The first thing Sans knew he had to do was make sure the lady behind the door didn't get hurt. He still had a day before the kid would come out of that door.
He remembered having fallen asleep beside the door on what was the next night, after a long exchange of bad jokes and casual conversation, then waking up the next day to the sound of the human's footsteps approaching the door.
Sans walked out of his room, stepping onto the path in front of the Ruins door as if it existed directly outside of his own door. He walked to the door and knocked twice.
"Who's there?" It seems that the lady behind the door was also awake,
"sans." Sans put his hands in his pockets.
"Sans who?"
"sans i can't sleep tonight, i decided to tell some bad knock-knock jokes and actually introduce myself. sans the skeleton."
Silence. And then, two knocks.
"who's there?"
"Ice."
"ice who?"
"Ice to meet you, Sans. My name is Toriel."
They both laughed. It made sense. The Queen of Monsters left, and it seems the theory/rumor that she began living in the ruins was true. And when it came to jokes, her timing was impeccable. Sans wondered why they didn't introduce themselves in the other timeline. Sans supposed he just... never bothered. And never cared to ask. And she died without them even knowing each other's names. There was so much he should have said then. Sans was struck by a pang of guilt. His apathy, his nihilism, his lack of will to act had cost the lives of his friends and his brother. Now, he had the chance to make it truly right, and he was determined to do so. This opportunity wasn't going to slip through his fingers.
"toriel, um, may i talk to you for a bit?" Sans sat down, leaning against the door.
"Of course, Sans. I would never shun the company of a bone-ified friend." They shared a snicker.
"well, this friend has been skull-king around for a bit and would appreciate being lent a hand." To emphasize this, he shook his hand a little, rattling its bones. After a few giggles, Sans began to explain things.
He explained that he knew that time had been reset. That the timelines were jumping back and forth, starting and stopping. He knew that this was the work of a human child with an incredible deal of determination. He warned Toriel about them. He glossed over the fight he had, skipping over how he had watched while the human killed people one by one. He told her the important things. He had reset time, and he wasn't sure he could do it again. He insisted that no matter what happened, that she wouldn't let the human kill her.
"promise me, toriel. promise me that if you see dust on their hands, run. don't let them touch you. please."
Knock knock.
This was going to be good. "who's there?"
"Canoe."
"canoe who?"
"Canoe come in for a moment? I am opening the door."
Now that was unexpected. Before Sans found a proper response, the door opened. As he was asked to, he stepped in, and the moment he did, he was hugged.
Had Papyrus been there, he would have been proud of how well he'd trained his brother to receive hugs, as Sans wasted little time gaping before returning the hug.
"My apologies if this was unexpected... but it sounded like you needed that."
Sans closed his eyesockets, grinning. "thank you, toriel."
They held the hug for a bit, and Sans was comforted by the woman's compassion and warmth.
"Would you like to stay for a bit? I would enjoy the company, and if what you say is true, preparations will have to be made to ensure the safety of the monsters in the Ruins."
"yes, yes please." It felt like too, too long since the last time they talked, though it was only yesterday from Toriel's perspective. Was this how the human felt when they reset? How many times have they done it? How much determination did they have?!
So they walked to Toriel's home.
"You do intend to tell your brother what you have told me, am I correct?"
"yeah. i don't wanna worry him but... what happened last time... i can't let it happen again. i warned you first because you'd be the first to see them."
Toriel nodded. "Good."
Then they began talking. Mostly idle small-talk with a number of puns thrown in for good measure. Sans realized that if he'd never reset, he'd have never seen her smile, or the way her eyes sparkled in the light of the fireplace. The reminder of what he had to protect filled him with determination.
Some time during the night, Toriel brought out a snail pie and drinks. Sans protested at first, saying it wasn't necessary, but caved pretty quickly. And the pie was divine. The snails were soft and somewhat chewy, with a light, slightly sweet, lemony flavour. He wondered if the recipe was as complex as rocket science. It'd have to be. There couldn't be an easy way to make snails taste so good.
Nearly morning, they said their farewells and Sans went to bed. Though his sheets were balled up, Sans chose to sleep in his room, as Papyrus would have woken him up only two hours later if he did not. Which was usually fine, but he didn't usually spend a large portion of the night in the Ruins chatting amicably with Toriel and eating pie.
Sans woke up with a slight headache. Or skull-ache. Same thing. He looked around, half expecting to see the final corridor leading to the throne room. Nope. Still wasn't a dream. This was going to take some getting used to.
He checked the time.
To say that he was late for work would be an understatement. To say that he was very late for work would be only slightly less of an understatement.
Fortunately, Papyrus had sentry duty covered, and he was his own manager for his other jobs. He thought for a bit, and managed to remember the two monsters who would have bought hot dogs from his stand had he not slept for the entire day, as they did before... the last time the day occurred. Though there wasn't much he was going to be doing with that information.
The human also hadn't come during the day. That was scheduled for tomorrow. Unless they had. If they'd remembered...
Sans sat bolt upright, eyes glowing. If they remembered and made it through the Ruins faster than they did last time, or chose to fall sooner, they could already be in Snowdin. Papyrus could be in danger, or even dead and what did he do? Stay up all night and sleep in.
He took a shortcut downstairs, neglecting to throw the ball of blankets off him first, and as a result, accidentally brought them with him.
"pap—oof!" He was suddenly blinded as the covers fell on top of his skull and surrounded his head.
"AH, SANS! YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE, LAZYBONES. AND YOU BROUGHT YOUR SHEETS DOWN! IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU WASHED THEM!" Papyrus poked his head out of the kitchen.
Despite being blinded, Sans was relieved. He took the blankets off his head and threw them at the couch. He'd either sleep there later, or actually wash them. Bringing them back to his room would be too much of a bother, or so he decided.
Of course, Papyrus wasn't done talking. "DID YOU SLEEP WELL? ...I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU. I DIDN'T SEE YOU ALL DAY, AND GRILLBY SAID YOU DIDN'T VISIT AT ALL. DID YOU HAVE A NIGHTMARE?"
"no," Sans replied, "i just..." He realized that this would probably be the best time he was going to get to tell his brother about everything. No point leaving it for later.
"pap, do you have a minute? or, well, a bit more than a minute..."
There was a click, possibly of a stove being turned off, followed by several more, organic, clicks as Papyrus walked over to Sans.
"DID SOMETHING HAPPEN? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" The taller skeleton looked at his brother in concern.
"yes and no... it's a bit of a long story." And thus Sans began.
Sometime during his recounting, Papyrus had wrapped his arms around him and sat down on the couch with him.
"SO GASTER... IS...?" It took quite a while to explain everything.
Sans shrugged. "dunno. he said he built the core."
Papyrus narrowed his eyesockets. "BUT DIDN'T ...SOMEONE ELSE... BUILD THE CORE?" Everyone knew who built the Core. He'd just forgotten the name momentarily. He'll remember it some time later, with a snap of his fingers and an "AHA!" at some random time.
The name was on the tip of Sans' nonexistent tongue. "yeah, weird huh?" He scratched the back of his skull. "but something about him... seemed really familiar..." Almost unconsciously, Sans was signing his impressions of the monster with his fingers. Gaster reminded him of a distant memory, something akin to a long-forgotten dream.
Papyrus unwrapped himself from Sans and started signing back, not even realizing that they were no longer speaking with their voices. He asked Sans to tell him more, wanting to know every detail he could remember.
Sans, unfortunately, didn't know very much. But the hands Gaster summoned were familiar, and there was something about the way he spoke in scientific terms.
It didn't take very long for Sans to run out of information, and the two brothers were left looking at each other, thinking about Gaster.
Papyrus broke the silence. "SO. WE WILL BE SEEING A HUMAN TOMORROW?"
Sans nodded. "yeah, probably."
"AND. THEY ARE DANGEROUS."
"yeah."
"..."
"..."
The silence didn't stay broken for very long.
You wake up on a field of flowers. Sunlight streams in from the hole above you. You get up, walking to leave the room as you've done, so many times before, the patch of flowers reminding you of a certain yellow flower, a monster prince, his parents. You leave the room, and see the flower is not there. Not too surprising. He doesn't show up every time. You wait, and Toriel comes and leads you as she always has. She doesn't remember the flavour of pie you chose. She leads you to the dummy and tells you to speak to it. You comply. It's not much for conversation. Nothing new yet. You continue, and your curiosity fills you with determination. You want to see what Sans is going to do.
A/N: A little determination goes a long way. A lot of determination goes even farther.
And this is not relevant to my note.
I considered making this chapter longer, but then the last bit seemed like a good place to stop for now. Do tell me if you want chapters to be longer or shorter or whatever.
