Mornings with Sans was pretty great. You'd think being coddled by a small skeleton would be uncomfortable and pokey, but most mornings you'd wake up like you did the first month he was here. Other mornings he'd be draped across your stomach, legs, or torso. You believed he slept like that to try and prevent you from getting out of bed because he'd be clenching the sheets and blankets beneath you with his hands and feet.

His magical mutations hadn't advanced at all so he now had his own drawer of clothing that you had altered a little bit. Pants now had a hole for his tail, jackets and shirts now had an additional zipper or buttons on the back for his spinous process to have room. The only problem you had to face was shoes. The way his feet curved was too awkward for human shoes, but they were too long for pet shoes. You carried him most of the time so you didn't worry too much, his doctor had also told you that there was literally no way Sans could damage his feet from rocks or anything due to the gaps between the bones.

Today another body had been found.

And it was horrid. You had Sans stay in the car for this one.

The woman had large cuts all over her upper body, markings on her wrists clueing that she had been strapped to a chair. Other than all the blood that seeped into the concrete behind the dumpster, her eyes had been missing. Blood caking her hair and shirt made both rather hard and stale.

"She'd been dead at least two days."

You nodded in agreement. A dumpster wasn't a bad spot to dispose of a body, especially around restaurants. The smell of expired meats and leftover food always smelt like death. Honestly this person would have gotten away with it if they had made an attempt to actually dispose of the body in the dumpster. Though you wouldn't have a case right now would you.

After combing through the scene thoroughly you got back into your car and buckled up.

"was it really that bad?"

"Super bad."

He crawls back up to the passenger seat and buckles up in his booster chair. You can never get over how cute he is in a toddler's booster chair. He still had to stretch up when he sat straight just to watch outside the window. You loved watching how his attention and posture perks up when he sees a new cloud in the sky, a bird, or even when you pass by some restaurants and see him stick his nose closer to the window.

"Good news, a stray animal did not rip out her eyes. Bad news, someone had obviously ripped out her eyes."

You groan and rub the bridge of your nose. "We knew that."

"Sheesh. Anyway, she'd been tied down then taped here, here, here, and here." He pointed his pen from the woman's wrists, to her elbows. "Whoever did this did NOT want her to escape alive. We can safely assume she had run into some information that may have caused reason for her to be held hostage for abouuuuut -" he looked at his clipboard then watch "- four days prior to being dead for two."

You frowned as you went through her clothing for a fourth time. They seemed to be just casual clothes that could work as business casual. You glanced at the print off's of the woman lying on the table behind you. Poor thing just graduated from college. You sit everything down and shed off your sterilized gloves.

"For now we need to file down this case separate from the others. We need to go to her college and get the rest of her information to contact emergency contacts, while there we need to get her schedule and camera feeds. With that we'll be able to either find her dorm or an address of where she was living."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Perhaps speaking to her professors will help out with understanding her as well."

You looked to Larson and smiled, "Yes that's a great idea. Are we all finished?" without looking up you grabbed your copies and straightened them in your manilla folder and stepped out.

This case was one of those ones that you had to wait patiently to do. But lucky for you, you had another project.

Rounding the corner you easily spotted Sans and quickened your pace. You picked him up from underneath where his pits would be and propped him up on your hip. "We're done for the day, where'd you like to go?" He snuffles your hands and clothes for a moment then props his skull on your shoulder. "if you still got work, we can go to the center?"

You smiled and patted his head. He was always looking out for your paperwork when you were more than willing to procrastinate and play with him instead. But when he offered on going to the bitty shop on a new case day, he knew you'd have a lot of it.

"Okay okay, let's go." Leaning over, you allowed him to grab your briefcase and coat and the two of you set out.

You nibbled on your cheesey bread and twirled your stylus in your other hand.

Your other project was your new hobby. Due to the limited knowledge on skeleton bitty's you had decided to do what Larson did, but more extensive. You wrote and catalogued anything and everything owners told you that they knew and were positive about their own skellies. Thank goodness for living in such a large city, you were able to meet new skeletons every time you visited. It had gotten to the point that the other owners had invited you to a 'Skellie Love' group page, invitation only. It was simple enough that Sans could communicate with other skellies while you were busy.

Though on multiple occasions the owners tried hooking up their bitty with your's. You politely declined, and so did Sans.

Some nights you'd see him stare longingly at paired 'Brothers' pictures online.

You had already finished what you could of your actually work after a few calls and online conversations, and you had nothing else to update on your own project. So today you were able to actually just sit there and watch Sans.

Some days he would be more active than others, today was one of those days. He was teleporting all over the place, you assumed he was playing tag. None of the other bitty's were able to get near him. Every now and then an armless yellow lizard would fall flat on it's face and Sans would blip right next to it and sit it back up with his tail then disappear again. You've noticed when he used his magic in often short bursts, his magic would build up in his left socket again. Though when he concentrates it seems to form into a little eye light as normal. But you're still confused why the other socket doesn't form something similar.

For a moment you don't see him at all until an 'oof' across the table startles you and you see him slumped against his chair panting. You gently push a small cup of water to him. "It'll cool you down." He whines for a moment but reluctantly grabs the water and literally just dumps all of it into his mouth. "Ketchup?"

You sigh and push over his bottle of ketchup and he starts sucking on the straw. "Did you tire yourself out?"

Sans drinks half the bottle before sitting it down and laying his head on the table. "mmhmmm." He peeks up and looks at your briefcase sitting on the floor, "did ya finish work?" you nod and start gathering up all of your table trash. "Pretty much, gotta go to the university tomorrow." His tail starts clinking again the metal of his chair and you grin. "What? You wanna go?"

He hops up to his feet in the chair and leans as close to you as he can, "can i?" Sans' tail is speedily wagging in pure happiness. " 'Course you can. Now let's go home."

You'd never thought Sans would have an interest in science. Well to be more specific, quantum physics. It was a huge surprise for you that he was able to keep up with the professor's' lecture as you talked to the Chancellor.

Larson was already receiving video feeds while you asked questions.

"Anyway, so here are her files.. Annd, oh! A list of her professors. And -"

You started tuning him out, you couldn't really help it. His voice was so boring and monotonous. So you started flipping through her stuff. No absences. No sick leaves, or sick days. Average grades. Oh? She was studying to be a bitty health physician. Checking her professors and grades again you noticed that in that particular class she had very high scores. "Sorry to interrupt sir, but I need to go question the professors before their lunch is over." You shake the Chancellor's hand and allow Sans to crawl up your legs and cling onto your back.

Sans takes the files and sheets of paper from your hands so you can fish out your phone and send a quick text to Larson. "a bitty physician?"

"Mhmm."

After walking to almost the complete opposite side of the university, you finally arrived at the professor's office. When you asked her about the student in question, she showed optimism that the female study was a very bright and intellectual young lady and she had received an interview last week for a very promising bitty job.

"She hadn't told me much. Though I am worried that they're working her too hard. She hadn't answered any of my calls or messages. But I do know it was a type of bitty breeding for the endangered bitty's that have difficulties procreating. Like your skeleton there!"

"Skeletons have a problem procreating?"

"Indeed they do!" She looked so excited just to give you a sex talk on bitty's. "Literally all skeletons are male. So unlike other bitty's like bunny's and such they can't really form a place to help form a new soul. They have to literally share each half a soul with another more physical piece of themself. A rib, limb, finger, anything really for the soul to attach to and form into a young 'baby bones'."

In mid rant you had quickly grabbed anything to write with and on, which ended up being a dry erase marker and your own arm.

"But due to the pairing and companionship that skeleton bitty's do, if one messes up and falls. The other will fall. Then you end up two bitty's less."

"How would they mess up?"

She looks surprised for a moment and glances to Sans over your shoulder.

"Well.. The Older Brother bitty's tend to have 1 HP. In most cases the Older Brother is the skeleton that falls first. Oh.. Uh. Would you just like a copy of my print off? You're running out of room on your arm."

You finally looked down to your arm and saw the large sloppy smudged writing. "Yes, sorry that would be helpful." She walks off to her enormous stacks of study sheets on her desk. You gently reach a hand up and rub Sans' cheek. "You okay buddy?"

" 'm fine."

"You sure?"

"yea, jus' learning new stuff about me almost everyday? feels weird that i don't know that about m'self."

You kiss his cheek before the professor comes back with the stapled papers.

"Anyway. I hope my top student is doing okay out there. I'm sorry I couldn't give you anymore information other than that"

"Oh, no thank you. You were extremely helpful."

You shake her hand and thank her again before stepping outside and seeing Larson standing off to the side.

"You got her address?"

"Yea I did."

Sans passes over a small note card with girls' address on it.

"Seems she was living in an apartment on the other side of town. We just gotta get a warrant and check it out."

He nods and stares at you then Sans for a moment and walks away.

Weird