Saying Goodbye

You sighed as you closed your eyes. Summer days were always the best in your opinion, matching your outlook on life for the most part. Sunny, warm, and full to bursting with sweet things that would be remembered by all who took part in them. The grass had been cut only an hour earlier, Papyrus offering to do it for your parents while they took you to the hospital for a check-in. The doctor was pleased at your pain management regimen and sent you home with a new bottle of pain killers and some antibiotics for in case you encountered any illnesses.

Now you were laid out on a wide blanket under your favorite flowering tree, hands under your head, staring up into the leaves above you. Times like this, you could almost forget that you were sick. You felt wonderful, your pain was minimal, and you honestly were happy.

You looked around when you heard the door open and close, wondering who was coming to sit with you. Asgore was not due home for some time yet, and Toriel had gone in a little while ago. You knew that Alphys would call before coming over to make sure that it was okay, and if it was Undyne you would have heard her calling from the minute she got there.

"Hey."

You smiled up at the blue shape over you. The rough voice would have told you who it was even if you could not see him. You shifted around and managed to prop yourself on your elbows to gesture for him to sit.

Sans, never one to turn down an opportunity to be seated and relaxing, flopped down beside you, a glass in each hand that looked to hold lemonade. Usually he did not bother with the stuff, but apparently Toriel had convinced him to take it instead of anything stronger.

"Hey you. How was work today? Anything interesting?"

The skeleton shook his head, sipping at one of the glasses of lemonade and handing you the other, keeping his grip on it until he was absolutely sure you had it. He rarely let you do anything these days, at least anything that he deemed unsafe. If you did do something, he usually insisted that either he or Toriel go with you. He tended to hover while you did things, whether it was eating, dressing yourself, or sleeping.

"Well... tell me about it anyway. Make something up, if it helps."

Sans chuckled and leaned back on his hands, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Okay. Well, how about this one... I'm in the back, see, and I hear Martha, you remember her? The tall skinny girl who answers the phones? Well, she hears the bell go off at the door and goes to greet the guy right, and ask what help he needs. The guy looks like he doesn't know the power button from the USB on a computer, asking all these questions that nobody in their right mind asks. I'm sitting there listening to all this, right, and I see this teenager come in behind him, looking all sheepish. Then this guy asks if there is any way for us to clean a computer."

He looks at you and you nod, smiling. You were trying to figure out if this was what he liked to call a 'no shitter' story or not.

"She asks him what kind of cleaning he was looking for, and he tells her" he starts to laugh "he tells her, he needs somebody to clean dog shit out of it! I guess the kid had left his laptop on the floor and the family dog couldn't hold it anymore!"

You both were laughing at that point. You were laughing hard enough to lose your breath and started snorting with mirth. You felt your arms giving out under you and leaned against the skeleton, who was still shaking with suppressed laughs. It took some time, but you both quieted down and wiped your eyes. You had needed a good laugh, and you knew Sans needed one too. He had been quiet since you had decided to stop your treatments, and you worried about him.

You grinned and reached around behind you, lifting a fluffy crown of leaves and flowers, something you had not made in years before today, and dropped it onto his skull. You laughed again as his eyes swiveled up to try to look at it before realizing what it was.

"Well, ain't I the prettiest in the land."

You leaned against him, feeling the magic in his bones humming just as strongly as ever, and smiled to yourself. You knew there would be a day when this was no longer an option, and you intended to make this last.

Summer, though, had other plans. The two of you watched the sky as clouds moved in, bringing with them heavy air and the smell of storms. Sans wanted to take you inside right away and moved to lift you, but you held up your hand.

"Wait. Just for a little while, I want to stay."

"Kid, it's going to start coming down on us any minute. I don't want you getting sick."

You shake your head, twisting yourself until you could slowly crawl to the edge of the blanket and lay there on your back just as the first drop hit your cheek.

"I have to enjoy it, Sans. Rainstorms are like people."

He screwed up his face in puzzlement as he looked up at the clouds and waited for you to explain.

"Rain isn't always."

He looked at you and his face fell a little. He understood what you meant now. You did not know when the rain was coming next, or when it was going to be gone. With a sigh, he laid down beside you and put an arm around your shoulders.

"Yeah, alright. Just for a few minutes though..."

You smile.

"Thank you, Sans."