to clear her throat. For some reason it was sore and scratchy and her mouth felt dry and tasted gross. She really needed something to drink. If only she knew where she was. Why was it so dark?
Fumbling around her immediate surroundings, Fearia found the edge of the bed she had been sleeping in. For some reason, it felt like a crib with raised sidings, though the actual size of the bed was rather large. Blindly, she clambered over the edge and tumbled lightly to the floor. From there, she could easily see light coming from the crack underneath a closed door.
Reaching up, she stretched as far as she could and only just barely grazed the doorknob with her fingertips. Why was it so high? Frowning, she would not be deterred by something so trivial. With a decisive jump, the little girl easily grabbed hold of the doorknob and turned it in a single motion.
A blinding light flooded into the room, causing the small child to wince and cover her face with her hands. The dull throb of a headache that she had awoken with now raged behind her eyes. A moment of hard squinting, and her vision finally adjusted to her new surroundings. She was in a house, she could be sure of that, but it wasn't the kind goat lady's house since she was obviously on the second floor. The house in the Ruins was only one story with a basement. That again pointed out the fact that she really didn't have a clue of where she was.
Peeking through the wooden beams making up the balcony railing, Fearia was able to overlook the living room below. Nobody was there. Squinting yet again, she tilted her head to look at the strange orb burning with dimly lit fire. Was that safe? The house wasn't on fire yet so it probably was.
Creeping her way downstairs, the little girl watched, amazed, as tiny flickering sparks floated harmlessly throughout the room. It was almost surreal how enchanting the scene was. If she wasn't so thirsty right now, she might have even considered parking herself on the couch to watched them for awhile. ...Maybe later.
Locating the kitchen hadn't been very hard. It was connected directly with the living room. From what she could see, it had everything that the goat lady's kitchen had except for one thing... Coincidentally, it was the one and only thing she had come in here for. Where the heck was the sink?
Swallowing dryly, Fearia tried to clear her throat a few times as she scanned and re-scanned the kitchen. Finally, she quite literally raised her expectations and spotted what could only be the sink at the top of a tall cabinet next to the counter. Who in their right minds would put a sink up there and why? No matter... not even this would stop her.
...
Sleeping on his little brother's super cool looking carpet was nowhere near as comfortable as it had been touted; no matter how many pillows and blankets they had spread out. Every half hour or so, Sans would wake up in order to find a better position, while Papyrus on the other hand was out like a light, quietly grinding his teeth in his sleep.
Waking up for the umpteenth time that night, Sans threw his bony hand over his skull as light streamed over him. Was it morning already? Releasing a low groan, he clenched his eye sockets closed grumpily. He was so freakin' tired... Feeling his consciousness drift away once more, the skeleton's futile attempt at more sleep was short lived.
The sudden loud clatter of pots and pans startled the sleepy skeleton awake and he sat bolt upright, his attention turned towards the open door. What was that? Peering over to his brother's car bed, he vaguely took note of the absence. "where's the-"
Both his sentence and his train of thought derailed instantly at the sound of pained sobbing coming from downstairs. "oh crap..!" Scrambling to his feet, momentarily getting tangled up in the blankets, the skeleton rushed out of the room. "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap..!" He chanted under his nonexistent breath as he quickly teleported to the living room directly below instead of using the stairs.
Arriving at the scene of the accident, in a timely manner unheard of for the shorter skeleton, Sans quickly scanned the disaster area. Pots and pans and just about everything else that had been on the counter top were now scattered across the kitchen floor. And in the center of the mess he spotted a small quivering form curled up in a tight ball.
Carefully stepping through the clutter, the skeleton made his way over and knelt beside the crying child. He hesitated before carefully placing a bony hand to her shoulder. Feeling the girl flinch at the contact, he sighed and lifted it again. "where ya hurt, kid?"
Instantly recognizing the lackluster voice of the friendly but lazy skeleton, Fearia uncurled from around her injured knee and looked up at him. Choking off her sobs and reducing them to hiccups as best she could, the little girl used her remaining sleeve and hastily scrubbed the tears from her eyes. "Nowhere..." She blatantly lied. "I'm fine..."
"ok..." Sans started slowly as his eye lights caught sight of her bloody sleeve. "let's try this again." Taking hold of her arm as gently as he could, he raised it back up causing a slight wince. "where else are you hurt?" The little girl looked away from him stubbornly as unshed tears threatened to fall. Despite her uncooperative attitude, she unconsciously covered her right knee, quite clearly giving herself away.
"alright, kiddo, up ya go." Sans sighed again as he placed both hands underneath her arms and effortlessly lifted the small child from the floor. "let's get ya cleaned up."
Fearia made a quiet sound of protest and tensed up for a moment before going slack in tired compliance. She just didn't have the energy right now. Meddlesome skeleton... She said she was fine. That was his cue to go away and leave her alone. She didn't need anyone's help because she wasn't weak! She wasn't...
"do me a big favor and just don't move from here." Sans requested as he lightly plopped the kid down on the kitchen table. The little girl just glowered at him as she watched the skeleton walk over to the tall cabinet with the impractically high sink. Opening the cabinet door, he revealed... yet another sink! Why in the... What? The small child silently balled up her fists in confused anger. This house made no sense!
The one and only med kit that the two skeletons owned was barely used and most likely out of date, but at least they had one. Setting the tin box onto the table next to the human, Sans got to work. The kid's knee was busted up pretty bad, though it was hard to tell the extent of the damage from what little he could see through the hole torn in the knee of her pants. The whole area was a sticky mess, but he couldn't do anything while her pants were still on. That was a problem... How do you get a human to take their clothes off? It was just another thing added to a list of things he'd never thought he'd have to deal with.
Fearia felt absolutely awful right now. If she had anything in her stomach, she probably would have already thrown it up. Her head felt like it was spinning and her body felt both hot and freezing at the same time. All she had wanted was a drink of water! And now she'd gone and hurt herself all because she was still too small and weak to do anything on her own! It was so frustrating...
The strangled sound of a sob trying to force its way out drew the skeleton's attention. Looking up, Sans froze for a moment, caught up in a mental conflict. On one hand he knew the child was hurting and trying to be brave about it, but on the other, he just wanted to laugh so bad right now.
Resisting the urge to laugh, Sans simply grinned a little wider. "kid, if you want to cry, then just cry. cause that face you're makin' right now... it's ridiculous."
The small child sniffled loudly and shook her head. "m'not crying..." She hiccupped again.
"right..." The skeleton replied sarcastically. "sure you're not."
"I'm not!" The little girl snapped in agitation, while a few tears rolled down her round cheeks. "Only weaklings cry..."
Grin faltering slightly, Sans tilted his skull in question. "now, who went and told you that?" Whoever it was, they sounded like a real jerk. Who says something like that to a child?
Fearia couldn't hold back the look of disgust on her face as she answered. "My father." She grimaced at the word. "He says that any sign of weakness should be punished." That rule was usually reserved for the males of the village, but she had gotten on the man's nerves more times than she could count and had learned her lesson well.
Sans really didn't know what to say to that. How was he supposed to feel? Angry? He was, but it didn't solve anything. It wasn't like he could confront the guy on bad parenting. All it really boiled down to was that this was really none of his business. But, was that really true? He was at least entitled to an opinion. "no offense to your old man, kid, but that's kind of messed up."
Face scrunching up again in barely contained misery, the girl nodded in agreement. "It is! But- *hic* he's the Chief of the village so his word is law no matter how stupid it is!"
"not down here." Sans said, his smile regaining some of its mirth. "he's got no say as to how things work in the underground. you can be as weak as ya wanna be in front of me, kid. i won't tell a soul."
"Promise...?" The little girl asked, though her amber eyes were already welling up.
"promise." Sans nodded. He knew he was going against his own principles by agreeing to yet another promise but there was literally no way he could say no to this sad child. Despite being a skeleton, he wasn't heartless.
Getting the human out of her tattered and bloodied clothing had been easier than he anticipated. All he had to do, it seems, was ask. She hadn't seemed bothered by it at all. Once her knee and elbow were cleaned up and bandaged, Sans took a moment to scan the now bare skin of the child for any other injuries. She had a few bumps and bruises as well as quite a few scrapes, but oddly enough he couldn't find any burns. He knew he had seen them earlier. Maybe humans healed fast or something. He hoped so, for the kid's sake. To put it mildly, she was danger-prone.
Setting the child back on her feet, Sans was presented with yet another dilemma. Should he let her put her old dirty clothes back on or... find something else? No. There was no way he was going to give her back these rags to wear. In fact, he planned on trashing them later. That decision made, he now had to figure out what she was going to wear. They didn't have any kids clothes in the house and she couldn't just walk around in her underwear. Papyrus' clothes weren't even a question and his own were still probably way too big. Still... it was really the only option. Maybe just a shirt. "stay right here, kid, and don't wander off."
Fearia frowned at the skeleton's retreating back. What was she, a dog? "Hmph." She grumbled as she stood awkwardly next to the dining table. Peeking over to the hidden sink, she was reminded of how thirsty she still was.
Ignoring the skeleton's orders, the little girl limped over to the sink and turned it on. The water was freezing! Shivering, she dipped her hands under the water and tried to cup some back to her mouth. This would have been easier if the sink was a few inches shorter. Most of the water ended up down her front instead of in her mouth.
Sans stared at the half soaked human. To be honest he was a bit impressed. How long had he been gone? A minute? Less? And she had already found a new way to make more work for him.
Sighing, he grabbed a kitchen towel from a drawer and a cup from the cabinet overhead. "you could have told me you were thirsty." He said tiredly as he walked over to the child and filled the cup with the already pouring water. Handing her the cup, he turned the faucet off.
Fearia said nothing as she chugged the water. The cold liquid felt like heaven to her sore throat and she was only vaguely aware of being dried off. When was the last time she drank anything? Probably the night before she left the Ruins. How long ago was that again? Finishing the water off with a satisfied sigh, she handed the empty cup back to the skeleton.
Setting the cup on the counter, Sans shook his skull slightly. "next time you need something, why not try asking for it? asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, you know." He gave a small shrug, smile still in place. "you should give it a try, you might be surprised."
Returning the smile, the little girl nodded enthusiastically. "Okay." She didn't know why he was being so nice but she'd take it. Maybe, in the Underground at least, relying on someone else might not be such a bad thing.
Nodding as well, Sans grinned. "arms up, kiddo." The little girl didn't even question him as she lifted her arms up. Taking the old but clean pale blue shirt he had found in his drawer, the skeleton easily slid it onto the child's small frame. The neck hung loosely from one shoulder and the hem fell down to her knees. For a nightgown, it was a perfect fit. He'd figure the rest out tomorrow.
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The next chapter will be another emotional one but we'll finally get to learn a bit more about the deal Fearia made with the chief and the dark ulterior motives surrounding it.
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Thank you for reading!
If you have the time, please leave me a review.
Sheii Bae~
