Muffled music began playing between Jewel's hip and the mattress, but it wasn't the sound that woke her. She groaned and moved just enough to hit the button on her phone to put the ringer on snooze. What time was it, she wondered. She wouldn't know without looking at her phone, and to do that would require moving… That sounded like a pain. She whined a little as she just wanted to sleep more, going to curl into the pillow before she remembered her sleeping companion from the night before.
Glancing down at the skeleton that still lightly clung to her in his slumber she realized his arms were still around her. Instead of gripping her as he had last night, one arm was hanging over her side while the other laid flat against the mattress. His face was still nuzzled into her shoulder though he moved a bit, his nose and mouth more exposed as if to breathe. That was an anatomy question, did he actually breathe? She couldn't remember if he had breath clouds when they were in the snow… she wasn't really focused on that particular fact.
But as much as her curiosity wanted answers… she really had to pee.
Her focus went back to the skeleton as she was about to move from his grasp. She noticed the tear stains on his face, despite how long ago it was… she couldn't imagine the amount of pain he was feeling… and she felt bad but she had to get up. She started with the arm draping over her. As she moved it, he didn't stir. He seemed to be out cold… She carefully moved from his side, draping the blankets over him, as they had fallen asleep without them, to try and keep him warm.
Getting off the bed, she went to do her business in the bathroom. As she exited, she went back over to the bed, noticing Sans had not yet awakened. That was good, the poor guy needed to rest after everything. He hadn't eaten in a month, she could imagine him not allowing himself much sleep. She sat there for a moment on the edge of the bed, just watching him. She pulled out her phone, making sure to silence it. She just remembered she had only snoozed it before, and she didn't want to wake him. That's when she noticed the time. Her alarm was still set for six. It was six in the morning? She had adjusted her phone for the time zone each time she crossed over. They were up really late… no wonder Sans was still out cold. Only she could sleep for a few hours and wake up this easily… of course, she just wanted to go back to sleep but maybe she should take the opportunity to clean up a little…
He would be okay without her for a bit, right? Why was that thought what was ringing through her mind? She had barely slept, he would be asleep for a while longer no doubt… with how little he slept, his body would have to be protesting, even with how long they slept the night before last…
Still, she gently stroked his skull, glancing back down at the skeleton. "I won't be gone long, Sans, promise," she said softly before rising. Her footfalls were soft and almost completely silent as she walked to the door effortlessly and softly shut it behind her.
Her plan was simple. She was going to go back to the Judgment Hall to pick up her bag. Her hoodie was all she had to change into, and despite everything else, at least a shirt without blood and holes would be good. Even if it was even warmer than what she was wearing now. At least it wasn't too hot inside compared to going out of the building.
What was her living situation going to be like now? This was her second day in the Underground… how long would she be here before Asgore realized that Sans was blowing magic smoke in his face? How long until her soul was taken? How long would she have to try and make Sans stable enough to handle life without someone to lean on?
Her soul churned with her heart in her chest. She could feel the water in her eyes building and she quickly tried to put the thought out of her mind. It was her default mode, she supposed. She couldn't fix her situation, so she instinctively tried to fix everyone else's. No one should have to suffer like she did… but she knew it wasn't realistic either. All-in-all, her situation wasn't too bad. She was just tired of fighting in it. She had options… for some of her problems. She just didn't have it in her to fight anymore… but for some reason, she was willing to fight for Sans.
It wasn't like he was putting his problems on her. At least not yet. He was just grieving and while he was trying to push through, he was struggling. Breaking down was understandable and he wasn't imposing anything on her to just want her comfort. He wasn't expecting her to do something impossible and fix it. He just wanted someone to cry to.
"And lots of hugs apparently," she smiled a little as she softly spoke to herself, "How much has he kept to himself?"
It was then she remembered that he mentioned that no one else remembered the resets. Not in true fashion anyway. Truly, how much did he suffer alone?
It was something she could talk to him about when he was awake, and perhaps, a bit more stable. She was almost to the Judgement Hall where her things were. What she needed to do was focus on cleaning up… She was going to have to ask Sans or Alphys to change the bandage on her back now that she thought about it… She ran a hand through her hair, trying to keep her thoughts on what she needed to do first. Bag, hoodie, that stuff. She could worry about the rest later…
The sound of a door creaking open caught her attention. She could hear soft mutterings and the person did not sound thrilled. Tilting her head in curiosity, she walked closer to investigate.
She hid behind a pillar as saw a tiny flame elemental with her bag, dragging it along the floor. It was half the size of Sans, maybe just over two foot six? The little flame looked disgruntled, muttering to itself.
"I can't believe, Asgore," the voice muttered, sounding more masculine, "After all that's happened, to let a human stay here? Is he insane? And to send me to give them their stuff?" He turned, glaring at the bag he was dragging. He hadn't noticed the blood, nor did he care if he did. Still, his anger started to sizzle out into fear. "I hope they're not around… If I can just find Sans, I'll give it to him and avoid this whole thing!"
As he turned his head, just about passing the pillar the human was standing behind, tiny eyes grew wide. It took him far longer than he would ever admit to process what he was seeing. He didn't know what a deer in headlights looked like, nor did he know the saying, but that was exactly what he was right now.
"Uh… hi?" Jewel tried as she looked down at the tiny flame. It was hard to feel like she wasn't intimidating the poor thing. "Listen, uh, thanks for grabbing my bag, I'll just…"
As she was about to offer to take it and let him go on home, the small ember flared up. It wasn't a massive growth in height, but the flickering flames did give off the warning loud and clear. Fuel to the fire was never good, especially in an elemental.
"H-hey now," she started but was cut off by small bursts of flame being wind-milled from his hands in her direction. It was like a little kid on a playground in their first-ever fight.
The flames themselves weren't very powerful, but they were still fire. She managed to protect her face by raising her arms, only for the embers to bounce off. However, just like with anything else, enough heat applied causes it to ignite, which is what happened to her shirt. Jewel ducked behind the pillar, using it as cover, as she tried to put out the flame on her arm. Much to her dismay, however, she was unable to extinguish the flames. It was a magical fire, after all, normal rules didn't always apply to magical things. Still, it scared her all the same as she could feel the burns she was getting on her arm.
As panic started to take her, desperately trying to rip the cloth of her shirt to try and remove the burning sleeve, a large paw came down and smother the flames instantly. Shaking, she looked up at Asgore, and those chocolate eyes looked down at her worriedly. But, as much as he was concerned for her, he had to stop the threat first.
"Flamesman!" Asgore bellowed. He wasn't yelling, but that authoritative kingly voice he had perfected over centuries.
The tiny flame gasped, his eyes still wide, and he quickly began to panic. "No! No nononnono! Don't say my name!"
Curious and confused, the large king couldn't help the small tilt of his head as he stared quizzically at the tiny flame. He had been so overjoyed when he, the king, remembered who he was. "But—"
"No! The human can't remember me, nonononononono!"
The king watched as the tiny flames grew larger with his panic. The king walked over and his giant paw came down, a single finger resting on his shoulder while the rest of his paw basically rested along his side. The ember looked up at the king, his eyes still wide.
"Calm down. The human isn't going to harm you."
A shaky breath escaped the small flame. Right, the king was here. The human had no chance against the king, right? Despite not being flame elementals, the King and Queen's mastery over the element was exceptional. Very few could ever match them. However, the Queen had long been gone, so no one could touch the King's fire magic now.
"You can't know," Heats Flamesman spoke up, "She's human! She could be lying!"
His gaze tightened. "She very much could be. But she has given no inclination that she has been. She has been nothing but cordial."
"It's an act! The last human—!"
"I know you don't have a good opinion of them," the two monsters turned their head to the human who came out from behind the pillar. "And I don't blame you for being uneasy. And the fact it was a child…" Jewel couldn't think of the words to describe the feeling in her chest, how to empathize with this small monster. "I wasn't… I was just coming to grab my stuff. I shouldn't have left it here in the first place, and I'm sorry I scared you… I just…"
Asgore sighed softly as he turned from the human back down to his subject. "I understand your concern. But she is currently my guest. She should not be without her escort, however," he directed, scolding the human, "but it is my job to render punishment for those things, not yours."
"I… I wasn't…" Heats began to fumble.
"It… It's okay, your majesty," Jewel spoke up, deciding formality the best course with the small ember still on edge. "Don't be too harsh with him, he was just scared. It's an understandable reaction."
Asgore turned to the young monster. "Since she is here, I suppose you do not need to fulfill your errand. You are free to go home."
"Y-yes sir," the tiny flame spoke, quickly taking advantage of the situation and running off.
Jewel rubbed her upper arm a little, nervously. "Um… s-sorry…"
"You really should be with Sans," Asgore scolded harshly, his eyes narrowing at the human woman. "Why has he suddenly decided to let you—"
"First off," Jewel tightened her gaze, interrupting the king with no hesitation in her voice, "You never once said I was under restrictions! I understand the whole thing, but don't punish me for simply walking off when you never said I had to be accompanied by anyone! Two, if I am supposed to be under these restrictions, it was highly inappropriate of you to assign your fatigued judge to do it! You really expect him to be able to keep up with everything he's gone through recently?! And three, don't you dare blame Sans for any of this! He's asleep! As he should be!"
Asgore blinked, chocolate eyes widening a little at her sudden boldness. His mind was screaming at him to be careful. She wasn't the docile thing that was ready to die in this moment. "My kingdom has been ravaged just recently by a member of your race. If you cannot-!"
"I get the implications! Why do you think I'm here so early?" Jewel defended herself before pulling back a little. "Sans was exhausted, I didn't want to wake him for this simply so I could clean up…"
Tense shoulders slowly relaxed themselves with a soft exhale of breath. The king couldn't fault her for that. She was right, Sans was exhausted. It wasn't right of him to put Sans in charge of her, but it was the skeleton's idea. He supposed he should be grateful that she was so concerned over his judge… was that the reason she got riled up in the first place? When it came to herself, she still seemed… deflated. He might have to check-in on her more…
"I suppose I can understand that," he softened his tone. "You have been here for a couple of days," and her clothes were in tatters… nothing unrepairable, but without something to change into… "I will discuss with Sans later about getting you a small wardrobe during your stay here. Hopefully, his little project won't take too long."
Jewel bit the inside of her cheek at his comment about the project… they had barely worked on it… "Maybe… he… hasn't really told me much about it," she admitted softly. "Though he wants me to undo what the last human did and I… well, he won't even tell me what they did. I… think it's painful for him…"
Asgore watched her for a moment, studying the genuine concern in her eyes to make sure it was truly there. He took a breath. "It's painful for us all… though I suppose it would be more so for him…"
The king crouched down to pick up her bag before handing it to her. "Because he remembers the resets?" she asked.
"Yes," he said softly. He had told her that much it seemed… "He has lived through this more than the rest of us. While we have all experienced it, we do not remember it, not as he does. I have taken to noticing when the world has reset with his help, and I remember more than most. However, it is not as clear as I would like it."
"It's like déjà vu, right?" she interjected her question. "Can you tell me what you do know? It might help if I knew what I was supposed to undo."
The goat king sighed heavily. "There is not much I can tell you, even if I trusted you to do so. The child has murdered us countless times over. Sans is the one who knows the specifics."
Jewel looked into his eyes as he avoided her gaze. He was hiding something, she knew it. Was it really her place to press, however? "Sans fights the child in the hall," she started to reason, "You're clearly waiting for them after him. Even with me…" Her gaze turned a little harsher as she looked at him, "You remember what this child does, even if it's vague. Yet you still wait for Sans to continuously fight them and let him die each and every time before they get to you? What kind of king does that?"
Fur bristled on his neck as he tried to contain the anger starting to build at this human's boldness. She knew nothing of what was going on and continued to berate and question his actions. "That is his duty as my subject!" he barked at her, "To protect his King! Without me, there would be no one to lead those left!"
"Pretty damn sure Sans could do it better than you," she retorted, hissing.
"How dare—"
"Pretty sure anyone could, really," she continued, not caring about the threatening look in the king's eyes. "Anyone else could see what you've already spelled out and ignored. That Sans is the only one who remembers the damn resets, he shouldn't be fucking sacrificing himself for anyone! Damn it, you're relying on him to fix it all now!" she growled, causing the fur on the king's neck and shoulders to rise up.
"What are you insinuating?!" he roared.
"That you're too damn afraid to do what needs to be done! When I first came here, Sans said he worked for the head scientist or whatever! You don't put the brains of the operation on the front line, dude! Basic strat 101! You want the brains, the healer, whoever can undo the mess your fighters cause if they fail in the back and dead fucking last so they can repair everything! Instead of having him focus on fighting this damn kid, you should be buying him time to fix everything!"
"He's had plenty of time! The resets—"
"Are a god damn torture and blessing at the same time!" she snipped. "You can undo everything, but you have to go through the same torture—well, Sans does! All the more reason to spare him having to deal with it! Really, dude…" Her fire started to die down as she looked up at him, disappointment clearly the emotion behind her eyes, "I get it's hard. But god damn, man… what if this last bit happened after Sans lost? What if you were the one who killed the kid and the resets stopped? He was the one who had this damn idea to fix it all. Where would you be then? You wouldn't have even had me, Sans was the one who pulled me through. You'd be stuck."
As angry as Asgore wanted to be, the last words struck him harder than he would ever admit. It was hard enough now… but to try and move on without Sans by his side… His judge had been all that had kept him calm enough to pretend to rule everything as if nothing had happened, to protect the other monsters. The reason he could pretend everything was all right every time the child had reset.
"It was Sans' idea," the king spoke, firm, but it was obvious her words had struck something deep inside of him. For better or worse, he did not know.
"Of course it was," Jewel sighed. She didn't know him that long, but damn it, he seemed to put everything on his shoulders… "But as his king…"
"I know," Asgore sighed. "I suppose I am rather lucky that things played out as they have… given the alternative you have just proposed…"
"Heh, sorry, I'm a bit of a downer with these things. Finding what could be worse is kind of a habit of mine…"
She had criticized him, belittled his decision-making skills, and essentially called him incompetent… If she was one of his subjects that would be tantamount to treason… but even then, he wouldn't be so harsh on his own subjects, especially in such a difficult time. This human, however… she wasn't one of his people. She was an intruder, though not of her own making. It seemed, however, she was very much attached to his judge… all of her anger seemed directed on his behalf. And even with all the accusations… he couldn't get the image of their first meeting out of his head. Seeing her broken and ready to die by his own hand as if it would provide some meaning in her life…
"It seems you have found some spark of fire in your soul," Asgore finally spoke, his voice calmer as he forced down his anger. He too could lash out in anger, but what would that prove at this point? He needed her alive to fix what the child had done, he could play the waiting game. Besides… even he could tell she wasn't a malicious person.
"Ha… I don't know about that…" she rubbed her arm before flinching a little.
Asgore eyed the burn on her arm. It hadn't looked too severe when he initially put it out, but despite raising a human once upon a time, he admittedly wasn't too familiar with every aspect of their biology… did humans normally have minor wounds that turned into more severe ones?
"Would you like me to treat that?" he then offered.
"I'll be fine," Jewel spoke softly, pulling her arm in closer.
A soft sigh escaped the goat's mouth as he took a step toward her. "Please, allow me this kindness. Despite your recent boldness, insulting the king of the place you find yourself in—"
"Yeah, not my smartest move…" Jewel muttered, causing the king a soft chuckle.
"Very true, but I can tell it's been in defense of Sans. You only seem to get angry when it comes to him as of yet. Perhaps you can tell me why as I get some medicine for your arm."
The human sighed a little. She really should, she was in enough pain… some burn cream would be awesome, if they even had that down here… "You sure you have something that would work? Sans didn't seem too sure how to help me before."
"Sans has never truly spent time with humans aside the one who attacks us. And admittedly… killing them doesn't…"
"No, I get it. As hard as it is to comprehend, a child killer is still a killer, and you have a right to defend yourself. But, yeah… killing a human is a lot easier than putting one back together." However, the way he said it… "Does that mean you have?"
A very tired, very strained smile was on the king's face. "I have… though I would appreciate your lack of questioning into the matter. It is…"
"No, it's okay," Jewel spoke up softly, interrupting. "I get not wanting to talk… but… do you know enough to treat a burn? It seems like humans and monsters are pretty different, physically speaking…"
Silently, the human followed the King's lead, as he took her behind the doors she had seen in the hall, leading down past the throne room.
Cold… why was it cold? Snow falling… it wasn't this bad before… bones trembled as pink slippers crunched through the white powder, heading toward… No… No… The snow turned darker, mixing with dust and red… Papyrus's scarf flew past him, just missing it through his fingers… glancing back, he saw a sickening smile with glowing red eyes…
"AAaaah!"
Sans shot up, magic flaring in his eye, blaster at the ready. But this wasn't Snowdin…
He panted as he took in the room, coming back to his senses… then he remembered…
"shit, jewel, i'm-!"
As he whipped his head around, assuming he had scared the living hell out of his sleeping companion, he found himself alone… It should have been a relief. He could have hurt her, scared her in this state… but instead, his chest hurt.
Betrayal… abandonment… He had begged her to not leave him the night before… and here she was… or rather… not. He shook as his hands found their way to his skull. He rubbed his eye, trying to snuff out his magic, but he couldn't. Even after the blaster was recalled, even with how little magic he had regenerated, he just couldn't put it out… His soul churned and twisted in his chest.
He wasn't sure how long he was left there, alone like that, his thoughts spiraling out of his control. When he heard the door click, however, that blazing eye focused entirely on the person who entered… It was her, the one who left him alone. Just walking in like she hadn't abandoned him.
"Sans?" he heard her call out, "What are you doing up?"
She expected him to sleep through and just pretend she never left him? His bones rattled, shaking with anger and pain. He didn't even understand why this hurt so much, it just did. As he heard her footsteps come closer, he lashed out, teleporting off the bed and grabbing her arms, pushing her against the wall, causing her to drop her bag, his eye burning brighter.
"you left me alone!" he yelled at her, pinning her by her arms to the wall. "you promised you wouldn't go! but you left me!"
"Sans, I'm sorry, I just went to grab my things."
He hadn't seen or heard it drop… but the bag was there at his feet. His foot slid into it as he moved to get a better grip. His breathing started to calm down… she left to get… all she had down here… Still, he shook… despite it, and the logic behind it… it still hurt so much to wake up like that, alone…
"S-sans…" he heard her whimper.
He glanced back up, seeing the tears in her eyes. Was he scaring her? That was the last thing he wanted… his soul twisted in his ribs and his grip started to ease…but that's when he felt the bandages… the minor amount of heat he could feel with his desensitized bones…
In an instant, what little that blaze in his eye went down, was more fierce than ever. "what happened?" he demanded.
"Nothing, it's okay."
"this is not okay! who hurt you?!" he roared out, looking up at her. His hand started to shake as he had to focus on not squeezing her. "was it asgore?!" he demanded. He used fire magic, she was out without him… did he try something?
"Sssh," she tried, pulling her arms from him and up to his face. While one hand gently caressed his jaw, her right went over his eyesocket, trying to smother the magical flame of his eye. "No, it was nothing like that, Sans. It was an accident, and Asgore was the one who treated it. I'm fine, I promise."
"no you're not… you're hurt," he whined a little as he leaned into her hand.
"I was hurt to begin with, remember? You threw me through a window."
He really started to rattle at that reminder. He had hurt her… He couldn't even think of an excuse… he thought she was Frisk, he was going to hurt her when he did it…
"i'm sorry…"
"Sans… are you all right? You're acting… weird, even for you."
"heh, we haven't known each other for very long, buddy… how would…" He couldn't even finish the sentence as she rubbed his burning socket with her thumb. He couldn't explain how comforting that felt… and it eased him down a little.
"You've literally been attached to me my entire time here. I think I got to know at least a little bit about you by now. At least general behavior."
"nothing really "general" about all of this right now… none of this is normal…"
"You want to talk about it?" she offered.
Sans hesitated, leaning into her hands more. "i don't… i don't know how to describe it…"
"Well, let's start with what you're doing up," she suggested, motioning back to the bed. "You only went to sleep a few hours ago, I didn't expect you to be up so soon with how tired you are."
"it's… only bee a couple of hours?"
"I know, right? Only a couple of boneheads like us could wake up with a short nap when we need to sleep for at least a day."
Sans couldn't help the weak laugh that escaped him. He leaned more into her right hand, feeling the fire in his eye slowly burning out with her cool touch.
"i want you to tell me what happened," he tried to redirect. As much as he did want to talk about what he was feeling… he wanted to know who to hunt down.
"Come on, let's go sit on the bed," she coaxed him, leading him to sit on the side of the bed once again. "Promise me you won't do anything. It really was an accident."
"heh, i'll be the judge of that," he joked, already missing the feel of her touching his cheekbones… they had just sat down… "c'mon buddy, tell me what happened."
Jewel shrugged a little bit. "Well, I had to pee," she teased, sticking out her tongue a little, explaining why she had got up originally in the first place, "and I thought that… well, since I couldn't sleep, I could clean up a little. But all my stuff was out in the Hall."
"so you went to get it," Sans finished the sentence, and scenario, feeling like a real ass for how he reacted. His soul still churned in his chest, and he gripped at his shirt, a slightly blue tint to his cheeks. He didn't know what he was going to do… he just… hurt so much… he wanted to make her realize what she had done, he thought… and that scared him. She hadn't done anything wrong…
"Sans?"
The skeleton looked up, that blue getting a little darker on his cheeks. "s-sorry, i… what happened after that? how'd you get hurt?"
"Asgore was apparently asking a small monster to bring you my stuff. He freaked out when he saw me and just started lashing out. He was a flame elemental. He didn't mean it, Sans. And Asgore did threaten him already for the action, he doesn't need to be tormented any further."
He could relate to that more than he cared to admit… technically he did something similar to her already… Speaking of…
"i should really change your bandages, now that i think about it," Sans spoke up, deciding to ignore the fact that she had been hurt by someone else for the time being. Accident or not, he couldn't be trusted at the moment… he just wanted to hurt them for hurting her… and that wasn't like him at all. What was going on with him?
"It's okay, Sans, it won't hurt to let it go a little longer."
"i don't think i can sleep again right now… you said you wanted to clean up. can you even do that with how you're hurt?"
"Uh… not a normal shower or anything no…" Jewel fidgeted. "I'll wash out anything that's keeping me from bleeding… it's too soon, especially for the wound in my back… I was just… gonna use a wash cloth and try and clean up some dirt and blood."
Sans decided to take a long, hard look at her. For the first time, he had a serious look on his face as he contemplated something he wasn't sure he ever would have otherwise. Having a mathematical mind was helpful, sometimes.
"wait here, i'll be right back."
It wasn't like she could really go anywhere, but it surprised her when Sans teleported out of the room without any explanation. She blinked, feeling the touch of magic on her hands. It was… different than what she felt with his eye. When trying to smother the flame, it was warm, and it felt like putting her hand near a candle. She could feel the warmth, it rising and meeting her hand, but it didn't burn. This, however, felt like a bit of an electric shock, but not unpleasant. It still left a tingling sensation, but like with the fire, it was… nice.
It took a couple of minutes, but Sans returned, teleporting back in with a stumble, clothes in his arms.
"Sans!" Jewel quickly grabbed the skeleton as his leg buckled under him. "Do you even have enough magic to keep doing this kind of thing?" she asked worriedly.
"heh, probably not," he muttered softly. He didn't want to admit too much, but that took more out of him than he thought… magically and emotionally. So as she held him, he took a minute to just lean into her, since she had him anyway… "i just… wanted to get you some clothes…"
Jewel glanced down to the fabric dangling in his arms. She couldn't tell anything but the color, orange and grey, but the way he held so tightly onto it…
"Sans… you didn't have to do that… especially… if that's…"
"paps would've done it in seconds," he softly whimpered out, his voice growing heavy. "and he'd have my skull if he knew i wasn't going to offer…"
"Sans, it's okay. If it's too much, I don't mind, I've got my hoodie, I can change into that."
"nah, it's… it's fine…" He pulled himself from the clothes to look up at her, small tears in his sockets. "he barely wore these, they were "lazy clothes" and he was never lazy, unlike me."
"Oh, sweetheart…" That almost broke her. Jewel leaned in, her forehead against Sans' as she squeezed him, hugging him close.
A faint dusting of blue found its way to his cheeks as the nickname passed her lips… Despite that it was no different than him calling her "buddy", the fact she was suddenly using a term of affection at all with him after everything he did…
"heh… paps would love you," he murmured as he nuzzled into her shirt, taking a moment to just… be.
He could feel her smile against his skull, a warm tear falling onto the bone. She always did that, didn't she? Cry with him… cry for him… Didn't she ever cry for herself? Glancing down at her arm, seeing the bandages, he remembered why she had come… and how he almost helped with it. Yet, her entire time here, she had done nothing but sit with him, put up with him breaking down and be nothing but supportive… how someone with such a weight on their soul could be so uplifting…
Sans started to pull himself up, finding his footing, he took her hand. "c'mon."
"Huh?"
"you don't do anything for yourself, do you buddy?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "you've put up with me for a while now… it's my turn."
"What are you..?" she questioned as he started to lead her, before realizing they were heading toward the bathroom. "Sans, I can clean up on my own."
"i need to change your bandages anyway," he pointed out, "you said you were just going to clean the dirt and blood off, i can do it at the same time."
Jewel blushed a little. "I g-guess," she fumbled a little.
"what?" Sans grinned back at her, "nervous about showing a little skin?"
"Heh, maybe… depends if you're into that kind of thing."
Sans stopped and turned, confusion plastered on his face for a second before his face started to turn blue. "i-i'm not-! i-i mean…"
Jewel chuckled a little before putting a hand on his shoulder. "Well, at least I know it wasn't your intention."
Sans sighed, still blue in the face. At least she wasn't upset. "you really think i'd do something like that? you're hurt, that's a little messed up."
She was silent, and Sans worried he put his foot in his mouth. She was unreadable, and he didn't like it… The only thing he got was that she wouldn't look at him now, and that… hurt. What did he do?
"jewel?" He gently put a hand on her arm. "are you okay? was it something i said?"
She was still for a moment, before leaning in, pressing her forehead against his own, her nose gently brushing against his nasal bridge. She had done it before, but this time there was a spark, something shooting through him that made his soul jump. For a second, it felt like… her soul resonated with his own, syncing for a single beat.
"Sorry, old habits. I trust you, Sans. I'm just… wary, I guess. I'm used to people having underlying motives."
He could understand that, more than he cared to admit. He was always looking for an angle… Frisk put him in such a bad headspace, he could never just take things at face value anymore… yet, wasn't that what he was doing with Jewel? The problem was the only angle he could see from her was trying to get out… but she didn't seem to be in any hurry… it was hard to see an ulterior motive when all she did was tend to him, help him through his grief.
"i feel that," he muttered a little as he leaned into her touch, his own hand reaching up, hesitating. He wanted to touch her, like she had him so often… just… caress her cheek, tell her it was going to be okay… but he couldn't. He couldn't believe it himself yet, so how could he promise her that? He didn't do promises… especially ones he couldn't keep.
But he noticed the blood still in her hair, dried now, but still… all the glass he had plucked out of her head had left its mark. He closed his sockets, feeling the guilt crawling up his back, before pulling away and taking her hand instead.
"come on," he said softly, "let's get you cleaned up."