For the first time since coming back up to the surface, Frisk didn't have anything to do that Saturday- at least, nothing obligatory.
She couldn't count all the arguments that she'd had with the mayor of the human city after becoming an ambassador. She met with him and with Asgore every other weekend, and even a couple weeks days when she technically should have been in school like an ordinary kid. (Ordinary kids did not attend a monster school, at least not yet, but still.) It turned out that brokering peace between two races was more complicated than she thought.
She wasn't worried, but it made her really appreciate this Saturday when she didn't have to go discussing human issues with having monsters live next door. The child even slept in until ten, and woke up to a still-warm pie slice by her bedside which ended up serving for breakfast.
Lazing about was done; it was time to get down to business, the kind of business that she liked to do. Childish business.
Frisk was dead-set on drawing everybody who had formerly lived in the Underground, and she had the paper, colored pencils, and time to do it. She had already completed a handful over these weeks of their freedom, but there were several she was missing still, not to mention the hundreds of monsters that she hadn't met yet, mostly from New Home, that she still had to go find in and outside of the new monster city. ...Some might say that, given the sheer number of them out there, this task was impossible.
She just got out her pencil and sketched Shyren on the floor of her living room. Her locket swayed each time she assumed a new position, turning her sketchbook this way and that, and she bit her tongue in concentration. A tune started playing through her head and she hummed along, murmuring lyrics in a voice so quiet that she hoped no one else could hear her, if anyone were to walk in.
The music was interrupted by knocking on the door.
"Frisk, dear, could you get that?" Toriel asked from the stairwell. "I've got paint all over my hands."
"'Kay," the child called, running and opening up the door wide.
As soon as she did, she smiled to see Sans on the other side. When he saw her, his eyes... didn't widen, exactly, because they were just sockets, but she was sure that she saw surprise. And then Frisk thought she heard something like, "heya twerp!"
The smile vanished from her lips, "Eh?"
Sans coughed, and said a bit slower, "-i said nice shirt."
After a second of hesitance, she gave in to the compliment, having hoped someone would comment each time she stepped outside. Grinning big again, Frisk rolled up her striped sweater to show the shirt underneath, this one bearing a starry field pattern. "Oh yeah, it's all the constellations you told me about! I couldn't find that lion one anywhere though, even when I turned off the lights so it would glow- in the dark..." her voice trailed off as she let her sweater go, face going sheepish.
"heh. looks inaccurate as hell but it's cool," Sans said, and Frisk stared at him with her mouth open. It wasn't that she hadn't heard the word "hell" before, but she hadn't ever heard it from Sans. At her gaze, a couple beads of sweat went down his skull. "...what?"
"You swore," Frisk said, suddenly grinning.
"...what, hell? hell's not a swear word," Sans stammered, before cutting himself off, "a-a-ctually, isn't this supposed to- uh... is Toriel here?"
He never got flustered before. He must be up to something. Frisk nodded, pointing deeper into the house to where her adoptive mother was still painting the stairwell a bright blue. Ever since Frisk it told her that blue was her favorite color, she had apparently made it her quest to paint the house. Frisk didn't want to be rude by pointing out that she had other favorite colors too; her room looked pretty cool now, at least, and the walls in this old place really did need a fresh coat.
Sans stepped in while Frisk swung back with her hands still on the door handle. "in there?" The child nodded, and he muttered, "talkative as ever, i see." As Sans walked past her the child followed and absently thumbed her locket. She prepared to make a dash and protect her drawings from being seen before they were all finished, if necessary. But he didn't go into the living room. He just called out, "...toriel?"
"Oh!" As Toriel came down the stairs, wiping her wet and washed hands on her robe, Sans' back arched. "What a pleasant surprise, Sans! I did not know that you would be coming by today!"
"... aaha..." exhaling, he seemed to need a second to respond, his posture still stiff where he stood staring at her. Toriel stood in the entryway to the kitchen, waiting patiently; playing again with her locket in her hands, Frisk stepped quietly to the side of Sans to see them both better, pressing her back into the as-of-yet yellow kitchen wall. "y... well, uh."
Toriel and Frisk exchanged looks, as Sans struggled to make words. Hopefully this wasn't something she had to leave the room for. But then Toriel prompted, with a kind smile, "Is something the matter?"
Slowly, Sans exhaled again and scratched his head. Finally he said, "-no. uh... how are you feelin' today?"
She chuckled, "I am feeling fine, thank you! And you, my friend?"
"-pretty good. actually," he nodded in kind, smiling more earnestly at her. Although soon his smile waned, and he added, "well, i guess i've been feeling off lately. woke up today with a sore throat or something."
Exchanging looks again, Frisk and Toriel both frowned. Her guardian came forward, saying, "Let me feel your forehead." Without saying any words, Sans stood completely still and just kept his eyes trained on Toriel, although he grumbled something about "don't worry" under his breath. Pressing both the back and the palm of her hand against bone, Toriel mused, "You wouldn't be the first monster to get sick since our excursion up to the surface. It's only been minor illnesses, luckily. You know, disease is not nearly as rampant in human societies as it was before the war."
"that so?" Sans mumbled.
"Yes! Frisk told me just the other day about a human invention called vaccines that is responsible for that," Toriel said as stood back. "Although all that aside, I don't feel any fever on you, Sans."
"Can a skeleton even get sick?" Frisk piped up.
Sans touched his bony fingers to the spot where Toriel had rested her hand and smirked, not bothering to look over at Frisk, "honestly, i don't have any idea. never been sick before."
"All monsters catch diseases, sweetheart," Toriel said gently. "Would you like me to make you some soup, Sans, just in case?"
"no."
There was a pause between all three of them, before Sans added, roughly, "i mean you don't have to go to the trouble of... making anything, toriel. papyrus is already picking things up from the store for me."
"Nonsense! Perhaps I can at least give you and Frisk some for lunch?"
"uh... sure."
You feel as though something is wrong.
Frisk couldn't put her finger on it, but Sans was definitely acting strange. She could chalk it up to the fact that he had even said he woke up sick, but somehow that didn't seem right either. Someone sick would be tired, right? But Sans was on edge, it felt like. That was the difference in his voice, more than anything else. It jarred her whenever he spoke.
Did something happen? She wanted to ask, but wasn't sure if she should when Toriel was there with them. The boss monster didn't seem to notice anything, and then... she had enough to worry about. Lots of kids at the school were calling in sick with colds and flus.
The soup was delicious, at least. To give her a better sense of flavor than monster magic could provide, Frisk's bowl had human vegetables added into it. Both she and Sans ended up slurping it up at the table, to Toriel's dismay, and too the milk that came afterwards. ... Actually, after that, Frisk felt better and let it go. Sans didn't look any different.
Once full she flopped partway over the table and just let them talk, Toriel carrying most of the conversation this time. It was hard to keep track of- her mind was already wandering back to her project, to the half finished Shyren picture. After making a sketch it was fine, but some monsters she wanted to get done today she was having trouble remembering in clear detail, like Shyren's fishy manager or Final Froggit.
She knew where the Final Froggits congregated.
"T-mom!" She lifted her head, and Toriel broke off from her speech on the word "apricot". "I'm gonna go out and take pictures, is that okay?"
"pictures of what?"
While Toriel nodded her assent, Frisk spoke quickly, "Of the other monsters! It's hard to keep in mind what all of them look like, you know?" Sans squinted at her and she scoffed, "Maybe you don't know, since you know everybody, but still..."
At that, he grinned. "if you say so f-frisk." She was already scurrying into the living room and sliding her colored pencils back into their case, shuffling and putting away her papers, and looking for her phone.
"Please make sure to ask permission first, dear, you know some of them can be camera shy," Toriel said, and the child hesitated. Asking permission to take a picture of someone was something that hadn't even occurred to her until now; it wasn't like she was going to post them anywhere, it was just for reference. She didn't need to ask permission to draw pictures of people, right? "Frisk?"
"Uhhokay," she finally said. She had the cellphone in her hand at last, and grinning the child snapped a quick one of her own face. She didn't need to ask herself permission, at least. She turned, and Sans was still watching her carefully from the kitchen. Tilting her head at him, Frisk started out slow and quiet, "...Did you wanna come with me, Sans?"
He exhaled. "uh-... sure."
"Have fun, you two! I have a house to get back to!" Toriel said; soup finished, she turned an energized look back towards the stairwell. "I promise that by the time you get back, the whole upstairs is going to be blue as the sky!"
As he stood, Sans glanced towards the stairwell, "eh- why?"
"For Frisk, of course!"
Frisk put a hand over her face and peeked at Sans, blushing. He smirked back. "that so... hah, don't let this kid give you the blues, toriel. try red instead."
Toriel's muffled laughter followed the two of them out the door, and Frisk pictured an entirely red house as opposed to a blue one. Then, while Sans was looking back at the door as though able to see Toriel on the other side of it, she snapped a picture of him with her phone.
"-! hey!" The child dodged from his grasp, darting down the steps, "oh, think you're pretty funny eh? don't disobey the lady, she might stop being so friendly to ya," he said.
Frisk halted and looked back, Sans following her onto the sidewalk. "... Wait, what does that mean?"
Sans put his hands in his pockets. "...it's a joke. possibly."
"Possibly?" Frisk held up her phone again and, with a blank expression, snapped a second picture.
Sans tensed, "-okay stop."
Snap!
"i'm gonna take it from you." His grin was huge but his eyes were definitely harsh. Frisk grinned huge back and started to run down the sidewalk. "gh-! get back here kid!"
She thought she'd gotten a good start, but it felt like only half a second before his bony hand was yanking her to a stop, grasping one arm tightly. "Ow!"
His other hand snatched the phone out of her grasp, "there we go."
She laughed, but only because the pain of him holding on to her arm was slowly fading. "Heyyy, give it back..."
"nnnah," he closed one eye lazily as he flipped through the phone, "not until i delete everything on it."
"No don't!"
She reached to grab it and he laughed, holding it out of her reach. "what, you want it back?"
"Sans!"
"okay. but, uh, first how do you erase stuff on this thing?"
"I worked hard for those pictures!"
He still didn't hand it back, using one hand to push her out of reach as he looked through her photos. The child felt the barest stab of panic. One that was, surely, completely unwarranted. "you can work hard for the new o-"
The shrill response that had been building was stopped in her throat, and Sans' taunt as well, by another sound that neither expected. It was a ringtone, one that she didn't recognize. Sans' pupils had turned to tiny pinpricks in his eyes, and while he froze in place Frisk was able to slide out from under his hand and recapture her own phone. She backed away a few steps, assuring herself that most of the images were safe.
Sans reached into his pants pocket and brought out the cellphone, staring for several seconds. Frisk was about to ask if he was going to answer it when the skeleton finally opened the thing, putting it close to his skull with his smile wavering. The panic that had entered Frisk's gut returned and she thumbed her locket, putting her phone away for the time being.
From the other end of Sans' phone came a voice, slightly tinny, faint, and distorted by static. It came out suddenly and shouted, loud enough for even Frisk to hear, "SANS!" Upon hearing it, Sans ripped the phone away from his head, and Frisk stopped in her tracks. He said, in a hiss, "fuck-"
The voice continued on uninterrupted, "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN..." It kept occasionally shorting out, and Sans was just staring at it with wavering eyes that were like needle-points. Frisk gripped the locket in her hands tightly, a nervous smile plastered on her face to match the smile on the skeleton in front of her. "...JUST FUCKING EVAPORATED AND I GOT VERY BONETROUSLED LOOKING FOR... ... ... DECENCY TO CALL..."
"Who's that?"
In asking, she broke the chain of screaming from the phone; as she did Sans's eyes flickered in her direction, beads of sweat going down his skull. "... wrong number?"
"...ALSO FIXED THE RAILING SO YOU'RE WEL-" Sans turned the phone off and the voice vanished, leaving a vacuum silence.
Finding herself shaking, Frisk dropped her smile and curled up her nose, "Was that Papyrus?"
Sans was breathing a little funny. "... ...apparently? he, uh. he didn't sound good, did he?" One of those funny breaths came out as a shaky laugh. "that was... really weird, am i right?"
Frisk nodded, and tilted her head, "What does 'fuck' mean?"
"uhhhh listen, kid," Sans crossed the distance between them both, smiling wider but with more sweat, and plopped his hand on her hand. "can you... not tell toriel that i used that word?"
This would be a good opportunity to say she would if he promised not to steal her phone again. But instead, the child looked down at the ground and then back up, frowning. "Is Papyrus okay?"
Still looking towards the phone at rapid intervals, the question took him off guard. "huh? what?"
"I've never heard him talk like that before," she tried again, clasping her hands together. "Is something wrong?"
Sans' eyes, which had retained that startled look the whole time since the phone first started ringing, returned to normal at last. But the child still wasn't satisfied, and those eyes roved over her face.
"is something wrong...?" He repeated, without a reply. The panic in the child became worry, until Sans said with a smile, "nah, everything's fine here. ...i'm sure he's just having a very bad day."
Hands moving behind her back, Frisk stared.
You suspect that Sans might be lying to you.
The staring continued, with neither one of them speaking or moving farther down the sidewalk. In time Sans' smile drooped, then grew abnormally large as his eyes took on a harsher glare, his shoulders visibly tensed. Although seeing it made her heartbeat increase, nothing changed on Frisk's face, and then he jerked his posture loose.
"...y'know what," the skeleton said finally, winking at her, "you should just focus on taking pictures of people other than me. that is what you want to do, right?"
The more familiar Sans had returned. "Yes..." the child offered a weak smile and rubbed her arm. Then with more energy, she said, "Let's go!"
When she turned to march down the sidewalk she heard him exhale sharply, one more time.
Author's Note: Thanks for your reviews, guys! I appreciate it ^ ^
Next Chapter: Not Tired, Tired
