It was cold. She hated it. Her mind was hazy and her entire body seemed to be aching: nothing out of ordinary. Such a long time had passed since she last had been gifted the comfort of feeling warm, of feeling safe... And yet, her brain was slowly taking in little things that seemed to be off about her surroundings. For one: whatever she was lying on was soft, fluffy like clouds looked from apart. The air around her was void of the stench of smoke: her lungs were still not used to the foul haze. They still craved for fresh air like it was luxury.

She could hear talking, too. The voices were hushed and alien to her: she was sure that she had not heard any of them before. She could only make out a word or two of what was being said. It had been too long since she had last heard words other than orders being barked at her.

Suddenly, as she was finally willing her eyes to open - or at least attempt to flutter a little, to show that she was awake, that she was there, too - she felt something cool brush against her sweaty forehead.

"I don't want to let anymore humans around her, not until we know who hurt her," a deep voice uttered lowly. It was the one that had said the least until then. She could only make out about half of what the voice had said, but somehow they reassured her. After all...

She was shaken out of her hazy thoughts by another, softer voice speaking up in a gentle, soothing manner.

"Sans, you know well that we have to take her to the hospital. I don't know how you know her, or why don't you want her to be seen by the doctors, but we can't do anything right now," poor lady - it was definitely a female voice, the girl could assume that much from the sweet ring of it - seemed so... remorseful? As if she was regretting something. Still, it was hard for the girl to wrap her mind around what was going on. She knew what a hospital was, yes, but she never understood their concept fully. After all, anyone who was taken to one was sure to never return. She did not want that, at all.

"N..no!" it was her own whisper, but her voice seemed awfully unfamiliar. After all, it was not often that she was aloud to speak up. She could vaguely recall whimpering something to a blurred figure the last time she had been aware of what was going on around her, but she wasn't quite sure if she had beent truly awake then, or merely dreaming. After all, she had been out in the streets in her twisted vision. She had felt cold concrete on her skin, the chilly air, too. She had been free...

But she was quite sure that she had been merely hallucinating. After all, the aches, the burns... they were still there. If anything, they had only gotten worse. It was weird. Her lungs hurt badly from the small task she had just accomplished - by alerting the people who were around her not to take her to a hospital.

She waited patiently for a praise. After all, she probably had done the right thing for once, by speaking up. Hospital, despite how there was no way out from it, cost money. Or so she had been told before. Maybe her memories were merging together, maybe nonsense thoughts were rampaging in her mind because of the blinding pain she had but... She wanted so badly to be told that she was good. Just once.

"Hey, you're up?" a third voice asked. It was the very one she had heard in her dream? the one in which she had been free and begging for help still."Child, do you think you can open your eyes for us?"

She obeyed very slowly, the sharp light of the lamp that hung above her causing a dull ache in the back of her skull. She raised a hand to tap the sore spot as if that could help, movements incredibly sluggish. The first thing she realised was how the people who were leaning above her were not like her. They were different... Two had fur and the third was just...bones? Without any meat or skin? She had never seen anyone like them before and it was slightly frigthening. But in her weak, still dizzy state, she could not think of anything to do other than obeying whatever command they gave her. After all, that's what she had always been told to do.

"Good," she heard. The voice came from the figure who only had bones as parts of their body. It was definitely a male judged by the voice, but it was not what stunned the girl. While the bone-man was grinning like many men she had seen before, his mouth had not moved an inch when he spoke. He may only have said a single word, but still. She had no idea what was going on. Probably, her mind was playing tricks on her. It was scary.

She wanted to scream but she knew that she was not allowed to do that. However, suddenly, a gentle hand grabbed hers. It was that of the fur-clad animal lady who was smiling at her kindly.

"It's alright, my child. Everything is alright. Don't ever be scared as long as you can see us, alright?"

Despite having not understood half of what she had been told, she managed to nod just a little, hoping that she did the right thing. After all, she could not afford to be hurt again. She did not want to sink back into the void again.

Not until she was sure that there was no way back from there.

Toriel wished badly for a power that was strong enough to wipe the scars and cuts off the poor human's body and cleanse her spirit. It would have been so much easier than waiting for everything to heal then scab over and leave marks in the end. A couple days had passed since Asgore had stumbled upon the poor, poor creature, and she was mostly sleeping with Sans by her side. Even when her temperature rose and she wheezed for air with droplets of sweat running down her flushed flesh, the skeleton had refused to let humans take care of her. Why? The past queen had no idea.

The girl was slowly healing on the outside, but things were not going as smoothly as Toriel had hoped awake, she was mostly peaceful and almost like a child, curious at the world, at everything that surrounded her. It was endearing to say the least. However, it was not always like that.

At times, she would start screaming with her eyes open wide and throat quickly going dry, body spasming violently. She seemed to be suffering from nightmares even when she was awake. Sans's presence usually helped her calm down, but sometimes even that was not enough. To begin with, it was quite weird that the skeleton could silence the poor human just with a few sweet words and pats on messy hair. As if he knew what to do, as if he had been through it a thousand times... Shaking her head, the monster pushed her thoughts aside as she bent down to take care of the poor soul's wounds once more.

"She's healing," she remarked to Sans softly, a fond smile growing on her lips as the girl stirred a bit, fear, for once, not present in her eyes as they opened.

"O..oh." mumbled the human quietly, a tiny hand going up to rub at her eyes. Despite how the bandages were still wrapped tight around her wrists - they had been a little bruised, nothing too bad and luckily Toriel had the perfect ointment for them - the action did not radiate even an ounce of pain or sorrow. The girl, at the moment, was merely..adorable.

"I see that you are awake again, my child!" Toriel said with a small grin, chuckling when those wide eyes blinked innocently and the girl nodded just a little."It is nice to see you with us again. Would you care to eat or drink anything now?"

The hope that flashed up vividly in those bright orbs was incredibly. Toriel had never seen such a thing: not even when she had offered to take care of the very first fallen human, many years ago. She let out a soft sigh at the thought, quickly pushing the memories away. She knew very well thatthat human was long gone. But now, she had another child to take care of...

"F..food, please." the girl's whisper finally tore the ex-queen out of her muddy thoughts. Voice soft and cheeks blushing lightly, the human resembled a child: innocence was so clear in her sparkling eyes. Almost as if she had not been hurt as much as she had been.

Sans just sat there without a word, eyes set on the girl's bed. He only moved a bit when Toriel left for food, leaning closer just a bit.

"Look, kid, I know you don't remember me, but please, trust us, okay?" his voice was low but almost frantic. After all, he knew what could happen if were not to convince the girl that all was okay. He had seen it happen before. But this time, he wanted to prevent it so badly.

"I trust. You." the girl mumbled weakly. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say: after all, she barely even understood him. Her mind was fuzzy yet blank, void of many things she knew she was supposed to know. After all, there had been a time, way, way back when she had not been like this. She knew it. She could not remember, but she knew it.

"I know, kid. I know," the skeleton let out a sigh as he ruffled the girl's hair gently, uttering her name as if it was the sweetest, most precious thing on the whole plant."But sometime I doubt that you actually get what we are talking to you about."

The girl just blinked at him, her eyes still filled with the hope of eating something. She rarely concentrated on more things than one, or so Toriel had noticed. The goat-like monster was standing behind the door with a tray of light soup in her hands. She had hoped that she would hear Sans talk about how he knew the girl, but no. If anything, what the skeleton had said only confused her further. Deciding not to worry much over the subject for a while, she walked into the room, chuckling when the girl smiled: rosy lips tugging into a sheepish, but very genuine smile.

She seemed so open most of the time, so... so sweet. Someone who deserved love and care so much should have never suffered like she had. Toriel had decided the first time she had seen her: no matter what would happen, she would never let anyone hurt the girl again.

"Food looks good." Sans had to chuckle lightly at the heartfelt compliment: Toriel actually blushed. It was the first time the girl said something like that. Most of the time, while all smiles when she was the ruler of her own mind and not the memories that haunted her, she was all smiles and sweetness... But not everyone could see how false those were.

The skeleton knew too well why she had perfected how to act, and the mere thought disgusted him to the bone. But he said and did nothing. After all. as long as everyone thought things were alright... they were going to be like that forever, right?

Maybe this time, he was doing the right thing.

Maybe... this time there would not need to be more resets...

Papyrus, for one, had no idea what was going on. His brother had always been the one to disappear for some time without really saying where he went, but once they had been freed from the cage called underground, he had rarely left the small house they shared. He had a job or two - probably even more, but who counted when it came to Sans, really - but other than those, he preferred to laze around in his room. So obviously, it was odd to the - sadly - younger skeleto that his brother suddenly left and did not go home for a long time.

At first, the great Papyrus believed that maybe, for once, he had been too rough on his brother. Sure, he had asked Sans to put his dirty sock back where it belonged three times, and he also may have glared at his brother a bit too hard when Sans said a stupid pun about bones but...

The skeleton let out a sigh, his usually cheerful expression switched to one of grief. He wasn't even sure if Sans had been home in the past few weeks. He always waited eagerly for his lazy brother, but most nights, nobody came. Papyrus was forced to go to bed alone, without his usual bedtime stories, without someone being there to protect his dreams. It was weird and scary. After all, he was not used to being so lonely. He may not have had a whole lot of friends back in the Underground, but he had always had his brother to rely on. And suddenly, he had nothing. He could call Undyne, yes, but even his good friend was very busy with whatever tasks she had to do. The human had school at daytime, and at night, they had to nap. They couldn't even text back to Papyrus most of the time. It was such a sad time..

Right until on a dark, lonely day Sans appeared in the living room, his usual grin present on his face.

"Hey bro," he said, as if he had not been missing for who knows how long. Yes, he had left a message or two on the fridge - it seemed as if he went home when Papryus was sleeping, or out - but that was all. His absence had brought sorrow to his brother's usual cheerful mood. And yet, he acted as if nothing had happened.

"Brother, where have you been?" Papyrus looked up, sadness present in his eyesockets. His soul felt oddly empty yet heavy. It was confusing and somewhat exhausting. Maybe he was too used to relying on his brother. Maybe he was too used to the fact that Sans was always there for him...

"I had some things to do, bro." Sans plopped down on the couch with a sigh, clearly more worn out than he let on."Anyway, I have a new friend who is dying to know you." He chuckled to himself as if he had made another of his silly puns. This time. Papryus just was not in the mood to shake his head and sigh at it. He was just too puzzled to piece two and two together.

"Do they?" he asked finally, tilting his head to the side."Brother, did you spend all of your time with this person?" he questioned, finally getting the idea of what could be going on."Did you go on dates and nightdates and..."

He rambled on and on, enthusiasm nearly swallowing his brother and causing him to brigten up a bit, too. If anything, Sans did get a little flustered, cheekbones dusted blue and the little round lights of his eyesockets set on the ground. He shook his head however, swallowing as if he possessed the need to do so.

"Not quite yet, bro. But this person deserved me to be by them... her, all time. She's better now though and she would probably want some new friends. She's a little lonely and well, I have a few jobs to do, too. I can't keep slacking off, can I? I need to take my breaks off from something." Sans laughed at his own half-hearted joke, but the sound was more strained than happy. Even Papyrus could tell that for once, he was truly exhausted. He looked horrible, too, as if he had not napped,for forever. Or longer.

"Then brother, I would love to get acquinted with this person and talk to them until you are at one of your many jobs!" he said finally, mind wrapped around what was going on perfectly - or so he thought. And well, the great Papyrus was rarely ever wrong.

"That's good to hear, bro. I'm sure that she's gonna be delighted to meet you, too. Plus the kid lives at the place she is at right now. You know with Tori. The king is there a lot, too." Sans let out a sigh of relief. Everything was going according to his plans. There was no way that he would mess up again. He already knew what he had to do and say. It was crazy and yet, he felt as if he was the player of one of the kid's games. He had choices to make, options to choose from. It was crazy and yet, it made him somewhat giddy. Maybe because this time, he was in control. It was not like back under the ground. This time, he could easily go back and make sure that only he could remember his mistakes: he could erase them just by thinking about how he wished for another chance. He oddly loved this power...

And he was nearly intoxicated by the fact that this time, everything would go his way. He would get what he wanted: the happy ending. At any cost.

"Oh, the human shares a home with your new friend? How delightful!" Papyrus exclaimed in glee, clapping a little. His bones hitting each other made a rattling sound in a somewhat amusing manner.

"Good to know you think so, bro. Good to know.."