0-0-0-0-0
Sans stumbled in through the doorway, the sensation of teleporting fleeing his body as he shuffled inside. The early morning light seemed glaringly bright as he closed the door behind him and collapsed onto the sofa without bothering to remove his lab coat, face first into the cushions. Sans momentarily entertained the idea of forcing himself up the stairs and crawling into bed with Toriel again, but he couldn't bring himself to accidentally wake her in the process. He half expected Flowey to start griping at him again about coming in late, and he hadn't even gone to Grillby's first this time.
Oh, wait. He's not a flower anymore.
Sans's head still felt numb from that prospect. They had brought a dead child back to life. They had done the impossible, and they were about to do the impossible again.
Don't want to think about it anymore. Just wanna sleep. Don't think about the spike. Don't think about the resets. Just wanna sleep. Just wanna sleep.
Gaster had the knowledge needed to prevent the timeline spikes from occurring again. The one monster who could possibly save them all. And yet, when they needed him most, Gaster disappeared. Fallen into his own creation and scattered across time and space.
Don't wanna think about it. Don't make me think about it.
Sans forcibly tried to clear his mind, and was failing miserably. There were simply too many thoughts clouding his head all at once, from the potential prevention of the end of the world to the slight rumbling in his stomach, it all seemed to weigh on him like an anchor. He finally groaned and sat up, groggily rubbing his eyes. The shadows had shifted considerably, though he hadn't particularly noticed the passage of time at all. It was still too early for anyone to be up, but Sans forced himself to stand anyway, his mind feeling heavy.
He pulled his slippers on and tried to readjust his lab coat as he heard quiet footsteps coming down the stairs. Sans blinked and stared at Frisk, who was already dressed in jeans and her bright blue sweater.
"You're up awfully early," Sans started conversationally. "What's the occasion?"
"I'm making breakfast for everybody," Frisk's soft voice floated through the room, but sounding much louder than anticipated. "Since Papyrus isn't home yet."
"You're learning responsibility," Sans nodded once. "I can respect that. Personally, I prefer laziness. It's way easier than actually doing things."
Frisk didn't seem to have a response, and he stopped her before she entered the kitchen.
"Hey. Kid. Have a sit," he patted the seat next to him. He felt a sudden urge to rub the bags he felt under his eye sockets, but resisted and watched her crawl onto the couch beside him.
"Yeah?" she blinked. "What's up, Uncle Sans?"
"Just got a question for ya," he said quietly while staring straight ahead, hands in his pockets.
"... Okay," Frisk nodded curiously. "What is it?"
Sans didn't respond for what felt like forever. He stared straight ahead, and he looked so tired, so exhausted that Frisk momentarily wondered if he had fallen asleep sitting up.
"... Your 'thing'," he said quietly at last. "What we talked about before. Y'know. The 'save points', the determination. The resets."
"... Yeah...?" Frisk blinked again, unsure of herself.
"So," he shrugged, the weariness seeming to vanish from him for a brief time. "When exactly do you plan to reset?"
"What-what do you mean?"
"I-I just wanna know," Sans choked, unable to quite look right at her. "I gotta know, kid. I gotta know when I'm gonna wake up in Snowdin and this is all gonna be one big dream. I need to know when everything is gonna reset again."
Sans paused as he felt Frisk's hands on his shoulders, and he looked across to her. She hugged him tightly, pulling him close and burying her head against him.
"No," he felt her shake her head slightly. "No more resets. Never. Not ever again. I promised. I promise."
Sans felt like a golf ball were stuck in his throat and his eyes burned as he squeezed her back, straining to keep his voice even.
I wanna believe it, kid. God help me, I do.
"... Okay, kiddo. Okay."
0-0-0-0-0
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive, Sans."
"I can be there in half a minute Al-"
"I mean it, Sans," Alphys sounded tired over the phone. More tired than he had ever heard her. "I can finish up the generator by myself, it's almost done anyway."
Sans ran a hand over his head, letting out a long breath through his teeth as he held the cellphone out for a moment before answering.
"You're one hundred percent on this?" Sans asked yet again.
"One hundred and one," she wearily replied. "Just... spend what time you have left with your loved ones."
"That does not imply good things, Alphys!" Sans felt his heart jump into his throat, but she was already gone. "Alphys! Al-"
He heard nothing.
"Did-did she just hang up on me?" he stared at his phone in disbelief.
"I believe she just hung up on you," Toriel stated matter of factly from across the kitchen table.
"I think she just hung up on me," Sans clapped a hand to his forehead.
"Okay, we get it," Papyrus rolled his one good eye, folding down the newspaper that he had been reading as Frisk cheerfully placed a plate of sizzling pancakes before him. "Thank you, little human!"
"I shaped it like your head!" she beamed up at him.
Papyrus stared down at the pancake for a long few silent moments.
"... My depth perception may be a little off," he rubbed his black eye patch uncomfortably, "But I'm not entirely certain that this artistic expression of the Great Papyrus looks much like... well, the Great Papyrus."
"Oh," Frisk sank a little, giving his plate a poke with the fork. "Well, it looked a lot more like you before it was cooked."
He simply patted her on the head with a small smile.
"It's no pasta, but... that'll do, human. That'll do."
"It does sort of resemble you upside down..." Toriel hmm'd from beside him, tilting her head a little.
"Maybe it's like one of those puzzles you have to look at with one eye- oh," Sans deflated mid sentence, earning a positively boiling glare from Papyrus.
"I think we have more important things to deal with than more things that should be shaped like the Great Papyrus," Papyrus stated. "Like, for example, what was it? Oh, right, the literal end of the world!"
"Eesh," Sans cringed. "You don't have to say it with such, y'know. Oooh in it," he mimed dramatically with his fingers.
"Actually I think Papyrus has a point," Frisk said worriedly as she clambered into the seat beside him, pouring syrup all over her pancakes. "The whole 'end of the world' thing kinda has me even more worried than the oral presentation at school Monday."
"I can imagine few things worse than an oral presentation," Toriel said dryly, taking a large bite.
"An anal presentation?" Sans suggested.
Toriel suddenly choked on her pancakes.
The sound of Asriel stumbling noisily down the stairs helped to distract from the incredibly awkward moment of silence where everyone stared down the short skeleton, and the younger goat yawned as he entered the kitchen.
"Howdy everybody," he stifled a yawn, pulling at the shirt of his pajamas as he dropped into a seat. "Mornin'. What did I miss?"
Nobody seemed to have a proper response, considering the morning's rushed explanation of what was going on.
"... Seriously, what happened?" Asriel blinked, helping himself to pancakes along with his daily dosage of refrigerated purple liquid that Alphys had stocked them with. "Yeesh, you guys look depressing. It's not like it's the end of the world or something."
No aside from Asriel moved.
He had a few syrupy bites to help down the stabilization gel before slowly placing the fork down on the table, looking around the room at everyone else, who for some reason all seemed to have difficulty looking at him.
"... What?" he repeated.
"Well..." Toriel coughed uncomfortably into one hand, forcing herself to meet her reborn son's eyes.
"You guys are acting weirder than Undyne did about Papyrus's eye patch," he shrugged. "Tell 'em, Frisk."
Frisk kicked her legs back and forth, looking away.
"... Frisk?"
"We've... kinda got a problem," Sans steepled his fingers together, leaning against the table on his elbows.
"What-what kind of problem?" he asked cautiously.
"So," Papyrus shifted across from him. "You know that whole 'end of the world' thing-"
"Oh my god guys it was a joke," Asriel breathed. "You-you can't possibly be serious."
"One hundred and one percent," Sans answered quietly. The entire room went silent.
Asriel slowly looked back and forth between them all before gulping loudly.
"... It's not my fault this time, right?"
"What do you mean 'this time'?" Toriel blinked.
"Alphys picked up a signature..." Sans explained uncomfortably, pulling out a pair of spectacles from his pocket and examining them closely. "A... lapse in the timeline. A spike."
"O...kay...?" Asriel stared back at him, suddenly feeling much less hungry than he was before. "And... what exactly does that mean?"
"It means," Sans drew in a deep breath, "That things might be getting worse than Jerry on karaoke night."
"... Who's Jerry?" Frisk asked.
"Don't ask," Sans and Papyrus answered simultaneously. The skeleton brothers shared a glance before letting out a couple of uneasy chuckles. On the one upside, for once they were a perfectly matching pair.
"... No, but, seriously," Asriel awkwardly folded his hands in his lap, watching as Sans tucked the glasses back into a pocket on his lab coat. "What exactly does that mean?"
"It means that we might never have this conversation," Sans said bluntly. "The entire world could be rewritten. Restarted."
"Oh," Asriel nodded once, before all the color drained from his face. He stared down at his plate of partially eaten pancakes, suddenly feeling sick. "Oh."
"Yeah," Sans agreed, taking a slow sip of his coffee. "Oh."
"How-how long do we have?" he asked weakly.
"Ah," Sans checked an invisible watch on his wrist. "About... two days."
"Well that at least leaves time to oh my god are you kidding me?!"
"Calm down, my child," Toriel placed a hand on his shoulder, though it seemed to have little to no effect. "He said could not would."
"Probably," Sans shrugged. "Most likely. High probability."
"This is bad," Asriel ran a hand over his scalp in a panic. "This is bad...!"
"No, no," Papyrus stopped the worried Toriel from grabbing his shoulders. "Let him get it out of his system first, he'll feel better."
"Feel better?" Asriel choked. "There might be a reset coming, and you think I'll feel better?! Is there something wrong with your head?"
"Probably," Papyrus motioned toward his eye patch.
Asriel let out a shaky laugh, sinking into his seat.
"... This-this is hilarious," Asriel cupped his head in his hands. "Just perfect."
"To be fair, about everyone but Papyrus had pretty much the same reaction," Frisk nodded sagely, already having finished her pancakes.
"Why everyone but Papyrus?" he gave a watery blink.
"Because the Great Papyrus is dead freakin' tired," Papyrus said utterly without emotion. "I just got off from work. Believe me, it'll kick in. Just give it time."
"So," Sans clapped his hands together. "Everybody done with their freak-outs?"
"Not quite," Asriel felt the purple liquid rebelling against his body.
"I think so," Frisk shrugged.
"Most of us are." Toriel frowned.
"Close enough," he stood. "Everybody hop in the car. We're taking a little scenic trip to the park. Time to cram in as much sappy family activity as possible in a twenty-four hour period of time."
"Am I the only one not okay with this?" Asriel shouted as he was left behind by everyone else.
"No," Sans stuck his head back in through the doorway. "But you're the only one getting left out if you don't get out of your pj's and get in the car."
Asriel followed suit, though nobody but Frisk bothered to question why he had taken her clothes instead of his own.
On the upside, for once they were a perfectly matching pair.
0-0-0-0-0