Sans woke up faster than he had in years, something pulling insistently at his sleeping mind. He grunted and shifted as he tried to figure out what had woken him. The kids were squirming, but that was nothing new. He was in the Eternal Flame, also nothing new. The three solid hands resting on him were new. So was the sound of Papyrus crying.

"hhhh… bro? wha?" Sans shifted, weakly attempting to lift the stranger's hands from him. Where was Grillby? Where were the girls? Surely they wouldn't have let anyone dangerous close. If whoever this was had their hands inside the Eternal Flame they had to be a god.

"SANS!" Familiar hands touched him next to the stranger's, gently moving his shoulder down until his head rolled mostly upright. He blinked up to see Papyrus's blurry face next to someone he was pretty sure he'd never seen before. Right? "SANS, ARE YOU ALREADY AWAKE? HOW DO YOU FEEL?"

"tired," Sans replied simply. He struggled to sit up, assisted by Papyrus. "where's gr-… fiersome?"

"… I'm here, Sans." And he was, hovering in the crowded space around the rim of the Eternal Flame's urn.

Sans reached for him, pulling him in for a kiss. Grillby didn't resist, simply put a supporting hand behind Sans's skull while Sans threw his arms around Grillby's neck and happily drank in his heat. Thankfully, all the extra hands let him go once the kiss started. Sans heard a squeal and a quiet "AREN'T THEY JUST ADORABLE TOGETHER?" Sans ended the kiss, resting their foreheads together instead.

"… How are you feeling?"

"better now that you're here."

Sans turned his head to get a better look at the stranger, awake enough now that his vision had cleared up. Still vaguely familiar, still no clue who he was. "who's this?" He whispered to Grillby.

"… Lord Gaster," Grillby whispered back.

"oh shit!"

"SANS! LANGUAGE!" Papyrus chided.

Lord Gaster frowned and reached for Sans again. "DO YOU REALLY NOT RECOGNIZE ME?"

Sans scooted away from the reaching hands, his grip on Grillby tightening as he eyed the approaching limbs suspiciously. "sorry, not a lot of depictions of you around. most of the other high gods got a lot of paintings and statues floating around, wonder why there aren't a lot of you."

Grillby's hold on Sans shifted from behind his skull to a comforting arm around his shoulders, Sans relaxed a little into the hold even as he kept his good eye on Gaster.

"IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE I'VE HAD THIS VESSEL LESS THAN A CENTURY. BUT I'M MORE CONCERNED WITH YOUR MEMORY, PAPYRUS WAS STILL JUST BARELY A TODDLER WHEN YOU BOTH DISAPPEARED, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER."

"remember what?" Sans asked, looking between Grillby and Papyrus in confusion. Papyrus held up one of his hands and pointed at it with the other. Sans cocked an eyebrow, unsure what that meant. He wasn't wearing his gloves, did that mean something? He looked back at Gaster, who was holding a couple of his own hands out. Sans grabbed Papyrus's hand and held it up to Gaster's, comparing the two. "that's… weird."

"HE'S OUR FATHER!" Papyrus burst out, practically vibrating in place. "HE'S BEEN LOOKING FOR US SINCE THE WAR!"

"no?" Sans voice just dripped with confusion. "papyrus, he's a god, we're mortals. unless we're demigods?"

"… Sans, can you make colored bullets?"

"sure, blue ones. useful when you want someone to stay put, but what does that have to do with anything?" Bullets were easy, even Sans could manage those.

"… Only gods can make colored bullets, let alone change the color of a monster's soul."

"i… we… really?"

"OH! DID HE DIRECTLY AFFECT SOMEONE'S SOUL? WHAT WAS THE AFFECT?"

"WE CAN TURN PEOPLE BLUE!" Papyrus answered eagerly.

"AH, THE GRAVITY AFFECT, I SHOULD HAVE GUESSED. VERY USEFUL WHEN YOU WANT TO PUSH AN ATTACKER AWAY WITHOUT DOING SERIOUS HARM."

"OR SLAM THEM INTO A FEW SURFACES WHEN YOU WANT TO DO MEDIUM HARM."

"that's really a gods only thing?" Sans whispered to Grillby.

"… It's a high god thing," Grillby whispered back. "… Only the most powerful gods have magic strong enough for that."

"oh my god!"

"SANS, ARE YOU ABLE TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS NOW?" Gaster asked gently.

He wasn't so sure, but he could at least try. He nodded.

"DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER?"

"mom died a long time ago. we were attacked, i think."

"SANS WAS INJURED," Papyrus added. "IT NEVER REALLY HEALED ALL THE WAY."

"… He was?"

"INJURED WHERE?"

"HIS EYE."

Sans pointed to his right eye.

"WELL I WAS GOING TO SUGGEST TAKING YOU BOTH TO MT. EBOTT EITHER WAY, BUT I THINK THE SOONER THE BETTER."

"the three of us," Sans insisted, arms tightening around Grillby's neck.

"YES, OF COURSE. THAT WAS SOMETHING ELSE I HOPED TO DISCUSS WITH YOU SOON."

"nope. nothing to discuss, we're married and having kids and that's not changing."

Grillby gave a pleased crackle as he scooped Sans up into his arms. Sans happily nuzzled into his husband's neck.

"I WOULDN'T DREAM OF SUGGESTING OTHERWISE. BUT FOR NOW, IF YOU WOULD JUST FOLLOW ME." Gaster led their group through the inner court's entrance, only as they passed through it a weird darkness that made Sans's head spin fell over them. The darkness and accompanying dizziness passed quickly, but when Sans looked around them it was to find themselves in a completely different place.

They were outside now, standing under an overhang supported by stone pillars. Before them was a short set of wide stairs leading up to a wide set of stone doors with the delta rune emblazoned on them. The doors opened, allowing the buttery light within to spill out and halo the pair of tall, fuzzy monsters now standing in the doorway. They walked down the stairs and smiled warmly at their small group.

"Gaster, my friend! Did you find the cause of that disturbance?" The taller of the two asked in a deep voice. The crown perched between his curling horns a give-away to just who had come to greet them.

"HELLO ASGORE, TORIEL. AND INDEED I DID, I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS! MY CHILDREN ARE ALIVE AND WELL."

The king and queen both gasped in delight before rushing over to meet them. Asgore was a whole head taller than Papyrus, which Sans thought was pretty surprising when most depictions of the king of all monster gods were of him towering over mountains. Then again Papyrus was actually just a little taller than their father (and that was a weird idea he was going to take a while to get used to), so maybe he was just naturally tall.

"Hello, it is very nice to meet you," Toriel greeted with a hand out for Papyrus to shake.

"How wonderful, we had feared the worst." Asgore held a hand out to Sans, "Howdy, we are all very pleased to see you again."

Sans reluctantly slipped a hand from his grip on Grillby's neck to take the offered hand.

Asgore's eyes widened. "Oh my! Gaster, you are going to be a grandfather!"

Toriel gasped in delight, practically shoving Asgore out of her way. "Really? May I see?"

Gaster smiled bashfully. "YES, IT SEEMS SANS MARRIED LITTLE LORD FIERSOME HERE."

"Fiersome? I had heard that name recently for some reason… ah, I remember now. He married a mortal, did he not?" A look of understanding came over Asgore's face as he looked Sans and Papyrus up and down again. "Oh dear, there seems to be some great confusion here."

"Well come inside," Toriel insisted, a hand at Grillby's back to gently guide him to the door. "Do not just stand around gawking, I imagine you have quite the tale to tell."

"IF WE COULD, I WAS TOLD SANS WAS INJURED AS A CHILD AND IT MAY YET STILL BE AFFECTING HIM."

Toriel clucked her tongue and shook her head, "This way, then." She led them up the steps and into an entryway a lot like the one in the mayor's home, right down to the curling pair of stairs Toriel started walking up one side of.

Sans looked up at Grillby to find him staring open mouthed at the gods leading them, while Papyrus was looking around him in wonder. He didn't understand why, aside from the godly glow the king and queen of the gods didn't really look all that different from anyone else, and the palace looked maybe a little fancier than the mayor's manor.

Toriel took them down a hallway swathed in richly colored fabrics the same way the temple was, and from there into a surprisingly cozy room where Grillby was gently ordered to sit him on a settee. Once settled, Asgore pulled Grillby and Papyrus aside while Toriel and Gaster bent over Sans.

A new monster came bustling into the room, a yellow dragon who looked to be about Sans's height. She was in the midst of tying on a smock over her clothes. "Y-you called for me?"

"Yes, Alphys, thank you for coming so quickly. We believe this young man is afflicted with a curse."

"Ohmygoodness! W-w-where?"

"THIS EYE HERE."

"Oh!" Alphys drew out the oh as she got a good look at Sans. She glanced briefly up at Gaster, then back to Sans. She fumbled under the smock to find something before pulling out what looked like a hollow sphere of polished metal that had been cut in half. "Please hold still and keep your eye wide open," she instructed as she held the half sphere up. A tiny ball of light formed inside the hollow, reflecting brightly off the polished metal. Sans quickly put out his eye light to keep from being blinded. Alphys shined the light this way and that as she leaned close to look inside his eye socket, then held it back a little to make room for the long tweezers she was suddenly wielding in her other hand.

"I can see it, just hold still a little longer… there."

Sans felt an unpleasant sensation that was half sharp stab and half yank, then Alphys was triumphantly holding up a sharp looking shard of something. It was such a deep black it seemed to absorb light, but it also glinted like glass. Not to mention it was dripping some sort of oily looking black ooze.

The world suddenly dipped and spun, there was a rushing sound filling his skull. Sans wobbled and slumped into the settee, there were suddenly all manner of hands supporting him at his back, his shoulders, his elbows. He took a deep breath. The air was sharp in his rib cage, like someone had been holding his head underwater until his soul burned and he was finally getting the first taste of air in years. There was a loud crack that sounded far too much like bone breaking, then his hands were suddenly incredibly uncomfortable. Sans eased his eyes open in time to watch a pair of yellow hands cut his gloves off to reveal two pairs of hands trapped within. Sans quickly closed his eyes again, everything was too bright. Not like too much light too bright, but more like all the colors were too strong, too sharp.

There was a soothing warmth seeping into the right side of his face. "That is good, just breathe. In… and out…" Sans found himself following the instructions of the motherly voice. "Now my child, there is still some residue in your eye, you will need to expel it."

"i dunno how."

"HAVE YOU NEVER HAD SAND OR SOME OTHER IRRITANT IN YOUR ORBIT BEFORE? IT IS JUST THE SAME."

"okay." Sans tried to do as he was told, it was easier now that the world had stopped spinning, even if it still felt a little off kilter. He tilted his head down and opened his eye sockets, giving that little extra push to get stuff out. There was the cold slide of something wet slowly dripping from his right eye, followed by warmth streaming more quickly down his cheekbones. Then his other eye started dripping too. As he watched someone take a handkerchief to his cheeks his breath hitched and a broken sob came out. It was too much, it was all too much at once. There were arms around him and a voice cooing at him, telling him it was okay and to just let it all out. He clung to the other person, he didn't even care who at this point. His emotions were a swirling mess, he felt weird and tingly, everything hurt but it was also kind of a relief, the babies were squirming harder than ever, he had no idea where Papyrus or Grillby were, and he was crying. It felt like a hundred years of pent up feelings were all trying to get out at once.

He reached a hand out (and man was that ever awkward because now he had so many of them and he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with that extra bit of coordination yet) in the direction he thinks Grillby and Papyrus are. He needs them right now, he needs something familiar to ground him.

There's a warm touch on his hand and he clings to it for dear life, pulling Grillby closer. Then Papyrus is there too and Sans somehow manages to blindly pull the two of them into sitting down and crawl into their laps. It's such a relief he ends up crying all the harder.

Eventually he calms down, the tears slowing, then stopping altogether and his breath no longer hitching and choking. He feels exhausted and wrung out and energized.

"… How are you feeling now?"

Sans looked up into his husband's face, and he looks different somehow. Sans can't explain it, he just seems so much warmer all of a sudden. Sans looks over to where Papyrus is squeezed in next to Grillby, one of Sans's hands clinging desperately to his ribs through a whole in his shirt. Did he do that? Oops. Papyrus looks different too, flatter, less real, but also deeper, like there's so much more but it's hidden. Hidden like the misty, see through pair of extra arms under his regular pair, hands clasped calmly in his lap with thumbs twiddling away a mile a minute.

"SANS? HOW'RE YOU FEELING, BROTHER?"

"tired… awake… really weird. everything's different." He looked around the rest of the room, suddenly all the others were so much taller. The gods loomed over their small group and disappeared up into the endless space above them. They also looked the exact same as when he'd first met them, a weird double vision that was messing with his head. He tried closing one eye, then the other. Yup, each eye was seeing them differently. Ugh, he felt a little sick.

"It may take a little time to adjust to suddenly having that nasty curse removed," Toriel said kindly. She held up a plate with a steaming slice of pie and a fork resting on it. "A little food may help."

The pie, at least, was the same in both eyes, even if it had that same sense of more as Papyrus. Sans carefully reached for it, trying not to fumble it as he figured out how to coordinate his extra limbs. It would be awkward trying to eat with the way he was wrapped up in two monsters' arms, fortunately Papyrus and Grillby seemed to realize this as they scooted and maneuvered until he was sitting between them, plate settled in his hands. Everyone was staring at him.

"are you really all gonna watch me eat?"

"OF COURSE, WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED ABOUT YOU, BROTHER. NOW HURRY UP AND EAT, THERE'S SO MUCH MORE FOR US TO DO!"

Sans obediently reached for the fork, fumbled it as both his left hands were trying to grab it at the same time, then managed to bring the first bite to his teeth and absorb it. The pie was amazing, an explosion of flavors and too strong Taste as it raced through his mana lines. He coughed once, "wow."

"Do you not like it?"

"no, it's good, it's just… everything kinda… feels too much?"

"AH. THE CURSE MUST HAVE BEEN INTERFERING WITH YOUR SENSES AS WELL AS CRIPPLING YOUR MAGIC."

"It will take a while, but you will become used to it."

"vision's doubled too." He took another bite of the pie, it still tasted too much but now that he was prepared for it it wasn't so bad.

"THAT IS ALSO TO BE EXPECTED, THE CURSE WAS LIKELY AFFECTING THE VISION OF THE EYE IT WAS LODGED IN. IF THERE WAS ANY VISION AT ALL, THAT IS, IT WAS LIKELY VERY POOR. TIME AND PRACTICE WILL HELP WITH THAT."

"And perhaps a few more rounds of healing, but we can take things slowly. In fact, I should see to having rooms prepared for you."

"i wanna go home," Sans blurted out.

"SANS, IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR YOU TO REMAIN-"

"Of course!" Toriel spoke over Gaster. "You should rest at home, where you can be comfortable. Your father can bring you back here any time, and I can easily come visit you." Toriel gave him a gentle smile.

Sans nodded gratefully.

"Now eat up, you have been eating mortal food, have you not? It is not good for you nor the babies."

Sans shoved another bite of pie into his teeth.

"Although they seem rather healthy for gods raised only on mortal food." Toriel gazed slyly at Grillby, who blushed brightly and looked away.

"You gave food of the gods to a monster you believed was mortal?" Asgore asked from his seat across the room.

Grillby sputtered, sparks flying off him as his flames dimmed to a burnt orange, a few red flickers at the tips. "… Th-the children seemed to need it!"

Asgore's stern frown turned into a mischievous grin, "Well, he clearly is not a mortal, therefore you did not feed a mortal forbidden food."

Grillby's flames burned hot again, his eyes nearly lost in the white his flames turned. "… Thank you."

"there, done with the pie. can we go home now?" Sans held up the empty plate. He knew he was whining like a child, but he was so out of his depth and still feeling wrung out and shook up.

"OF COURSE, YOU NEED YOUR REST. I SHALL TAKE YOU HOME."

They all stood then, Grillby looked as if he wanted to scoop Sans up again, Sans thinks he might want him to. The world still felt strangely off balance, and trying to keep the extra arms coordinated certainly wasn't helping. Grillby took one of his hands and wrapped it around his own arm. Sans leaned into him and shot him a grateful smile.

Gaster led them out the door. This time Sans got a good look at the pitch black they walked through. It was lit up with distant stars and swirls of impossible colors, then the moment passed and they were back in Grillby's temple. They had just walked in the main entrance, at the end of the hallway the Dogi were still guarding the inner court. Their tails started wagging when they spotted the group.

"Welcome back!"

"(Did you have a safe trip?)"

"YES! IT WAS AMAZING! WE WERE AT THE TOP OF MT. EBOTT!" Papyrus gushed eagerly. "I GOT TO MEET THE KING AND QUEEN, SANS GOT A CURSE PULLED FROM HIS EYE, AND NOW I'M NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT BUT I'M SURE IT'S GOING TO BE EXCITING."

"… The first thing we're doing is putting Sans to bed, I'm not entirely sure how exciting that will be."

"I SUPPOSE HE DOES NEED REST AFTER ALL THAT. BUT… WHAT ABOUT YOU?" Papyrus hesitated as he looked up at Gaster (up, not at the version that was slightly shorter than him, weird), it seemed he had no idea what to call the guy either.

"I HAD HOPED TO BEGIN TEACHING YOU HOW TO PROPERLY UTILIZE YOUR MAGIC WHILE SANS RESTS, I AM AFRAID YOU BOTH HAVE A LOT OF CATCHING UP TO DO."

"THAT'S AN EXCELLENT IDEA! AND I KNOW THE PERFECT SPOT FOR IT, I CAN EVEN SHOW YOU THE REST OF THE TEMPLE ON THE WAY." Papyrus started walking up the hall, towards the hidden entrance to the living quarters. Gaster followed sedately behind him.

Sans found himself breathing a sigh of relief, then shoved his palms into his sockets. One hand was still clutching Grillby, so the last hand missed his socket and ended up smacking himself in the face. "uuuuuuuuuuugh."

"… You'll feel better after resting." Grillby gently tugged him through the entrance to the inner court.

"not even sure i can sleep right now."

"… I don't remember saying the word sleep." Grillby smiled down at him, a soft, sweet, gentle smile full of understanding. By god Sans loved him.

"yeah, okay, let's get our rest on." He let Grillby pick him up and place him in the urn, then waited as Grillby gracefully climbed in and settled down. They ended up with Grillby lounging against the shallow incline, his shoulders and arms resting along the lip while Sans was draped over his lap and chest. Grillby's arms didn't stay on the lip long, one soon wrapped around Sans comfortingly. The fact his hand ended up resting on Sans's belly was just a happy coincidence.

Sans quickly found himself drifting, not really tired enough to fall asleep but still too emotionally drained to do more than stare at the way the Eternal Flame's light danced across the wall.

Grillby shifted and pulled Sans just a little closer. "… Today has been a very long day."

Sans couldn't help a short, sharp laugh. "i'll say."

"… I can't decide if I want it to end already or if I'm dreading having to go back to business as usual once the mortals wake." And for the first time Sans and Papyrus weren't included in that.

"eh, ignore them for a day. you already got all of them on lock down."

"… I think I just might."

Sans looked up at Grillby, "i wasn't being serious."

Grillby leaned forward and dropped a quick kiss on Sans's teeth. "… And I very much was."

"but you got duties. important ones."

"… And they will keep for one day, you are more important." Grillby cupped Sans's face to stare lovingly down at him. Sans started to protest, but was cut off by Grillby's thumbs running over his teeth. "… And don't you dare say you aren't." The hand not caressing Sans's face moved down to caress Sans's round belly.

Sans couldn't help the genuine smile that spread across his face, one hand covered Grillby's on his belly, another cupping Grillby's face, one clinging to Grillby for support, the last holding him up. Sans thought he was getting better at using all these extra arms. Thank god he doesn't have to deal with his father's exorbitant number of limbs. "i'm just saying there's no rush, we got all the time in the world."

A look of surprise plastered itself across Grillby's face, which quickly morphed into utter delight. "… The rest of eternity." He shifted again, pulling Sans close so he didn't need to hold himself up on his arms. "… For as long as you'll have me, and then some."

"the rest of my life," Sans agreed before pulling Grillby in for a kiss.

AN: That was sweet, wasn't it? Look how perfect that ending is! I almost didn't want to write an epilogue. *wipes away a single tear* But I really, really like the epilogue, so tune in next week. It's going to be a short chapter, but I love it so much.