A/N: Beware! PTA!Sans doesn't like bullies. I blame my daughter entirely for this long chapter. Enjoy!

CHAPTER FIVE

They didn't just spend time with Sans' friends. Frisk almost felt bad that they'd known each other for over a year and he'd never met her family. She asked him about it one day.

"You want me to meet your family?" Sans asked. "Gross."

Frisk laughed. "Not gross, you bonehead."

"A real numbskull, that's me." He pretended to give himself a noogie.

"But I'm serious. My mom and my brother are like me; they support monsters the way they would want to be supported if our situations were reversed. Please? I know they would love to meet you."

Sans considered that for a second. "You have a brother, too? How come I never knew that?"

"I don't know, but he's in high school. He'll graduate next year. Most of his friends are monsters, too."

"Hmm. I suppose it couldn't hurt. Your mom won't think it's anything…weird, right?"

Frisk laughed out loud. "Oh, my gods, Sans, you're worried about what my mom will think? I mean, she's my mom, but she knows we're just friends. Ya goon."

Sans breathed a sigh of relief. "In that case, I'll go meet 'em."

"I have to warn you, though; don't stare at MK, my brother. He was born without any arms, so he does a lot of things with his feet when he's at home. He doesn't like it when people stare."

Sans nodded. "You realize you're talking to a monster here, right? Humans might all have the same basic blueprints, but we don't. I know plenty of monsters without arms."

Frisk made a plan with her mom to bring Sans over for dinner one Friday night. Tori was excited to finally meet the monster her daughter talked about so often.

~LM~

"I never met a skeleton before," MK said with a nod of his blond head. "You look pretty cool."

Sans smiled. "Thanks, Kid." He gently nudged his shoulder against MK's. He had misjudged his strength, and MK stumbled back. Sans quickly caught him with a hand on his back. "Sorry."

MK smiled. "It's all good. Happens."

Sans wondered where Frisk got her looks when both her brother and her mother were blond with large, blue eyes. He noticed a few pictures in the living room with a man he'd never met. He looked like Frisk, and he wondered if that was her dad. He asked MK about it, and he confirmed the theory.

"What happened to him?" he asked.

MK shrugged. "He died."

The kid looked down, and Sans figured it was a story he didn't want to tell. He didn't push it.

Frisk asked Tori four times if she could help with anything in the kitchen, but she was adamant that she had everything covered. Instead of insisting she help, she went out to the living room with Sans and MK to talk until dinner was ready. She noticed MK was being more shy than normal. He was usually only this way around humans. She hoped he was okay.

A while later, Tori came in and sat down next to Frisk on the couch. "About ten more minutes, guys."

Sans rubbed his hands together. "Can't wait; smells awesome."

They talked a bit longer, Tori asking Sans about his job. He talked about working at a hot dog joint near the big monster laboratory and a few other odd jobs. Frisk knew he also worked with his dad, but he never mentioned that. It was weird, Frisk thought. She also thought it was weird how quiet MK was being.

When dinner was ready, they moved into the dining room. Sans and Frisk helped move the food to the table. When everyone was served, the table was quiet for a few short minutes before Tori started asking Frisk about her job. She was no longer working at the department store. She'd gotten a new job as secretary for an up-and-coming carpenter monster. After the short interrogation, she turned her attention to MK.

"How was school this week, MK? I feel like we haven't talked all week." Tori smiled at her son.

MK grimaced. "It sucked."

Tori shot a quick glance at Sans, a little embarrassed that her son chose to sulk today. "Care to elaborate?"

Frisk frowned at her brother, worried.

Sans had thought he was just being a typical human teenager, but the look Frisk shot him told him otherwise. Maybe something was wrong.

"Not really," MK muttered.

Tori tried to leave her son alone, but she was worried about him. He had been growing increasingly distant as the weeks went on. She knew he was having a hard time in school, but she had thought they'd solved that issue when she'd had a meeting with the principal and a few of his bullies' parents.

After dinner, as Frisk and Sans cleaned up, Sans couldn't help but overhear Tori and MK in the living room.

"MK, please tell me what's wrong?"

"Mom, I'm fine, I swear. Can you just leave it alone?"

Tori sighed. "No, I can't because you're my son and I worry about you. Please?"

"Dammit, Mom! Leave me alone!" He stormed out of the room and went to sit on the back deck.

Sans and Frisk shared a look.

"I think it's happening again." Frisk sighed. "The bullying. Dammit."

Sans nodded. "Mind if I try?"

Frisk just shrugged. Tori came in the room with tears in her eyes and wordlessly began drying dishes.

"It'll be okay, Mom."

Sans watched the kid for a second through the open glass door. He sat on the first step with his head hung down. Sans stepped out, making sure to make some noise so he didn't startle the kid.

"What's buggin' ya, Kid?" Sans asked as he sat down next to MK.

MK gestured toward the door with a shoulder. "Mom doesn't care. She just wants me to think she does."

"Nah, she cares."

MK sighed and looked at the monster. "What do you want?"

Sans shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "What does MK stand for?"

"Monster Kid," MK huffed.

Sans looked at him and shook his head. "You ain't a monster, Kid." He grinned.

"It stands for Matthias Kai. It's my dad's name, so technically I'm MK Jr, but since Dad's dead, I'm just MK."

Sans nodded. "Can I ask what happened to him?"

"You can, but it still hurts to talk about it. Ask Frisk."

"I'll do that. So, MK, What's up? Why do you think your mom doesn't care?"

He sighed. "I dunno."

Sans laughed. "You can do better than that. Either learn to lie or talk to your Uncle Sans."

MK looked over at the monster. "Uncle Sans?" What the hell?

Sans shrugged. "I'm tryin' to help. Life's a bitch, but it can be better if you let someone else in on it."

"You can say that again. The bitch part."

Sans snickered. "You just swore."

"So did you."

"I'm an adult."

"You sure about that? How tall are you?"

Sans raised a brow bone. "Taller than you."

"By what, a millimeter?"

Sans was having fun with this. "Height doesn't matter."

MK snorted. "Keep telling yourself that. Besides, I thought it was, 'size doesn't matter'."

"Your sister doesn't seem to mind."

MK's eyes widened. "What the fuck?"

Sans laughed out loud. "Gotcha."

MK sulked for a second. "You better not touch my sister."

"Whatcha gonna do about it if I do? 'Sides, it ain't up to me who touches her."

MK grimaced. "Can we not talk about that?"

"Sure. Tell me what's goin' on."

"Well, Uncle Sans, if you really have to be so damn nosy, I'm pissed off because they're always making fun of me. I know, I should just ignore them, but do you know how hard that is to do?" He hated the hot tears that gathered in his eyes.

"Who makes fun of you? And what for?"

MK sighed. "Kids at school. They make fun of my arms. Or, well, my lack of arms. They throw things at me and tell me to catch, they hold my backpack up and tell me to reach for it, they 'accidentally' trip me. I mean, what don't they do?"

"Have you told anyone about it?" Sans asked. He had to work to keep his eye from glowing. He trusted Frisk, but he wasn't sure about any other human knowing about his magic, even her brother.

MK huffed. "Yeah. I've talked to teachers, Mom, the principal. They all say they'll talk to the kids, but nothing ever changes. If anything, it gets worse. I stopped saying anything about it after one of the kids tried playing dodgeball with me with a rock about a month ago."

Sans unfurled his fists and splayed his fingers out, trying hard to keep cool. "Is it just the kids that pick on you?" Thinking back to his own school experience, he knew even those who said they'd help could be just as guilty.

"No. My history teacher does this thing where he throws this stuffed animal around to kids to ask questions or choose them to answer something. He always throws it to me first, knowing I can't catch it. His aim is great with the other kids, too, but with me it almost always hits me in the head."

"That's cuz that's where he's aimin', Kid."

MK nodded. "Yeah, I guess. The lunch lady always tries to hand me things knowing I can't actually take them from her. She'll drop whatever it is in the middle of my tray. I hate it. I hate her." He took a deep breath. "It isn't every day. Most days I've got my friends around to help me. It's always worse when they're not there and I have to be assigned a 'helper'."

"Can't say I blame ya. Now, what are we going to do about all this?"

MK looked over at Sans. "What do you mean?"

Sans grinned. "Like I'm gonna let my newly adopted nephew suffer alone. We need a plan."

As it turned out, their plans were a little too devious. When their plans began to involve bloodshed, Sans had to take a step back and remember that he actually was an adult. Dammit.

"We need to have a meeting."

MK groaned. "Those never solve anything."

"You ain't never had a meeting with me, Kid. Well, I guess you kinda just did, but that's not the kind of meeting I'm talking about. Let me talk to your mom. We'll get this sorted out." He rubbed MK's shoulder for a second before standing up. He waited for MK to get up before he opened the door.

"Hey, Sans?"

He turned to look at the kid. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for not…I guess not telling me that it'll all get better eventually and to just ignore them."

Sans smiled as they walked inside. "I'm not sure what you mean, Kid. It'll get better; just ignore 'em."

MK snorted. "Shut up."

The moment the door shut behind the boys, Tori wrapped her arms around her son.

"I love you, MK," she said softly. "I really do."

MK rested his head on her shoulder for a second. "I love you, too."

She pulled back and kissed his head. He grimaced. Sans snickered, which earned him a glare from the boy.

"Is everything okay?" Frisk asked, reaching out to take Sans' arm.

"No, not really. We need to talk."

~LM~

Sans sat at the table in the principal's office, feeling a bit too smug. He should probably cool it a little bit. Nah, he decided. This was going to end, once and for all.

He looked around at the people at the table with him. He thought that if just having parents in the meeting didn't do any good, they should probably have the little shits in question sit in with them. The two biggest bullies, along with their mothers, Mr. Malone the principal, Mr. Murray the history teacher, Mrs. Curtis the lunch lady, Frisk, and Tori all sat waiting for the meeting to start.

MK had decided he was too nervous to make it to the meeting; he was scared that he'd make something worse. Sans had tried to talk him into coming, but he was adamant. The fear on the boy's face made Sans give in.

Sans took a moment to really look at the bullies. The one named Liam was blonde with blue eyes. His pale complexion was pockmarked with acne typical of his age. The other, named Jericko, was shorter with brown hair and green eyes. His face was spattered with freckles, and Sans thought he just looked mean with a permanent scowl.

"Thank you all for coming," Mr. Malone started. "It seems our last meeting didn't solve things the way we had hoped." He glanced at the mothers of the two boys. "So we're going to have another one and see if we can't get to the bottom of this."

Sans just listened for a minute as Tori explained what had been going on. The two bullies seemed proud of their work for a moment before their mothers chastised them. They promised they'd never do it again. Sans wanted to gag at how fake their promises were, and yet everyone else in the room seemed to buy it.

Everyone but Frisk. "Prove it," she said. "Prove to me right now that you're never going to hurt my brother again."

"We never hurt nobody," Jericko muttered.

Sans huffed. "Meaning you hurt somebody. We get it. Now stop it, you twit."

Everyone turned to look at Sans. Helen, Jericko's mom, stood up.

"You can't talk to my son that way," she all but yelled.

Sans just looked up at her, too comfortable in the chair to stand up. "I think I just did."

"Sans, please don't cause a scene," Tori said with a stern voice. Sans just looked over at her, not sure for a brief second whose side she was on. Wouldn't she say anything to stand up for her son? Maybe she felt like she had an image to uphold. Screw that, Sans thought. He didn't care about images.

"Yeah, Sans," Liam sneered. "Don't cause a scene."

Frisk wasn't sure where this was going, but she wasn't about to stop Sans. She kind of felt like she'd brought an attack dog with her and she was ready to set him free on these assholes.

"It's not like we hurt the little monster," Liam added. "We just, y'know…it's good for him to get used to it now, cuz it's not gonna stop when he gets into the real world." He ducked his head when the principal shot him a look. "Well, it's not."

That time Sans did stand up. "Here's the thing, though," he started, taking his time and choosing his words. "This is his real world." He started walking slowly around the table to where Liam was sitting. "Do you know what it's like to be ridiculed for something you can't control? Like having a face like a pizza, perhaps?" He stopped and put his hands on the table, his face not five inches from Liam's. "You wanna know what it's like to live without arms?" He made his voice a deep growl. "I can show ya."

Liam gulped.

"Get away from my son!" Linda gasped.

Sans laughed. "I'm just teasing! No harm, right?" He took a step backward and held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't hurt anyone. Isn't that what we're saying here, that we can tease and threaten as long as we don't actually hurt anyone?" He put his hands in his pockets. "Linda, you might want to try to teach your son some manners. He might need those when he gets into the real world where people tend to get offended pretty easily. I'd hate to see him lose something more important than his arms just because he's an idiot."

"These children are not idiots," Mr. Malone said gruffly, "and I'd appreciate it if you didn't refer to them like that."

Sans smirked. "These children are hurting another innocent human simply because he's different. What do they do to the monsters in this school, I wonder?" He wasn't aware that his voice was rising. "Do you even care about them? I'm thinking probably not, despite what you want to say to me right now. Don't push me. You really don't want that."

Frisk stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his arm. "Sans, calm down."

"I am calm," he snapped.

She met his eyes, his left one just a little brighter than the right.

"Please?" she asked.

He took a deep breath. "Fine."

"Why are you here, exactly?" Mrs. Curtis asked.

Sans looked over at her. "To make you stop putting this kid through hell. So he doesn't have any arms—big deal. I don't have skin. Liam doesn't have a brain. Helen doesn't have a clue how to raise a decent child. Actually, that goes for both Helen and Linda."

Helen stood up. "That is enough. I'm done with this meeting."

"Good, because I'm done with your bullshit. If I hear that anyone has hurt—physically or otherwise—MK one more time, I promise you will all have a bad time. Don't fuck with me."

"I'm really sorry," Tori said, standing up. "If I'd had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have—"

"Invited me?" Sans interrupted. "You would rather let your own son get tormented to the point that he's not even sure you care about him anymore than stand up for him? A real great mother you are."

"Sans!" Frisk shouted. "We'll be right back." She tugged hard on his arm to get him to follow her.

Out in the hallway, he pulled away from her and ran both of his bony hands over his skull.

"What the hell was that?" Frisk tried not to yell. "Don't attack my mother."

Sans turned around. "I'm sorry, Frisk; I am. But, if she would stand up for MK a little harder than what she's doing, I can almost guarantee this shit would stop. He's your brother, for fuck's sake; don't you care—"

"You don't want to finish that sentence," Frisk warned. "I am really happy that you want to help, but you are digging a hole that MK will have to try to get out of."

Sans took a deep breath to steady his nerves. She was right. He nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry."

She walked up and hugged him tightly. "It's okay. Just please don't do that again."

He nodded again and hugged her back. "I won't."

They both took another moment to calm down before walking back in the room. Sans grinned and met both boys' eyes.

"Man, I hate losing my cool. And this is just a little meeting."

Both boys looked nervous.

"Sans," Frisk warned.

He snickered. "I'm not sorry, but I'll stop. For now."

Mr. Malone stood up. "I think what we need is a plan. MK should know he can come to me or even Mrs. Polluck, our vice principal, if anything happens." He looked over at the mothers. "Also note that I will be putting stricter punishments on any bullying I see happening."

"And anything that's reported, I hope," Sans added.

Mr. Malone nodded. "Yes. Any and all reports will be thoroughly investigated. Not just against MK, but against anyone getting harassed in my school. This will no longer be tolerated."

Sans smirked. Finally, someone seemed to be having a rational reaction.

After the meeting, Sans talked with MK for a while about what had happened. MK was amazed that Sans had actually done what he'd said he was going to do.

Frisk smiled as she watched her brother and Sans laughing together on the couch. It had been a long time since she'd seen MK so happy.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think of it so far. We have a loooong way to go.

Reviews are lovely.

I'm on Twitter at SheeWolf85