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It was a bright and sunny morning, a warm breeze rolling in over the horizon, promising of oncoming rain soon to be. Sans sat on the park bench between a gently snoring Papyrus, still decked out in his brown night guard's uniform with his head fully tilted backwards with Toriel on his opposite side, hands folded neatly in her lap. Her white and violet dress drifted slightly in the wind, dancing with the park's shining tree leaves.
Sans wanted to bring himself to speak as the two watched the children playing across the varied assortment of playground equipment, but couldn't quite manage to do so. Every time he tried to bring the words together they seemed to fail before leaving his mouth, leaving him sitting with a tightly clenched jaw the entire time.
"... They look happy," Toriel said simply after a long time of silence.
"Yeah," Sans answered quietly.
"It reminds me of when I was young..." she said with a small smile, and when she glanced down she saw a tiny grin on the skeleton's face as well.
"I can't imagine you any younger than you already look," though she snorted at that.
"Always the flatterer, hmm?"
"Shorter, maybe," he chuckled. "Maybe we could have been the same height, once upon a timeline."
"Size isn't everything, you know," she answered with a cocked eyebrow, earning a slight growth of his grin.
They fell silent again shortly afterwards, listening to the children laugh as they played, chasing each other back and forth across the playground.
"What were you like?"
"Whuzzat?" Sans blinked, shaking off the urge to rub his tired eyes.
"When you were young," she spared a glance back down to him, but to her surprise, he was staring down at his slippers with a hollow expression. "... What were you like?"
"I..." his voice seemed to catch in his throat, but he was back to staring out at the children the next moment. "We never really were very interesting kids. No story to tell there."
"I highly doubt that," Toriel forced a small smile, but her heart wasn't in it. The sight of Sans looking so completely, thoroughly exhausted unsettled her. "... Sans? Is... is something wrong?"
"Hmm?" he gazed up at her, distractedly playing with the pair of spectacles that he was prone to carrying everywhere with him, regardless of the fact that she had never actually seen him wearing them. "No, no. Nothing's-nothing is wrong. Just thinking. What about you, Tori? I don't hear you talking about your past much, either."
Toriel frowned, crossing her arms.
"I wish that I could say I have a lot of pleasant memories that haven't been tainted by age," she said slowly.
"Hoo, boy," Sans let out a weak laugh. "Trust me, I know the feeling. I think most people just call it 'getting old' though."
"Oh, I've been old for ages then!" she snorted again, and he chortled with her.
"... I-" she started but tapered off just as she began to speak, staring down at her hands.
"What?" Sans stared.
"I... lost quite a lot," Toriel spoke softly, but he could hear the weight in her voice. "I forsook my people and my throne. I lost my own husband to his own cowardice and cruelty. I lost both of my children, and-"
Her voice seemed to fail her, and she blinked water from her eyes to see Sans's hand softly gripping hers.
"And yet," she coughed awkwardly, not having to have let that much slip. "And yet, despite everything, none of it really seems at all as dreadful as it used to. My people are free. I live with a wonderful family. And I have my children ba- I have children again," she corrected herself.
Sans squeezed her hand lightly, thinking.
"... Asriel wasn't an only child?" he asked after a moment.
"He was," she answered without looking at him. "Chara was... adopted, in a sense."
She suddenly felt Sans freeze beside her. She tore her eyes away from the playing children to look at him, and found him sitting absolutely stock still, and just for a moment, she could have sworn that his eye sockets had gone completely empty.
"... Sans?"
"Yeah," he shifted at last. "Sorry," he grinned, looking back at her, the bags vanishing from beneath his eyes for just a short time. "Goose must have stepped over my grave or somethin'. The name sounds... familiar though. I don't think you've ever mentioned Chara before."
"She was..." Toriel began uncomfortably, looking away. "She was a... dark child."
"How dark are we talkin'?" Sans let go of her hand to rub the back of his head. "Because, y'know, human children come in different shades, it's not that big of a deal."
"That's not what I meant, Sans."
She gazed downward at the ground, avoiding his gaze for what felt like the longest time.
"... If it's all the same to you," she sighed eventually, sitting up straight. "I'd rather not dredge up old memories. Especially not with everything we have to worry about right now."
"That's kinda what I'm trying to distract everyone from," Sans admitted sheepishly.
"OH MY GOD!"
Sans nearly leapt out of his seat, jarred by Papyrus's sudden scream.
"SANS!" Papyrus shook him by the shoulders roughly, his one good eye rolling wildly. "It's almost the end of the world! How long was I asleep?"
"Chill, Paps-"
"How long?!" he shook him again, earning a quiet snicker from Toriel. "... What?" Papyrus blinked. "What's so funny?"
"You might want to stop shaking poor Sans like a rag doll," Toriel coughed conspicuously. "You're positively rattling him."
Papyrus opened his mouth before closing it.
"... Was that a skeleton pun?" he stared at her dubiously. "I'm... not entirely certain."
"Relax, broseph," Sans waved him off flippantly. "You're acting like a poorly populated camping ground."
"Huh?"
"Because you're..." Sans grinned. "... Two tents."
Papyrus groaned loudly, sinking into the wooden bench.
"Oh my god Sans," he said over Toriel's giggling. "That was even worse than the last one. When will the awful puns end?"
"In about two days, probably," Sans said before clamping his mouth shut, mentally kicking himself.
Toriel was about to say something that Sans didn't quite pick up when they were interrupted by the sound of Asriel's shouting as he approached, practically dragging a limping Frisk behind him.
"Help! I need help!"
"Asriel, c'mon, I said it's fine-"
"Frisk is leaking oh god what do we do?"
"Calm down, my child," Toriel knelt down to the ground to see that Frisk had gotten a rather large scrape on her knee. "It's only a scratch."
"That's what I told him," Frisk rolled her eyes, but it was clear from her expression that she was in pain. "It's-it's fine, I just need a bandage or something. It'll heal."
"Oh!" Asriel snapped his fingers, eyes lighting up. "Healing – right, right! I have an idea!"
Asriel placed his palms out over Frisk's injury, eyes screwed up in concentration.
Nothing happened.
After a moment of awkward silence he slowly drew his hands away, dull surprise at seeing the wound completely untouched.
"Perhaps these matters are best left to mothers," Toriel suggested, summoning a small portion of green healing magic at her fingertips and tending to Frisk's injury.
"She's quite good at it," Papyrus chipped in.
"R-right," Asriel nodded and backed away, trying to hide the fact that he was evidently shaken. Sans watched him quietly. "Of-of course."
He said nothing afterward but stood with his arms crossed, struggling to hide his expression of concern that Sans tried to convince himself was only for that of his friend.
Sans never was much good at convincing himself.
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It had been a long day.
After their jaunt to the park Papyrus had insisted on taking them all somewhere considerably less accident prone.
Which, to Papyrus, happened to be the city zoo.
It had taken a while, with Papyrus's panic inducing driving due to his eye patch, but they had arrived and spent several hours wandering around and chatting amongst themselves, eating ice cream. The only one that didn't seem to really join in was Asriel. He had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since leaving the park, and Sans didn't push his luck to try getting him to talk until long after they had gone home and the sun had set, the chirruping of crickets just outside the living room window keeping the pair company on the sofa.
Sans sat with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, not having bothered to remove it as the weary group dragged themselves inside for the day. Asriel sat upside down on the couch with his ears flopped down toward the floor, his upside down frown apparent in the dim light of the television game show with humans spinning a colored wheel for indeterminate amounts of money.
"... Stop thinking about it," Sans said without looking at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Asriel answered too quickly, and the emotion left his face completely.
"Try number two," Sans held up two bony fingers. "Maybe this time I'll actually believe you."
"I'm not thinking about it," Asriel scowled. "And I wasn't thinking about it until you brought it up."
"Okay..." Sans's eyes never left the flickering screen, but he kept a close watch on him from the corner of his eyesocket. "So, tell me what it is that you're not thinking about."
"What happened at the park today-"
"Oh, that," Sans chuckled. "I thought you meant the whole 'end of the world' thing."
"Great!" Asriel rolled his eyes, folding his hands across his stomach. "Definitely wanted that on my mind, too."
"Just tell me what's eatin' ya, kid," Sans let out a quiet breath.
Asriel chewed his tongue for a moment, thinking.
"... No pun? No... silly remarks?"
When he glanced back up at Sans, he could have sworn that, if only for a brief second, the light had completely gone out of his eyes. The next moment however he was grinning back down at him as he righted himself.
"Really?" and Asriel groaned in preparation. "Does it look like I've goat time to kid around?"
"You're terrible," Asriel rubbed his eyes, basked in the glow of the television set. "I mean, just the worst. These puns of yours have goat out of hand."
Asriel clapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide.
"Too late!" Sans cheered, arms high over his head and his grin wider than ever. "I knew it, jokes are in your blood!"
"Great," Asriel pinched the bridge of his nose, but he had a small smile. "Good to know where I get it from."
"Your mom, probably," Sans shrugged. Asriel crossed his arms again and grunted something unintelligible in reply. "But anyway... back to the topic at hand."
Asriel's smile slowly faded, and he drew up his legs and pulled his sweater over them until he was almost hiding inside his shirt, his gaze set dead ahead.
"... I can't use magic," Asriel said after a few moments. "I've-I've been trying all day. I can't use magic anymore."
"Can't say I'm too surprised."
"Why not?" Asriel frowned.
"Well," Sans held up a single finger. "For one, monster's magic is closely tied to their mental and emotional well being. So long as you've still got baggage, you're going to have some difficulty using different types of magic. I'm sure you've already guessed number two."
"I... I don't exactly have a real soul, do I?" Asriel asked quietly.
"Just because it's artificial doesn't mean you aren't real," Sans chuckled. "But the drawback being that a portion of your makeup is a small portion of my own body. You'll need time to acclimate properly until the soul has fully integrated with your body and mind before you can access magic."
"That's... slightly relieving," Asriel sighed, rubbing his eyes again.
"And three..." Sans added, a dark tone to his voice, holding up a third finger.
"Three?"
"... Nothing," Sans waved him away with a faux cheerful expression. "Just wanted to make your heart stop for a second."
"You really are the worst!" Asriel snorted and pushed him. Sans laughed with him, for a moment. It was then that he realized that the odd noise he was hearing from beneath him was Alphys's ringtone. He flipped his phone open and held it to the side of his head, curious.
"Al?"
"Sans," much to his surprise, he heard Undyne's voice instead of Alphys. "Something happened with the-the thing!"
"What's wrong?" Sans sat up, pressing the phone in harder to hear what sounded like ocean waves mixed with static from a television. "Undyne?"
"We need you over here," she replied breathlessly. "Like, now. I think the spike just came early."
"... Oh, shit."
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A/N Thanks for reading! More chapters are on the way. If you liked it (or didn't whatever I'm not your boss) please leave a comment letting me know! :D