Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale

Continuity: Post Pacifist Run with hints of Genocide and other Runs

Cover: Sans drawn by: Fortisselle DevaintART, girl found on Pintrest artist unknown

Title: Absence of Fear, by Jewel

A/N: I have changed the POV from third to first person of my OC. Longer explanation at the end of the chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, faves, and follows! And someone put this in a community? O.O THANK YOU!

Absence of Fear

Chapter Two: Punny Spaghetti Skeletons

X -x-x-x-x- X

I found myself scooting further into my booth, closer to the wall under his...gaze? I couldn't really tell because it was literally two black holes just boring themselves into me. "Um...hi?"

"Sans, this human works with Alphys at the clinic! Isn't that grand?" Papyrus finally said through the tension.

The lights came back in the shorter skeleton's eyes at the voice of the other, and he tilted his head in what appeared to be amusement towards him. "Oh, really? A human monster doctor?"

"Resident..." I mumbled and his head snapped back to mine. "Nicoletta Moretti," I blurted quickly and paused. Why did I just say my whole name? "Uh, but you can call me Niki..."

"C'mon, Sans, sit down already," Undyne offered and the monster shrugged and did, scooting into the booth. The side I was sitting at since the other three had the other side. Yay, me.

I sighed heavily and scooted further, now against the wall completely. Yeah, this wasn't obvious or anything. At least now Alphys was directly in front of me. She gave me a reassuring smile that I returned.

The waitress came up to the booth, grinning wide. She was another blue tinted creature like Undyne, except her face looked really...cat like. She had no fur, just blue skin, and horns where she should have had ears curled around her head, following her long green locks. She was well built, at least a DD and in very revealing clothing. Geez, lady. "Hey there, guys..."

"Hey, Celeste," Sans greeted next to me.

"Whoa, Sansy. Haven't seen you for a while," she commented flirtatiously, swinging her hips to the side with a hand on one.

He shrugged, playing with his wrapped silverware. "Eh, just been busy."

She laughed a little. "Yeah, I've never known you to be busy, Sans." She shook her head and took out a notepad. "Everyone know what they want?"

Oh, shit. No I didn't. I hadn't even looked at the menu. Was monster food any different? I heard rumors it could heal injuries and cure things like headaches, but that was ridiculous...right? I quickly skimmed at mine and saw typical restaurant food. Hamburgers, chicken fingers, soups and salads, nothing exciting.

Undyne and Alphys ordered burgers while Papyrus wanted something called a spaghetti bowl. Celeste turned to Sans next. "Yeah, I'll do it a little different tonight, Cel. I just want a plate of onion rings. Oh and, uh-"

"Yeah, yeah. Ketchup on the side," she giggled as she wrote it down. Then her eyes were on me. "My, my. A human. Can't say I'm shocked since we get curious ones all the time, but I am surprised to see your group with one. Isn't Frisk the only human you guys know?"

That name. Frisk. The child from the trial. This was getting too real for me.

"She works with me at the clinic," Alphys explained again.

The waitress nodded. "Ohh, the one down the street? That's awesome! I don't think I've heard of any human doctors on our side yet!"

I slumped in my seat. "I'm sure I'm not the only one...and I'm a resident."

"You've said that," was the flat reply next to me.

You know that feeling when you know someone doesn't like you, yet you just met them and you're like what the hell, dude? Yeah.

Celeste shrugged. "At any case, it's pretty cool. Know what you want, sugar?"

I sucked in my bottom lip, a nervous habit, and closed my menu. "An order of fries, please. Oh, and can I have a bowl of ranch on the side?"

She nodded and finished writing with a dramatic point on the paper. "Okee dokee, I'll be back with those."

I sipped my water, which apparently Alphys had ordered for me before I got there, and we all sat in uncomfortable silence.

Until, "So, brother. Have any luck getting employed yet?"

It was interesting the difference between the two. Papyrus was tall and imposing, with a higher toned voice, while Sans was short and almost what one would call...ugh - big boned, with a deep baritone for a voice. Their faces?/skulls couldn't look more different and neither looked particularly humanoid, which made sense. They looked more like aliens, to be honest. One thing that stood out to me was Papyrus didn't have lights in his eye sockets and Sans did. What was that anyway?

It had been explained to me that monsters were basically pure magic. Which I'm sure isn't what we think of as magic but the word is the only translation that really works. Kind of like how demon gets translated from Japanese culture yet the literal translation is spirit or monster. If this was an anime, no doubt they would be called demons. Yeah, my dorky brain goes all sorts of weird places.

Now from what I understood, their magic was a force that held them together and gave them powers to do things. A soul in their ideology was the culmination of compassion and kindness they had inside them.

That was about when the other students quit the class. My teacher went on to say that humans had souls too - which any Christian would tell you - but in the monster world, human souls were special because they could still exist even without compassion and kindness.

It was like humans were an enigma the monsters couldn't understand. Technically in their world, humans shouldn't exist because they had the capacity for evil, but at the same time, human souls were stronger almost because of that reason. Alphys explained it to me that humans had something monsters didn't. A determination to live that was far stronger.

But what did that mean? Monsters didn't care if they died? Or their need to live just wasn't as strong as ours? So many questions were not answered by my teacher or Alphys and I so wanted to learn more.

Be that as it may, I wasn't going to get any answers here in this awkward situation.

"Nah, for some reason people find me off putting. Tibia honest, I can't imagine why."

Wait...did he just...make a bone pun? I think he did. It was almost funny, but no one was amused. In fact, they all looked upset.

I turned right to him as his brother held his head and groaned. "Honestly, Sans. That is your oldest one yet."

Undyne crossed her arms. "Yeah, dude. Get new jokes."

Sans shrugged nonchalant. "Everyone runs out of material eventually." He stirred his drink with a straw (which I wondered how he could use with no lips). "I can't help it if I'm bone dry."

And everyone groaned. "Sans, knock it off, no one is laughing."

Oh, except me. 'Cause I totally giggled just then making Undyne and Papyrus gape at me while Alphys just pretended she wasn't in the universe or something. And then I felt Sans'...eyeballs/lights? on me.

"Oh, uh...sorry..." I mumbled and just looked at this really interesting crack in the table. It was kinda shaped like a lightening bolt. How did a crack like that happen? It zig zagged and everything... Oh, hey! The food's here!

I sighed in relief. "Wow, you sure have fast service," I complimented and Celeste grinned at me.

"Well, of course! We ain't slow pokes like you humans!" She laid down our plates and the monsters started digging in.

Now Undyne and Alphys were biting and chewing their food, but the skeletons...

How the hell were they eating? I watched Papyrus dig into what looked like a spaghetti casserole and he was forking it into his mouth and swallowing whole. There was no chewing. I could guess that having no skin if he did chew, it would go flying all over the table, but as he swallowed my eyes immediately peered down to his torso and where his stomach would be, seeing nothing happened. The food disappeared just as he swallowed. Just gone. Poof, just like that. Like...

Don't say magic.

My peripheral vision saw Sans doing the same actions. Picking up an onion ring, taking a bite, no chewing, then swallowing. He'd hardly opened his mouth while talking, yet his voice was clear like someone not clenching their teeth together. He was barely opening his mouth to take a bite at all, and my mind began to wonder how it all worked. How did their bones even stay together without muscle and ligaments? I know the answer to everything monster seemed to be magic, but my scientist brain just couldn't grasp that. Meanwhile, my anime dork brain was like ZOMG MAGICAL MONSTERS KAWAII!

I sighed and dipped a fry into my bowl of ranch and that gained the attention of said magic skeleton monster next to me. "You dip your fries...in ranch?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I know it's kinda weird but I've met others that do it too. I also dip chicken fingers in ranch - oh, and hot wings in ranch definitely, not blue cheese. I hate blue cheese."

He made a face of disdain. Again, the two sides of my brain fought with each other. How was bone flexible enough to make facial expressions? In the trial, he hardly made any at all. He kept a constant grin, which at times looked forced to a trained eye. Papyrus had his face buried in a cloth as he blubbered. I feel bad for having watched that...

"Blech, blue cheese is disgusting. It's literally rotten, moldy cheese. Who wants to eat that?" Sans chuckled and picked up another onion ring. "But what about ketchup?"

"No, I don't like ketchup." And the whole table went silent. My eyes darted to each of them confusedly. "What? Is ketchup like sacrilegious to monsters or something?"

"Relax, guys. I'm not gonna eat her 'cause she doesn't like ketchup," Sans joked and picked up a bottle of said condiment, which had been left on the edge of the table, and squirted half of it all over his rings.

I grimaced. "I take it you do like ketchup?"

He only shrugged again, picking up a red coated ring and wolfing it down in one bite. Did I just see fangs in that mouth, holy crap. Okay, maybe not fangs but definitely longer canines than normal.

Oh, what the fuck. What was normal anymore anyway?!

I sighed and picked up another fry. "But human, do you dislike tomatoes?"

"Not at all," I answered Papyrus, who had his face covered in marinara.

"Then do you like spaghetti?"

I smiled. "I am Italian." The response from all was silence as if they didn't get it. "Um, you know. Italian? Known for Italian food, like spaghetti?"

"Yeah, bro. It's all over those cook books of yours. Like that one; Taste of Italy."

The other bone brother gasped. "OH, OF COURSE! Yes, I know! I didn't know a human could be Italian. I thought that meant the food."

"Cheyeah, duh, Papyrus. It means she comes from Italy," Undyne chided.

Papyrus' eyes/sockets widened. "Oh, do you? I've always wanted to go there to learn more about Italian cuisine. What is it like there? Do you speak the language?"

"Whoa, whoa - slow down, Pap. Give her time to breathe," Sans chuckled.

I put my hands up. "No, it's okay. My family is from Italy but me, I'm from Ohio." I giggled. "I've never been to Italy, as much as I would like to, and no I don't speak Italian. I always had plans to get Rosetta Stone and learn but...I haven't the time." I ate another fry.

"How did your family get from Italy to Ohio?" Papyrus asked slowly.

"They migrated from Italy to America. My family is third generation Italian. My great grandpa came here from Sicily." I smiled, proud of my heritage. "It seemed no matter what, each generation kept having boys until me, so I ended up with the family name. I was also named after my great grandma. So my name sounds rather foreign even though I'm as American as apple pie. That's why I prefer to be called Niki. Fits me better." Wow, how long had I been rambling? No one seemed to mind though.

"Sounds interesting," was the response from the shorter skeleton.

"What does 'American as apple pie' mean?" Undyne asked and I felt bad realizing what I had actually said.

So far, monsters were not allowed to be American citizens. They were allowed to be in society, but more like foreigners with visa's. The government hadn't come up with a way to allow animals and ghosts and whatevers to be legal citizens. I'm not sure they ever would.

The fight to allow monsters to drive was bad enough. They started showing up to driving schools and when they weren't allowed, protests and social media came into play once again. Eventually, after red tape and politics, monsters were allowed to learn and were given special licenses. In recent years, monster only driving schools had popped up but they still weren't allowed jobs to drive public transportation.

People could deny them jobs due to them not being American citizens. It was a lame way around the real truth but with driving, more vigorous rules were put into place; like a curfew, treating all monsters like teenagers. Videos of police pulling overs monsters without just cause polluted the internet. Racial profiling was just as front and center as it always was. Some things never change.

There were some videos of police brutality...well, brutality of many different people attacking monsters which is why clinics like Alphys' were needed. Which is why I want to practice monster medicine.

Wish I could tell them all this stuff but all I could do was sit there with my mouth hanging open.

"It means she's p-proud of where she lives," Alphys answered finally for me and I took a drink of water.

"Yeah." I felt eye-socket lights on me again.

Papyrus seemed oblivious. "So does that mean you can cook spaghetti? Or other Italian food?"

I dipped another fry, twirling it around. "Well, sure. I have a ton of family recipes."

I swear I saw those eye lights get brighter. "Don't go there," Papyrus warned and I looked back and forth between the brothers.

Sans sat back with an amused look on his face. "Oh c'mon, she practically handed it to me."

What on Earth were they talking about? Is this another pun thing? "Umm, did I say something wrong?"

Sans ate another onion ring just chuckling to himself. "He's an idiot. Ignore him," Undyne answered. "So you can cook, eh? I admit it's a bit of a hobby of mine." She picked a nail.

Alphys smiled with a blush. "Yes, she's so g-good at it."

Papyrus slapped his chest proudly. "Undyne taught me all there is to know about cooking and each day I get better at it! Isn't that right, Sans?"

"Yup," was the aloof reply as Sans looked at his fingers covered in ketchup. Next thing I knew, his left eye glowed blue and a long tongue the same color came out of his mouth to lick the sauce off his phalanges. He noticed me staring and slipped the new body part back in his mouth. "Wassamatter? Cat got your tongue?"

Everyone groaned again. "SANS!" Papyrus held his head. "And must you do that in PUBLIC?"

"Yes, I do. You know I always tell jokes." He winked dramatically. He has eyelids?! I heard Papyrus mutter that wasn't what he meant...

"Besides, you wouldn't let me do the other one. You know how long it's been since I've had a new audience? Throw a guy a bone."

The shock of a magical glowing blue tongue appearing out of nowhere and disappearing faded in my head - more like I forced it to fade as I thought what the 'other one' coulda been. After a few seconds it hit me what the problem was. "Ohhh...I get it." Everyone looked at me and I turned to Sans. "A skeleton."

Undyne slapped her forehead. "Oh, God, not another one!"

Sans had an unreadable smile on his face and I shrunk back. "Um, no. I'm terrible at puns. I just thought about it is all." I shrugged. "I approach things logically a lot."

Undyne grinned at that. "Aww, then she's a lot like you!" She jabbed her girlfriend next to her.

Alphys tittered. "I told you she was!"

"Hmm..." Sans hummed as he wiped his fingers and corners of his mouth. "Hey, kiddo. You like jokes at all?"

"Here he goes...just when I was about to find out how much she knows about spaghetti..." Papyrus moaned.

"Relax, bro. I'll only be a minute." Sans' eyes twinkled in mirth and I felt myself getting nervous. "How 'bout it?"

I nodded a little. "Um, okay."

His grin got wider, if possible. "Knock, knock."

More groans and sighs went around the table, but I ignored them since I was curious. I always loved a good joke. "Who's there?"

"Dishes."

I hadn't heard this one before. "Dishes who?"

"Dishes is a bad joke." I couldn't help it; my mouth curled up and I giggled, which turned into a laugh.

"I called it. She thinks he's funny just like Tori." Undyne picked her teeth with a nail.

Sans chuckled with me and picked up the ketchup bottle, squirting some in his mouth. Once he "swallowed" he asked, "You know any?"

I blinked a few times, having not seen anyone drink ketchup before. It was kinda nauseating. "Knock, knock jokes? No, but I do know some jokes...like...oh..okay.

"This old couple were sitting on a porch swing. They had been married seventy years. The man turned to his wife and said 'I love you. I'm glad you're here with me.' She says, 'what?' He repeated it louder, 'I love you and I'm glad you're here with me.' She says 'what?' He screams it at her, 'I love you and I'm glad you're here with me!' She says 'oh' and sits silently for a minute before she replies, 'Well, I think you're old and smelly too!"

They all chuckled a bit, except Papyrus. "I don't get it. Why couldn't she understand him?"

"The couple was old, Papyrus. Humans age," Alphys explained after the snickering died down. Monsters don't age? No one told me that. "When they do, some parts stop working. She couldn't hear him."

"Ohhhh, I get it now," he said with a finger to his chin. "Yes, I suppose that's a funny joke."

Sans reclined back with his hands behind his head. "I dunno. I thought it was humerus.

Took me a second, but with his brother's groaning again, I got the pun. "Haha...that one really works." His eyes sparkled a little brighter. "I got another one...

"Four men were on an airplane. Its engines began to fail and the pilot grabbed a parachute, telling them there was only three parachutes left."

"But there are four people!" Papyrus interjected.

I nodded with a smile. "Exactly. The four men began deciding who would jump and who would be left behind. One stepped up and said 'I'm a doctor and am about to cure cancer. I should take one.' They agreed and he did. The next man said 'I am a scientist and have won many Nobel Peace prizes. I am pretty much the smartest man in the world. I'm jumping.' He grabbed a bag and jumped out. The two men left looked at each other. One said 'What should we do? Draw straws?' The other replied 'No, we both still have parachutes. The smartest man in the world just jumped out with my backpack.'"

The table erupted with laughter, Sans smacking the table once, making it rattle. "That's pretty good!"

"Albeit...a little insulting to a scientist like myself, but y-yeah very funny," Alphys complimented between giggles.

"Yes, very amusing, human," Papyrus chuckled. "So can we get back to talking about spaghetti?"

Everyone but me groaned.

"Paps, we don't have all night. I'm sure Nicoletta has a life," Sans commented, using my full name for some reason.

"Um, Niki, and it's okay..."

"You are right, brother. We should exchange phone numbers to text cooking tips!" Papyrus reached somewhere and pulled out an old flip phone. "Put your number in my phone, human!"

"Uhhhh..." Yeah, I was just gonna hand over my phone number to a tall skeleton monster. That made total sense. But as a chill went up my spine and I saw Sans staring at me from the corner of my eye with no lights in his, I got the feeling hurting his brother's feelings was not a good choice. "Okay..." The chill got worse, and did his eyes get blacker?

Wait, did he not want me to? But I just said yes! Papyrus was practically spinning with glee, clapping his hands together as I entered my digits into his old phone. "And now you enter in my number!"

I numbly reached in my purse and pulled out my phone to hand to him. "Oh, no...I can't use one of those touch screen phones..."

I tilted my head. "Why not?"

"Touch screen doesn't respond to them," Alphys answered me. "I'm trying to invent one that does, so we're w-working on it."

I bit my lip again. "Oh. Well, all you would need is a stylus. See, mine has one." I pulled out the stylus pen and showed it to him. I moved it on the screen and changed some menus. "Now you try." He seemed so sad about not having a smart-phone so I wanted to show him he could have one, just the right one for him.

He took the stylus and moved around the menu screens with a gasp. "Brother! It works! I can use a smart-phone! Those people at the shop were wrong! There is a phone I can use!"

I turned to Sans. "Wait, what?"

Sans shifted in the booth. "He went to a phone store and asked for help in finding a smart-phone that could respond to his touch. They told him there wasn't one and they couldn't help him. Oh and, get out of our store."

I swallowed guiltily. "I see. He just needs a stylus. It should work fine..."

He snorted. "Yeah, if he can afford one. The prices here are outrageous. Makes me wonder how humans afford anything." His sockets were still black and I could tell what he meant, and that he knew I knew what he meant.

People were charging higher prices for monsters. Especially since it was revealed they had gold. Like, actual gold coins they used for money, and they had a LOT of it. It was only a matter of time before greedy humans bled monsters dry of their wealth, forcing them to rely only on human currency.

"Papyrus should have plenty of money. I sure do," Undyne said as she drank some water. "I took my gold to a bank and they converted it all to cash. I was able to buy my phone in full. And I can go back to the bank anytime I want and get more cash."

If the bank doesn't eat your gold in fees, I bitterly thought. No doubt she wasn't paid what her gold was worth. No way any bank or pawn shop or jewelery store or whatever would convert what the gold was really worth. Eventually she would run out. They all would and would have to rely on getting human jobs to pay for things. It was shocking five years after leaving Mt. Ebbot, they still had gold left. But like every other resource we burn through and thing we ruin, this would be one of many.

I sighed heavily as Papyrus continued ogling over my phone. "I used a bank too, Undyne. Hey, there are games on this! Do you have any puzzle games, human?"

"Her name is Nicoletta, bro."

I frowned. He was doing that on purpose. "Niki." And I looked at him. The lights were back and he smirked at me. Actually smirked at me! He was doing it on purpose, the jerkwad.

He chuckled low at my face and I huffed turning back to his brother. "Yes, there are many puzzle games." Papyrus almost squealed like a fangirl.

"I am going to buy one of these immediately!"

"Pap...you don't really need a smart-phone..." Sans started. "They are expensive. Plus you have to pay for the phone plan. Our own plan's prices have raised three times already."

Papyrus waved him off. "Nonsense. I have plenty of gold left in my bank account."

Sans shook his head. "Okay."

"Do you have an account?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"No, he does not," the taller answered for him. "He barely had any gold when he left the Underground, and I have to pay for everything as usual! Some things never change." He handed back my phone. "Thank you, Ni-co-let-ta," he finished slowly.

I grimaced and nodded, taking back my Galaxy 15X. "You're welcome."

Sans was grinning at me. Jerk.

The evening soon was over and we'd all disbursed, making our way to the parking lot. Alphys and Undyne got into a truck and sped off after Undyne slapped my back saying something about an anime night, and Alphys said "see you at work tomorrow." Papyrus got into a red sports car after he wished me a fond farewell. Exact words.

Sans was left with me and I swallowed. "So, see ya later..."

"Thanks for paying your side of the bill, even though they didn't want you to," he said softly.

"No problem. I pay my own way." Totally since I was in major student loan debt. Course, I try not to think about that. He grinned at me and was headed towards a motorcycle. "Oh, cool! I love motorcycles..."

"Yeah?" He put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall of the restaurant. "Ever ride one?"

I shook my head. "No...I'm too scared, heheh..." I rubbed my neck.

His eyes narrowed, but still smiling. "Then how do you know you love them?"

I snorted a little. "I guess humans throw that word around too much, huh? I meant I like how they look and stuff and have always wanted to ride one."

His grin faded a little. "Hmm. And you want to be a doctor, huh?"

I looked around. "Yeah."

"In monster medicine."

"Yeah?"

His smile was gone now. "Why?"

I faltered a little but recovered. "I want to help. I think it's terrible how humans are treating your people. I just want to make a difference."

He nodded. "Okay, then." I blinked and suddenly he was on the motorcycle, revving it up. "Good luck with that, Nicoletta."

The engine roared as he sped past me, only for me to scream, "IT'S NIKI!"

I swear I heard him laughing, the jackass. And how did he do that?! Did he like, teleport to the thing?!

I sighed. I had a feeling this wasn't the last time I would be seeing any of these monsters. My phone buzzed and I looked down at the text.

Papyrus: Hello, human! I realized I forgot to give you my number so here is a text! Be sure to put me in your contacts so you won't forget who I am! Of course, who could ever forget the great Papyrus? Talk to you later! About spaghetti! LOL LOL LOL

I pursed my lips, making a sucking sound.

Yep, this would be fun.

~TBC

A/N: I'm just more comfortable writing OCs from first person. All other character POVs will be third. So the first chapter POV was changed as well and re-uploaded. Hope no one minds. I also changed Niki's last name lol no other detail was changed, so don't worry.

Wow. Just wow. The response I got is amazing! Thank you for all the nice reviews! And to all of you who reviewed as anon; Guest, , K, Pixel, and Talltree-san, thank you so much since I can't respond personally. And Talltree-san, whoohoo another YYH fan! In fact, I think a few of you are YYH fans in here. Smol world lol

As for Sans, I hope I hinted that something is amiss without him being too OOC :/

Also I watch too much Markiplier and his playthrough of HuniePop and I couldn't help but put Celeste in here...except with a cat face. Heh. Thanks again! :)