Hi there,

NellB here with another update.

Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to TobyFox, Underfell to the entirety of the Undertale fandom and the cover art is mine.

With that out of the way, enjoy!

ARC II - The Judge and The Damned

19XX - Years Ago

Sans was kind of tired, his eye-sockets dropping slightly and the work piling up and piling up and not diminishing at all. It felt nice to let go and focus on something completely abstract for once. That Gaster had even thought of asking for help was something unthinkable, but it happened. Sans didn't know how to feel.

He had been so happy that, for once, Gaster had seen his worth. Sure, he had given up on the other monster taking care of him and his brother properly, being there for them. Nonetheless, there was a traitorous part of Sans' mind that was pleased with the circumstances, that part of himself that had the skeleton needing to prove himself to the other monster.

So, when Gaster asked, Sans agreed immediately, but the unthinkable happened. He was having second thoughts. Maybe he just wasn't ready for that kind of job, that kind of responsibility. It was terribly boring and tedious without enough legally required breaks. Even if he had them, he just… got so immersed in the topic he couldn't let it go. The words alluring him, pulling his consciousness deeper and deeper into the task at hand. He lost track of everything outside of his little bubble. Even when he managed to get away from the books Gaster made him read, it was time to get back to them anyways.

Was this how Gaster felt all the time? Having plenty of it yet using it so single-mindedly that it wasn't enough for him? Because Sans… Sans was afraid. He felt that if that disposition were to go on, he would lose himself to the science he loved so much, that joy that filled him, that thrill... It wasn't something that he felt he could easily escape.

That feeling, something inside of him that made him stay focused on the same damn task all the time… Thinking about the solitude of Gaster's absence, Papyrus' questions and Grillby's worries… Sans was afraid that he might end up just like Gaster.

No, that wasn't entirely correct either. Sans wasn't afraid.

He was terrified.

Maybe agreeing to work in a project at the Labs wasn't such a good idea, maybe Sans should have said no and be done with it, just being the over-glorified errands boy. But of course Gaster had to ask him, of course he had to say yes, of course he wanted more time with the Doctor… Of course.

Looking back, Sans knew he wouldn't have changed anything. He had been too happy, too giddy in the feeling of recognition from his guardian. Heck, he was sure that if the other asked him anything at all all his answers would have been yes. Like, would you like burgers or fries? Yes.

Hilarious.

Still, the work had its handicaps. Sure, he was smart, that had been acknowledged, finally, but it seemed to not be enough.

Not that he ever was, what did he expect?

Still, not enough yet. That gave him a push to get done with it, to not stop until he finished everything Gaster felt was necessary before the experiment started. The books he needed to read were plenty and Gaster wouldn't be satisfied until he read them all, claiming that Sans knew about a lot of stuff but he needed to be sure he understood everything perfectly. The doubt stung, but Sans understood. He really, really did.

He was just a kid, after all. Gaster must have been out of his mind when he asked for his help. He asked Sans for help, out of all the monsters. A kid with still two stripes, a sickly kid at that. Again, Sans doubted he was the monster for the job, maybe he was not enough, would never be enough, he wasn't enough to make him stay at home or to take care of Papyrus or…

Sans' head hurt.

Maybe he just needed some fresh air. He had been reading quantum physics non-stop since agreeing to the experiment thing, after all. Looking at the window in the little room next to the Doc's office that had been lent to him, he supposed that Hotland didn't exactly have fresh air, if the name didn't give it away. It wasn't a cool place at all, heh.

How long had it really been, though, since he went back home to Snowdin? Somehow, Sans couldn't focus enough to get an estimated idea, but having to think about it told the skeleton enough. He could take the day off, he was sure that Gaster wouldn't really mind, not that he would notice that Sans wasn't in the room in the first place with how busy he was for the King's visit in a few days. Not that he wanted the other monster to notice or anything, really.

Wow, he sure needed to get out. Fast. He was starting to sound like Tsundereplane.

Stretching and hearing his spine pop because of his hunched position of reading all this time, Sans grimaced and got up from the chair. It made a grating, screeching noise that made him flinch and that made the pain come back, so he just stopped moving at all.

Stars, he was such a mess.

His clothes didn't smell, he didn't have the glands for it, but it was a near thing with magical sweat taking its place. There were weird stains in his sleeves and there was a bit of drool in the chest are, surely from having fell asleep, though he couldn't remember such thing happening recently. His mind was kinda muddled by exhaustion.

Shuffling the papers to make them look more organized, he took stock of the room once more. The bookshelf was mostly empty, there were only some biology and history related things. It was no surprise, given that everything else was in the pile Sans needed to read. The tile floor was spotless and the window got foggy because of the heat outside. The chair was just plastic and the table looked more like an examination one you would see in a hospital or something instead of a desk, full of papers and books all over it.

Such a mess, Sans didn't want to look at it anymore. Didn't want to look at himself anymore.

What did he want, though? He didn't know. The Labs seemed something out of this world, something he had always dreamt of. Now he wasn't sure if it wasn't a nightmare instead, this headache was killing him. Funny, he didn't have the necessary organs to develop a headache, but he did have to breath even without having lungs so what the heck, he wasn't going to question it.

Opening the metal door, again cleaned with something akin to OCD in its perfect mess, he left the room behind with a destination in mind.

Snowdin.

Sans was filled with exhaustion and hope.

Sans soon fell into a routine. It had only been a week, yet after that day that he got saturated with everything (three days that he had been gone without notice, three whole days that Papyrus spent asking after him with Grillby's sad and almost disappointed eyes. Sans was ashamed) he usually spent the day cycle in the Labs while asking Garfield to notify him when it ended.

It was still bothering him a little that he had to depend on another monster for that kind of thing, but even with his open disposition, Garfield was the mysterious and reliable type, so he managed.

The Underground didn't really change between those hours, not like the Surface, anyway. There wasn't a different brightness or darkness, there wasn't a reliable way to keep track of time but with a few clocks that somehow ended in the Dump. Even then, clocks weren't common, so every one of them needed to be donated to the Royal Guard, who were in charge on distributing them in such a way that most of the official buildings had one. Snowdin's Librarby was one of those buildings, he though absentmindedly.

Nonetheless, sleep was a necessity. All the monster agreed some kind of sleeping cycle had to be had so nobody disturbed the others. Most monsters at the Lab ignored it, too inmersed in their research to keep track of time or even bother to think about leaving if they had an experiment going on. Just like Gaster, the skeleton bitterly guessed. Just like him if he wasn't careful, too. So, in the Labs, the sleeping cycle was something seemingly alien, but Sans found it was the only way to make himself go away.

If he didn't have a clear signal to let it go, he would be trying to leave for hours. No kidding. It happened with his previous procrastination too. In thirty minutes he would let go. Those thirty minutes would become an hour, which in turn would become two hours and so on. At least working and studying were better than spending all day in bed, too tired to do anything, too pained from growing pains and magic development.

Puberty was such a bitch. Sans wasn't even that tall!

He didn't really remember the time when Gaster stopped coming home to Snowdin. It had been something gradual, little by little, but it still felt awful. And that was with his little brother and Grillby to keep him company.

Papyrus was enough, he said, even if deep in his soul he longed for Gaster too. He didn't care, he told himself, even when it felt like Gaster's absence like a punch to his nonexistent gut.

He didn't want to make Papyrus go through that feeling again, the one they both had when the Doc started to not come back. He would be there, Sans told himself, he was not Gaster and he never would be. The doubt at the back of his mind told him, warned him, of the possibility that his efforts to be there wouldn't matter in the end. It was inevitable, really, that he would end up as a jerk in adulthood. But he didn't want to hurt his brother, never Papyrus. Sweet, small and innocent Papyrus that he sure as heck was going to pick up today after school.

In your face, conscience.

And now Sans was talking to himself. Fantastic.

The skeleton kid went quickly through the different parts of the Labs with a clear goal in mind, the exit. The smoldering heat, the terrible smell of sulphur and melting rocks…

Stars, Hotland sucks.

Not one to be deterred by such things, Sans pushed through. He would just have to get on with it, his swirling thoughts making forgo taking the Riverperson's boat in order to clear his mind and be disconnected from work by the time he reached Snowdin.

It worked. It had to.

20XX - Years Ago

The snow kept drifting in Snowdin, a peaceful haze that mended everything together in a peaceful state. It was a lie, she knew, but she found she couldn't care at all anymore. Everything was so beautiful when looked at with the correct lenses, even if it was her husband the one with the glasses. That would have been a good pun for his repertoire, she thought sadly.

Her husband didn't really make jokes anymore. It was fine, the Underground wasn't a place of joy and laughter anymore, the hope the monsters exuded in waves tainted with something as horrible as LV. She couldn't bring herself to hurt another, not really. This wasn't the kind of place she wanted for his son Snowy, but she couldn't do much of anything these days anyways.

She had always been a bit more delicate than the rest of the monsters health wise. Her husband knew this, the Inn Keeper knew this, everyone in Snowdin did. The killings... No, murders. The murders felt like a tangible guilt in her conscience. She didn't go out, couldn't if she didn't want to risk herself and her husband. Her little Snowy was still a kid and would be a long time before he was out of the three stripes in his way to adulthood. Had it been so long already?

She felt so tired.

Always indoors, always confined in a tight space. The air in Snowdin, once pure and fresh, smiling of pine trees... Everything was such a disaster.

So, so tired...

Yes, the snow was beautiful, she thought as she closed her eyes. She collapsed, never to wake up again. Her last words a plea for her son, for him to be okay, an apology, a caress, a word infused with as much love as she could, not LOVE. Never LOVE.

- Snowy...

So, guess who's back?

If you are questioning the change in Sans' attitude relating Gaster, that's easy. He's tired. If you think about it, he's a teenager about to hit puberty and he knows it, so he's moody as heck, even if he doesn't know what that entails for a skeleton monster like himself. He's pretty good at pretending to be completely okay when he's clearly not, too, so there's that.

Also, we have the first fallen monster. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Out of all the amalgamates, Snowy's mother was the one to hit me in the feels the hardest.

So, what do you think? Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome.

NellB out! =D