Chapter X

What I promised

'He fixed it,' the young boy keeps repeating ceaselessly. 'He fixed it with his own.'

'Sans?' a worried Grillby tries to interrupt. 'Maybe you should rest a bit, you're-'

'I just don't understand! Why would he ever do that? He barely even knows me! I don't even-'

'You don't even what? Deserve it?'

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The human remains silent. He knows he can't stand up to Grillby, as the fire monster is convinced of the opposite. But, still, he doesn't understand why Papyrus would do such a thing! Why would he risk his life by giving a piece of his own soul in order to save his? Why would he almost get killed to save someone he has known for barely more than a week?

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'Why…'

'Because he loves you.'

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Sans gives a hint of a smile, looking at Grillby without really seeing him.

.

'It sounded weird.'

'You know what I meant, Sans. Papyrus cares about you as if you were his brother and that's why he did that.'

'He could have died, Grillby! Because of me! I'm the one who's supposed to protect him, not the one he has to save…'

'Because you don't want to be saved doesn't mean others don't care whether you're dead or alive,' Grillby interrupts. 'Myriad gave her life so both Papyrus and you could live!'

''Cause you can…' Sans hesitates, unsure of how to voice his thoughts. 'You just… have to?'

'No. Because you want to protect Papyrus, you have to keep living.'

.

Both of them remain silent for a few minutes, not having anything left to say. However, Grillby knows his friend eventually got his point but he can't help worrying: even though both Papyrus and Sans are physically fine, the older one is tremendously upset. Meanwhile, the fire monster doesn't know what happened to them, but he doesn't feel like Sans is ready to talk about it. It could have been the Royal Guard, but there are no clues of such a thing. Well, Sans's injuries can't count. Grillby is aware that, since Papyrus fixed his soul, his wounds have been partially healed. Nevertheless, those scratches surely were some deep ones…

.

'You know, I promised him I would not leave him and that we would find his father', Sans starts while talking in a very slowly and articulated way. 'He was so afraid, I couldn't do otherwise. But… I hate promises. I hate them because, whatever it is, we always end up in a situation where we can't keep them. Promises are lies… Because they drag people into situations where they have no choice but to break them as it's the best thing they can do.'

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He stops a while, taking a deep breath before he starts again.

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'But I promised him anyway and, even though I hate that, I don't want to break this promise.'

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The sudden long speech ironically leaves Grillby speechless: the young monster wasn't expecting that, after what happened, Sans would just begin to talk like that.

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'You're right, Grillby: I can't give up.'

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And he gives a smile to his friend, even though his eyes are still tearful. And Grillby wants to believe he pulled himself together for good. And they both hope everything will be fine. But they know it will surely not be. However, a question remains in Grillby's mind and Sans can see it.

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'You wanna know what happened, huh?'

'It's not so important,' replies hastily the monster. 'You should sleep before, you're exhausted.'

'Nah, I'll be fine. Though, it's better to tell you 'bout all of this before Paps wakes up. I'll catch some z's after.'

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Grillby is well aware that Sans isn't fine as he pretends and only tries to look as if he was, but he also knows that it might be his only chance to understand what happened. He truly hopes he will be able to help them better if he knows… Indeed, the three of them will have to deal with the "side effects" of Sans's soul being fixed with fragments of Papyrus's one. And Grillby has no idea of what they will turn out to be…

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'Okay… So, we made our way to Waterfall and avoided the Royal guard's patrols. It wasn't that hard back then, everything started to go from bad to worse when we were midway through Waterfall and…'