CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Is everything okay?" Sans asked, a concerned gleam in his eye sockets.
Frisk nodded, but she knew the look on her face gave her away. She looked at him for a few moments before she took a deep breath and shook her head.
"No. I did something bad."
She had thought about the results she'd found from her search quite a lot in the past twenty-four hours. In addition to being wracked with guilt over doing what she'd already promised she wouldn't, she couldn't help but ruminate over his words. 'Just trust me that he's a good guy.'
Sans took her hand and held it between both of his bony ones. "What was it?" He had to wonder if what she'd done was actually bad or if she was just nervous about something silly again.
She took a deep breath and looked up to meet the lights in his sockets. "I did exactly what you asked me not to do."
He raised a brow bone. "I'm confused." He tried to think of things he'd asked her not to do. The only thing that came to mind was searching—
He pulled his hand back. Without bothering to ask for clarification, his eye burned brightly as he began to judge her soul.
She gasped as his magic shoved into her chest.
Her guilt invaded his mind. Images of her thoughts—his father experimenting on him and humans—made his head spin.
Frisk shivered as she felt the weight of what she'd done crawling up her spine.
He had known exactly what she would find. It apparently didn't matter that he'd already told her none of it was true. She was guilty as charged.
He stood up and started toward the door.
"Sans, wait. Please?" Frisk knew he would be mad at her, but she had hoped he'd let her explain and possibly give her the real information.
"Why should I?" he turned back to her, his eye still blazing. "You obviously don't care about promises you make to me. If this was your sick way of getting the real story out of me, you're dead wrong."
Frisk's stomach dropped. "That's not…Sans, I'm sorry."
He huffed. "Be honest with me, Frisk. If I forgive you right now and we go back to being a 'happy couple', will you be able to forget about what you read? The answer is no, so don't try to tell me otherwise. You're so damn curious it's infuriating; you're not going to stop wondering if what you read was real." He backed up a step when she tried to move closer. "I'll tell you right now it wasn't real, but that's all you're getting."
Without another word, he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Frisk buried her face in her hands and tried not to cry.
~LM~
Gaster looked up from the papers on his desk when he heard a noise in the other office. He hadn't expected Sans to come in today. His brow bones furrowed, and he got up cautiously to check it out. Before he'd made it five steps, he heard Sans yell out and something crashed the floor. Shocked, he hurried into the other room.
Sans stood in the middle of the room breathing heavily, his eye and hand engulfed in blue flame. A bookshelf in the corner was on its side, books scattered on the floor.
"Sans?"
Sans turned around and nearly threw an attack. He managed to stop himself when he realized it was just his dad. He was so angry at himself for giving her the suggestion in the first place, but how could she break a promise she'd made right to his face? He already knew the damage had been done. It wouldn't matter what the truth was; what she'd read would forever haunt her, and he knew she'd always doubt his dad's motives around her.
"What happened?" Gaster asked. He rushed forward and pulled his son close. "Are you okay?"
He'd lost her. He knew she'd search again, and she might even find rumors about him. Would she believe them? She probably would. Despite the years she'd known him, she would probably believe human reports over her own evidence.
Without a word, Sans wrapped his arms around his dad and held on tight.
Gaster had never seen his son so upset before. On the few occasions that he did get upset, he was always quick to talk to Gaster, ask for help, or even just sit calmly in the room, stating that his dad's presence helped clear his mind. But this time…it had to be that human. He had tried to warn Sans that she was nothing but trouble. Humans didn't care about monsters; they just wanted to find the best ways to hurt his kind.
"It will be okay, Son," Gaster said softly, "you'll see."
Sans shook his head. "I can't believe I trusted her!"
So Gaster had been right. He began to lead Sans out of the office and into the lounge area, away from anything important he could damage.
Sans was too agitated to sit but too overwhelmed to pace. He just stood there, clinging to his father's white lab coat as if the feel of it between his bony fingers would make everything okay.
That was how it had been when Sans was younger. When bad things happened, he turned to his dad. The lab coat was as familiar as his cologne, his hug, his gentle but rational insights on how to solve problems.
Sans pulled back and wiped blue tears from his face. "Please don't say you told me so."
Gaster smiled, only one side of his mouth able to move. "Not like this. You already know. Besides, I can tell you truly loved her."
"Love, Dad. Not past-tense. I still love her." But why? She had broken his trust; shouldn't he have let that emotion go?
Gaster nodded. "That's not going to fade quickly, Son." Seeing his son so upset hurt him inside. It was something he wasn't entirely used to. He had been told he was far too logical to be a good father, but he had tried his best with his sons. He had also been told he had no capacity for emotion, but that was wrong. He loved both of his sons dearly, even if he had an odd way of showing it sometimes. All that aside, he wanted to help his oldest son. He tried to think of what Sans' mother might have said.
"I kind of want to hate her," Sans confessed. The words hurt his soul.
Gaster shook his head. "No, you don't." He took Sans' hand and led him to the couch where they sat. "You want that now because you're angry. You won't stay angry forever, and when it fades you're going to have to figure out how to move forward."
Sans gave his dad a confused look. "You mean with her?"
Gaster shrugged. "With or without her, that part doesn't matter. You can't deny that, one way or another, something needs to happen. Either you make up and work on fixing your relationship with her, or you break up with her."
Sans thought about that for a second. A part of his soul wanted to be able to make up and be a couple again. Another part of him, however, wanted to be angry forever. Something occurred to him then. He looked up into Gaster's cracked face.
"Why aren't you telling me all the reasons I should break up with her?"
Gaster smiled again. "Because it's not my place. I was very upset at first, yes. I thought with everything I've been through, you would know better than to trust humans. However, only you can make your decisions. I can only support you, even if I disagree with you."
Sans nodded. It seemed he had some things to think about. "If it was someone you really loved—like mom—would you forgive her?"
Gaster wasn't sure what to say to that for a minute. He thought back to his marriage, even before Sans was born. She had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. She met his logical reasoning with a kind of down-to-earth humor that made him truly happy for the first time he could remember. After Sans was born, she fell ill. He had done everything he could think of to try to save her, but by Sans' fourth birthday she was too far gone to even remember they had a child. She had passed less than a year later. It was her illness that had gotten him into medicine, and he was close to finding a cure for the tumors that had ravaged her fragile body.
"Yes, I would," Gaster said softly.
Sans nodded again, slowly. He stared at his phalanges for a long moment.
Gaster sat with his son for a while longer until he decided it was time to get back to work. He stood up.
"I'm having a difficult time with some of these test results. Would you mind helping me to decipher them?"
Sans looked up and smiled. "Sure, Dad."
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I'd love to know your thoughts!