:):

That is a very good idea to mark where the stars are, Starinteris. Also, yes W.D. Gaster will be a big part of this story but that will happen much further down the road.

You're right, Equimavera, Sans has so much more to learn but I think he enjoys figuring things out. From a scientific standpoint, discovering something that he didn't even know existed must be very fascinating.

Without going into too much detail, felisfernus, Fearia's soul isn't necessarily a new type but it is extremely rare. This will be explained a little later. As for the other fallen children's souls, even though they all have their own unique traits, they all happen to share a special similarity.

hehe, I'm happy you liked that part, undershield. I bet if Sans could somehow talk to Frisk, he'd have so many questions to ask her.

xxx

Worth the Price

xxx

Arriving back at the house, Sans carried the small child inside. She was once again wearing his jacket since the blanket had gotten wet out in the snow. Setting her back on her feet, he was amazed at how fast she zoomed off to the kitchen. The kid's energy levels had tripled now that she was healed. He could already tell she was going to be even more trouble now. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to care about that. Sans was just happy she was still alive.

"Pappy!" Fearia greeted joyfully when she spotted the taller skeleton. Somehow, she knew he'd be in the kitchen. She just knew it! "Guess what?"

Papyrus, who had been taken very much by surprise, looked down to the tiny human who had attached herself to his shinbone with glee. He took note that she was once again wearing his brother's faded blue jacket. "Miss Fearia," he smiled. "There You Are. I Was Wondering Where You Had Gone."

"i left you a note, paps." Sans said as he walked into the kitchen at a much slower pace. "didn't you read it?"

"I Was Trying To Read It." Papyrus said as he turned back to the note he was still holding and squinted. "But You Wrote Half Of It In WingDings Again. Given Enough Time, I Could Have Easily Solved This Code. I Am Very Clever After All."

"you sure are, bro." Sans replied easily. oops... He must have been in more of a rush than he thought if he had accidentally jumbled his note like that. Oh well. It worked out in the end.

Frowning up at the taller skeleton, Fearia tugged on his tibia to get his attention. "Papyrus." She whined. "Guess what!"

"What Is It, Miss Fearia." Papyrus smiled down at the tiny human. "Did Something Happen?"

"Mh hm!" Fearia nodded. "Sans found me a healing star! Look!" She pointed to her knee and grinned happily.

"That's Great!" The taller skeleton returned the grin. "So You Are No Longer Sick?"

"Mm mh!" The small child shook her head. "I feel great!"

"That's Wonderful! In Celebration, I'll Make You Some Of My Famous Spaghetti." The self-proclaimed world renowned chef offered.

Fearia's brow creased as she released her hold on his tibia and stepped away. "Is it crunchy...?" She asked, apprehension plainly visible on her face.

"Of Course!" Papyrus nodded. "I Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way."

Sans chuckled as he watched the poor kid's reaction. She really didn't want to hurt his feelings but she also really didn't want to eat his spaghetti either. Deciding to throw her a bone, figuratively, he suggested something different. "how about we all go out to grillby's instead and save the pasta for tonight." He shrugged lazily, a grin on his skull. "that was kinda the deal when the kid got better."

Fearia shot him a grateful smile as she clasped her hands together in excitement. "I want to go to Grillby's!"

"I Suppose That Was The Deal..." Papyrus relented, squinting to the side in disappointment. "But Miss Fearia Still Doesn't Have Anything To Wear." He pointed out.

"i'm gonna take her to the shop, today." Sans explained, eye lights drifting to the side as he thought. "they're bound to have children's clothes for sale. course', they'll probably be made for snow bunnies..." He grinned humorously.

"Snow Bunnies...?" Fearia tilted her head in wonder.

...

Carrying the small child on his back just as he had done a day or so ago, Sans walked casually down the now populated snow covered street. It was nearing mid morning and businesses had been open for awhile. He still wasn't quite sure how he was going to convince the shopkeeper to clothe a human. After all, the King's law was pretty straight forward. If you see a human, capture the human and deliver them directly to him. And if, by chance, the human is killed in the process of capturing them, then their SOULS are to be delivered to him.

It was simple.

Nowhere in that law did it mention seeing to the human's basic needs, like food or adequately warm clothing to wear. He was in way over his skull and he knew it. When did he go from keeping a simple promise to watch out for the kid to actually caring for her wellbeing? He didn't know when it had happened. This wasn't like him at all. He wasn't the type to get emotionally attached. Especially not to a human. The only attachment he'd ever really had was to his brother. Despite his outgoing personality, Sans had never really let anyone get close enough for them to even know anything about him. So how the hell did this runt of a human manage to burrow so deeply into his bones?

"What does that say?" Fearia asked, her chin resting lightly on his clavicle as she kept her head low. He had told her to keep herself hidden underneath the jacket but she couldn't resist peaking around as they went. The town had been asleep before, but now it was wide awake and teeming with activity.

Eye lights drifting to the misspelled word that had been painted sloppily above a house, Sans chuckled quietly. "it's supposed to say "library"." He informed with a humored grin. "it's a place where you go to read books."

"Like an Elder's house?" Fearia asked, a frown forming. Elder's were always so picky about who could read their books. It was weird this "Library" would even advertise that they had books at all. Was it some kind of challenge to see who was brave enough to enter?

"uh..." Sans was once again reminded of the mysteries swirling around this child. Like where she came from and what time period. He still needed to ask. "not exactly..."

As they approached the Snowdin Shop and Inn, Sans' attention was drawn to where he had last seen the kid's magical healing star. He knew it was real now. It had been hard for him to see before, but now he couldn't see it at all.

Interesting.

"kid, you can still see your star, can't you?" It was more of a statement than a question. He was slowly building up his theory surrounding this mysterious floating object.

"Mmhm." Fearia nodded against his clavicle. Wrapping an arm around his cervical spine, she pointed to the star with her free hand. "It's still right there. I don't think they ever move."

Nodding, Sans followed his own fading footsteps back to where he had last seen it. Nearing the spot where the child had tried to drag her small body through the snow, he stopped. It should only be a couple feet away from them now, but he still couldn't see anything.

"It's right in front of you." Fearia revealed as she wrapped both arms around his neck while staring intently at the seemingly invisible object.

He took a step. Then another. The light that flashed before them wasn't nearly as bright this time as the magical star literally appeared out of thin air. It was still very difficult for Sans to see. Extending his arm out, he waved his bony hand through the fully transparent object. It shimmered slightly but kept its form. Other than that, he felt nothing special about it. As he stood there however, little strings of light began reaching out for the child on his back.

So, he was right.

This magical healing star or whatever the hell it really was, was something only humans could interact with. It was something only humans were supposed to see. Did this have something to do with the barrier? Or did it have a different purpose entirely? How many of these stars were hidden in the Underground and where were their locations? So many questions were swirling around in his skull that he almost missed it when his name was called out in a small whiny voice. "what was that, kid?" He asked absentmindedly.

"Can we go inside already?" Fearia shivered. "I'm getting really cold."

"oh. right." Looking over to the shop, he winced slightly. He'd spent too much time thinking about the dumb star and not enough time thinking about how he was going handle the shrewd shopkeeper. Too late now.

As soon as her skeletal escort stepped inside the warm and inviting shop, Fearia quickly released her hold on him and slid out from underneath his bulky jacket and onto the hardwood floor. She was so over being carried around and she couldn't take it a moment longer. Narrowly dodging the skeleton's grabby hands, the little girl giggled as she rushed over to the counter.

"kid, wait!" Sans stressed as he failed to catch the tiny human. When had she become so quick?! This wasn't part of the plan, he needed to grab her before-

"Hiya there, little kit." The shopkeeper greeted pleasantly as she stared down at the strange child. "You're a new face. Didja come all the way from the Capital?"

Fearia didn't answer right away as she stared up at the rabbit lady's lavender colored ears. Whoa, another talking rabbit... And she was really pretty! Shaking her head, the little girl smiled. "No, I came from Fauna!"

"Fauna, huh?" The shopkeeper crossed her arms in thought. "Where's that?"

Pressing a bony hand to the brat's auburn mess of hair, Sans answered for her, a passive-aggressive smile clearly present. "it's near the capital." He lied.

"Never heard of it." She shrugged. "So, what can I do for you two, today? Would you like to buy a cinnamon bun? How about a bicycle?"

"What's a cinnamon bun?" Fearia asked with great interest as she stood on her tippy toes, trying to look over the counter. "Is it food? Does it taste like butterscotch-cinnamon pie?"

"we actually just came to see if you had any children's clothes we could buy." Sans explained, his eye lights looking down at the small child. "as you can see, she didn't come prepared for the cold elements of Snowdin."

"Hmm..." The bunny lady thought aloud as she stared down at the sparsely dressed youth. Was she wearing a stretched out nightgown? How unusual. She didn't appear to have any other means of keeping herself warm either, like a nice coat of fur.

When the small child shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, the shopkeeper sighed. It would be irresponsible to let someone so young walk around in the snow dressed like that. What to do...? "We do sell warm clothing for out-of-towners, but we don't have anything for someone so tiny. Nothing in the shop at least. My niece is about her size and she has loads of extra clothes." She revealed, speaking directly to the skeleton. "Come on over to the Inn, we'll get this kit bundled up nice and snug."

Walking over to the Inn next door, Sans was notably silent as he stared at the Shopkeeper rabbit. Why was she being so helpful? Didn't she see that the kid was a human? It wasn't like it was something that could be easily overlooked... Eye lights wandering back to the small child, he watched as she tagged along after the generous lady, a happy smile on her face.

The Innkeeper had been all too eager to help. Leading the little girl up the stairs, she spoke warmly as her young kit lead the way to her room. Standing awkwardly in the Inn's lobby, Sans stuffed his bony hands into his jacket pockets and waited patiently. This was definitely not how he had envisioned this playing out. It wasn't like he was going to complain, though. The kid was getting some clothes, but this just felt kind of strange.

"Well, well, well." The Shopkeeper smirked as she leaned against the wall, arms crossed and a smug look on her face. "I didn't peg you skeletons as the domestic type. When did you get yourself a kit?"

"she's not ours." Sans denied, looking away from the clever rabbit. "the kid doesn't have anyone to take care of her, so she's just staying with us for a little while. just until we can figure out what to do with her."

"Taking care of a child is a lot of responsibility. It's hard work. If you want, we could take her off your hands for you." The shrewd bunny offered.

Looking back to the shopkeeper, the skeleton's grin lessened slightly. "as enticing as that offer is, i think we can handle the kid. she's not that much trouble." He lied through his teeth. Plus, she was a human, but he didn't want to bring that little detail into the conversation. Sans also didn't want to acknowledge the fact that his nonexistent stomach dropped slightly at the thought of giving the kid away.

"Heh." The confident rabbit lady shrugged. "Whatever you say, Mr. Skeledaddy."

Before Sans could come up with a good retort to that horrifying presumption, the kid's voice rang out as two adorable tiny bunnies came scampering down the stairs. Correction. One tiny adorable bunny and one tiny human disguised as an adorable bunny.

"Sans!" Fearia grinned as she rushed up to him. She was now dressed in a handmade, ridiculously cute, pink and yellow outfit that was obviously designed for rabbit kits. "Look, Sans!" The little girl demanded as she pulled the fuzzy pink hood over her head. "I have bunny ears now." She laughed gleefully.

The "ears" she was talking about were actually the yellow ear warmers sewn on the top of the hood. They were there for young rabbits to tuck their long ears inside to keep warm. Since the human didn't have rabbit ears, they simply hung down from the hood uselessly; a cute accessory if anything.

"i see that." Sans smiled warmly down at the small child. Reaching out, he gave her an affectionate pat on the head. "looks good on ya, kid."

Fearia beamed up at the skeleton, a slight blush on her cheeks at the compliment. "Really? You mean it?"

"sure." Sans grinned, eye lights looking away from her mischievously. "i mean, you're so cute right now i almost didn't recognize you."

The little girl gave a small indignant gasp before attempting to swat at his hand with her tiny menacing paws. "What's that supposed to mean?!" She asked, her chubby cheeks puffed out in an obvious pout.

The shopkeeper watched the scene play out in amusement. It was odd to see one of those wacky skeletons act so affectionately towards someone other than each other. And even then it was rare. They usually stuck to their own personality traits and didn't reveal much else. One of them liked to boast and the other liked to joke. That's just how it was. They were quite one dimensional in a sense. So this was actually genuinely surprising to her. Who knew the shorter of the skeleton pair, the one who liked to joke, could also be so warm and caring? Maybe her harmless teasing before hadn't been too far off the mark.

...

Fearia hummed to herself as she sucked on the lollipop the kind Innkeeper had given to her. What a nice bunny lady! She had been generous enough to sell her these clothes at a big discount since they were already hand-me-downs. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to afford them since she still didn't have any G, whatever that was, so of course, Sans had to pay for the outfit himself. He was unusually gloomy now. Wonder why?

500G?! Sans slouched over slightly as he followed the tiny human back outside. The Innkeeper had been nice enough to offer them a discount but then her sister, the ever business-minded shop owner, had hiked up the price. The damn rabbit knew he would pay it too.

With a heavy sigh, the skeleton watched the floppy yellow ears sway from side to side with each step their new owner took. He had to admit, the kid did look super cute right now and she was happy, so he'd just have to cut his losses. It wasn't like he couldn't make more money. He had like 3 jobs after all.

xxx

That's a lot of G!

Sans should count his blessings that he wasn't dealing with Muffet, lol

(i bet muffet could make some really cute clothes...)

...

In the next chapter, Fearia finally gets to meet Grillby in an official manner.

xxx

Thanks for reading!

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Sheii Bae~