Sans turns to face you with an expression you can't quite describe. Coupled with determination you feel apprehension and fear. But you know that you'll have to face whatever's waiting for you down this road.

"I'm not going to lie to you." Your soulmate starts. "This isn't going to be easy. When I was learning how to use this power I did some nasty things, Star. It will hurt. A lot. And it'll make you angry, really angry. Because of our bond I might get angry too. I promise that I won't hurt you but…" You feel dread sinking in as you stare into his eye sockets, his pupils dimming. "You have to know that no matter what happens right now, I love you."

You try to swallow the knot that has formed in your throat but it's proving difficult. You're starting to doubt yourself, your ability to go through with this. But if you don't at least try to control this new power, things could go very wrong. The problem is that from the look of things trying it can be just as dangerous. You feel conflicted.

What you do know is that you can't keep on being a ticking time bomb, not knowing when you'll explode and who you'll take down with you. Taking a deep breath you nod at Sans, letting him know that you're ready. Or as ready as you're going to be… He mimics your motion and gets to his feet, pulling you along with him.

You stumble into his arms and he holds your face between his hands, pulling you into a kiss filled with meaning and love, pouring his emotions into it. When you separate, you feel a little less anxious. Not much, but just enough.

"Okay, so here's how this is gonna go." Sans takes your hands in his and squeezes them reassuringly. "You're going to let your soul unlock the magic and let it mix freely. It's going to flow out of you faster than you can catch it and it's going to hurt like hell, but you'll have to try to reel it in. And that's it. Once you can do that, we can move on to doing something with it."

You try to assure yourself that everything's going to be fine, whatever can go wrong will not go wrong and you'll get to the end of the day with nothing bad having happened. Yes, that's how it'll be. Definitely. Without a doubt. You shake your head vigorously, the sarcasm in your thoughts is most certainly not helping the situation.

"I can do this." You tell yourself.

One last breath. You close your eyes and reach for your magic, you do just as Sans instructed, you unlock it and you let it out.

Immediately, it's like you've been hit by lightning, electricity coursing through your veins and spreading through your entire body, leaving a burn in its path. Your head feels like it's being thrust against a wall over and over, each time the pain growing greater. It is too much. You can't focus on anything but the fact that every fibre of your being seems like it's getting torn apart and crushed at the same time. You cry out, the thought that Alphys might be right and your body can't handle this much power burning itself into your mind. And a different kind of fire starts scorching your soul.

"Star, I know it's hard…" Sans' voice sounds strained. "But you have to try to contain it…"

"Or what?" The words leave your mouth before you can even process them in your brain. "You'll force me?" Your voice is laced with a bitterness you can't seem to hold back. "Like you did back at the lab? I'm sick of being ordered around! I'm sick and tired of not having a choice! I'm just a puppet in everyone's hands, something to be played with! I am so sick of people telling me what to do!" Your head snaps up to look Sans in the eyes, your own glowing with the magic that's pouring out of you, right red and left blue, making the air around you crackle, the entire place trembles, things flying every other direction. Your lips are pulled back in a snarl and anger is fuelling your rant. "You took me to that lab when I specifically asked you not to! You took my brother away again and it nearly killed us both!" You shout.

Sans is holding his head between his hands, trying to block out your words and not letting himself succumb to the rage that's leaking into his soul. His breathing is coming out in laboured huffs and he can't hold it anymore. His eye flares up and he stares at you just as intensely, speaking without thinking as well. "Well you brought that dirty brother killer back into my life when I was sure I would never see him again! He threatened my brother's life, all my friends' lives! I was just trying to protect the ones I love! You included!" He yells back, his speech coming out in a growl.

"I never asked for your protection! I never asked for any of this!" You swing your arm in front of you and magic blasts shoot out from your hand, in Sans' direction.

He lets out a shriek of pain and falls to his knees. Your heart sinks and your eyes widen. The pain no longer matters, the anger is meaningless. The sight of him is enough to drive you to call the magic back to your soul (with an insane amount of effort) and run to his side. The small skeleton is holding his right arm to his chest. You drop to your knees, sliding the rest of the way to him, taking his injured arm in your hands, guilt filling your soul.

"God damn it, I should've been able to dodge that." He groans when you pull back his sleeve to look at the damage.

"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" You ask, half expecting him to start turning to dust. "You're bleeding…?"

"Yeah. Weird right? A skeleton that bleeds. Only started happening after I got such high levels of determination." He chuckles and you can't believe he does at such a time.

"I could've killed you." You sound choked.

"It was just a graze, I'm fine."

"Let me help you…" You beg, the regret in your soul crushing you.

"You don't know any healing magic, it's okay, it'll get better."

"I've healed you before." You put a hand to your chest to try and pull out your soul and he uses his good arm to stop you.

"Don't. We're both exhausted right now. I don't want you to keep straining yourself. It's enough for today." He sounds uncompromising.

"I'm so sorry…" You apologise once again, thinking about all the awful things that came out of your mouth. "For everything I said."

"You didn't mean it, neither did I." He mumbles.

"Sans, I wish you'd stop treating me like I'm stupid."

"What?" His head turns to finally look at you, realising he'd been avoiding your gaze since you hurt him. "I'm not…"

"Yes, you are. We both know that we meant what we said." He flinches at your words, knowing that it's true. "It hurts. To admit to yourself that you've done terrible things for the sake of your loved ones and you'd do it all over just the same if you had to. And it also pains me to admit that I do feel betrayed. But I'm also grateful to you, in spite of it all." You place a hand at his neck and stroke his cheekbone with your thumb. "We all have to make choices in our lives. I chose to stay with you, to save you. To love you. You're holding a lot of hate inside you, and so am I. But none of it matters in the end. It's just like you said. We have to work together to right our wrongs."

"You're right." He says simply. He's in pain, both physical and emotional. And so are you. "You did well today though."

"Excuse me?" You look at him like he's grown a second head. "I shot magic blasts at you. How is that in any way a good thing?"

"You're already channelling the magic to take form. Took me a lot longer than this to get to that point." You grunt and let your head fall to his shoulder finding yourself unwilling to point out how that doesn't make this situation any better. He uses his unharmed hand to run his fingers through your hair. "Got to take the wins as they come." He whispers sighing.

"You're an idiot."

"A flower used to tell me that a lot. Called me smiley trash bag too, always thought that was funny."

"Hmm, might start using that one." He laughs quietly and exhales, closing his eyes.

"I love you more than anything." Sans murmurs.

"Even Papyrus?" You ask humorously.

"Okay, almost anything." You can hear the grin as he speaks. "Seriously though. I meant what I said before this, no matter what happens." You nod into his neck.

"I know…"

Pulling back you stare into his eye sockets, lit up by his pupils, before leaning forward to gently place your lips on his teeth, one hand resting on his cheek. He's smiling brightly when you sit back on your ankles.

"Can't believe you still want to kiss me after that." You shrug while cracking a grin yourself.

"What can I say? Life is too short to dwell on worthless arguments." The small skeleton's eyes dim.

"Yeah… I won't do it anymore though… Tell you what to do. Do things against your will. I really was just trying to keep you safe. I'm sorry…" He's speaking so quietly you have to strain to hear him.

"I forgive you. Do you?" You look at him, momentarily fearing his response.

"Of course." Sans goes to hug you but cringes when he tries to move his arm, so you do it for him instead, carefully wrapping your arms around his ribs and holding him close for a few heartbeats before returning to the sitting position.

You gently take his injured arm and he hisses through his teeth when you run your fingers over the small cuts. When you lift them in front of your face they're stained red and you frown deeply. You want to make it stop, to get his pain (that you've caused) to go away. If only you knew how to heal the same way you knew how to hurt…

Even if you did know how to do it, you'd probably not be able to right now.

Useless magic.

Your head still feels like it's being drilled into, but you couldn't care less at the moment. All you can think about is how much damage you've really done to Sans, and how behind his grin you can see him wavering. His breaths are uneven and harsh, his movements becoming more sluggish by the second. At least it doesn't look like he's turning to dust… Not yet.

His eye sockets start to droop. "Hey, stay with me, okay?" His head snaps at the sound of your voice and he nods, not even bothering to say anything as he starts to close his eyes again. "I can't keep sitting here without doing anything."

"Wha-" He half slurs, not having time to finish before your hand is at his chest.

You've done this once before, you can do it again. You hope.

You feel the faint hum of his soul behind his sternum and you call to it, asking it to show itself to you. Your mouth falls open when it does and the small skeleton in front of you seems just as surprised, the tiredness he felt put into the background for the time being. You do the same to your own soul and it jumps out behind your hand. You nearly gasp when you see it for the first time since the bond. The large tear of blue in the middle of your little white heart is breath-taking.

Your souls inch closer to each other and when they touch, just for a second, you feel the wind getting knocked out of you, a faint sting in your right arm being the only thing distracting you from the overwhelming sensation of Sans' soul reaching right into your being. For that short moment in which they are in contact, it's like the world around you is crumbling into nothingness and all that matters is the both of you. He pulls his soul back into his ribcage shortly after, trembling slightly and doing the same to yours.

"Be more careful with that. Souls are sensitive." Sans pants. You notice that he's using his right arm again and that your headache is still going strong, especially right behind your left eye.

"Did it work?" He breathes out a 'yes' and shivers. "Are you okay?" You ask him concerned. He just nods and tries to level his breathing.

You're a little breathless yourself, your heartrate too fast for comfort. It didn't take as much out of you as it did the last time however, that's for sure. You take his arm in your hands once more to see how it's looking. The lines of red are still there but the cuts have closed. That's good. You feel phalanges stroking your cheek and when you look up you're met with the little pinpricks of light staring right through you.

His thumb rubs over your cheekbone and he pushes a strand of hair from your eyes, tucking it behind your ear. His expression is filled with worry. "Your eye…"

At first you don't know what he means, but involuntarily, you take your hand over to where his fingers were touching your face and feel something running down it. When you take your hand further away to look at it, you see your fingers once again stained with blood. You blink at it, stunned.

Right from the corner of your eye, blood is trickling out, a thin streak, almost like you're crying red tears. You raise your eyes to Sans, scared. "It's okay, you're gonna be fine." He tells you as you wipe the blood away with the back of your hand. "It's just a side effect of my magic."

Side effect or not, you can't shake the thoughts that this is your body's way of telling you that this is all too much for you to take. It's all starting to be too much. You feel overwhelmed and tired. Your breath is shaky. You run a finger over your bottom lid and see that at least the bleeding was short lived. You close your eyes, feeling like an enormous weight is set on your shoulders.

"I don't know what I should be feeling right now…" You say honestly.

Without warning, Sans scoops you up into his arms. Surprised you wrap your arms around his neck for support. He walks to an end of the yard and sits down cross-legged, comfortably setting you on his lap, enveloping you in a tender embrace and pulling you close to him. Not knowing exactly if you should say something or what to say in any case, you simply let your head fall to his shoulder, the constant aching in your head slowly but surely subsiding.

He starts humming a song as he plays with locks of your hair. You don't recognise the tune but at the same time you feel something stirring in your chest. A gentle tug much like the one you feel from Sans' soul, but somehow different. It's almost as if it's humming back. It's so comforting, so peaceful…

When he stops you actually feel sad. You shift so that you can see his face and he's smiling at you shyly.

"I wanted to see if it was what I thought." You blink at him befuddled. "Just then I grabbed another memory from your soul. You don't remember it, but your soul does. Did you feel it?" You slowly lift a hand to your chest, a sense of nostalgia settling there that you're not quite sure where it came from. "She was beautiful, you look a lot like her." He strokes your face with his hand. "You got her eyes and her nose." He pokes the latter for emphasis, chuckling when you flinch. "She was singing to you, holding you in her arms to soothe your cries. Her smile was so kind."

"You saw my mother?" You ask softly when his words click inside your mind.

"Mm-hmm." His grin is filled with joy. "I'm sure she'd be very proud of the woman you've become."

"What was her voice like?" You find yourself asking.

"Sweet, soft and gentle. Clear as a summer's day. Strong but quiet. It was a voice that wanted to be heard." You can just imagine it in your head. "She… She called you her little shining star."

Your eyes light up at this and Sans squeezes you to him. "That's…" You can't find the words. It's like you remembered something of her. Something stuck with you even though you didn't realise it for all these years. Inadvertently you stare up to the sky. "Maybe she's been with me all this time…"

The small skeleton beneath you laughs quietly, a tender happiness echoing into your soul. "Maybe she has." He follows your line of sight. "I think she's looking out for you. From up there."

"You really think so?" You ask him, turning to look into his eyes, hopeful. There's a vague notion that it's silly to believe such things ringing in the back of your head.

He gazes back and you don't think you've ever seen his pupils so bright before. "I do." A single tear, a normal one this time, falls from your eye and Sans wipes it away with his thumb. His teeth press to your lips gently for a light peck before he leans back against the wall.

You nuzzle into him once again. "Could you hum it for me again?" He strokes your hair and does as you asked. You close your eyes, sighing contentedly as you listen to the pleasant melody.

You start to accompany the song absentmindedly. Without you even noticing, Sans falls silent, leaving your voice to sound alone. His breath hitches and his soul trembles. He doesn't think he's ever heard anything so beautiful. If he had a heart he was sure it would have skipped a beat. When you reach the end of what you heard you feel a blush creeping up to your cheeks after it dawns on you what you were doing.

"You stopped…" You mumble embarrassed, hiding your face in his jacket.

"I just had to stay quiet and listen…" He admits. "You should sing more often."

You shrug your shoulders and hide yourself further, feeling your cheeks hot with the blood that's pooling there.

There's a beep and you nearly jump from the sound. You feel yourself shaking from Sans laughing beneath you. He digs through his pocket and pulls out his phone to look at it. "Alphys says she's coming home."

You mouth an 'oh' and wonder what time it is. It can't be too late, can it? You came here fairly early and you don't feel like it's been that long. Despite a lot having happened in this short time. You think maybe she's left work early to come see you and you feel guilty. She already lost days of work because of what happened in the lab.

When she finally steps into the backyard a while later, her eyes widen at the mess. You had forgotten that your magic had started throwing things left and right. Thankfully nothing seems broken, just strewn across the yard, nothing you couldn't fix easily enough.

"W-what happened here?" She asks as she waddles over to you, looking around.

"Star went supernova." Sans smirks at his own joke, mimicking an explosion with his arms, and you hide your face in your hands, forgetting entirely that one was still covered in your dried blood.

You apologise to the tiny monster, telling her that you'll clean everything up before you leave and she immediately says that it's okay.

"I'd like t-to check your stats, if that's okay." You nod and stand up, moving away from Sans' embrace.

He feigns a pout, which amazes you considering he doesn't have lips. He stays in his spot however, not bothering to get up himself. Alphys produces the little device from before and pushes it against your chest. That sting is once again followed by the machine's sounds as it gets your readings.

She looks at the screen and her brows furrow. "Hmm…"

"I don't like the sound of that…" You mumble to no one in particular. Sans stares up at the both of you awaiting the scientist's comment.

"Your magic's s-still spiking randomly." Alphys explains. "B-but it's less severe." She adds hoping that will make you feel better. "Your s-stats are okay too."

"I suppose that's good."

"Your training's still got a long ways to go." The small skeleton tells you, reaching to brush his fingers against yours in an attempt to grab your hand but being too far away to do so.

"What's with y-your arm?" Alphys asks Sans. His sleeve was still pulled back and the dark crimson of the dried blood was screaming on the white bone.

Your gaze falls to the ground. "I didn't mean to hurt him." Your voice cracks from the shame you're feeling.

"O-oh…"

The three of you sit in silence for what feels like an eternity. Your soul feels heavy with remorse. You should've been able to control yourself better. Just a few feet and it could've meant your soulmate's death. Alphys finally tells you to come inside to get that cleaned up.

At first Sans groans at the prospect of getting up but you grab his hands and force him to his feet. Which would've been great if he didn't just fall into your arms and let his whole weight on you, causing you to fall on your back with him on top.

"Nope. Can't move." He mumbles into your chest. You groan but can't help laughing when you hear Alphys giggling behind you. He looks up at you grinning, one brow ridge raised. "See you're smiling, everything's fine."

Your expression softens and you raise a hand to his face, stroking it gently. "Yes, thank you."

He lifts himself off of you, pulling you with him. As you walk into the house you stare at Sans holding your hand as he moves in front of you and your heart swells. He tries to make you happy even when he has every right to be mad at you for what you've done. You never thought you'd ever love someone this way, let alone this much…

NOTE: School's killing me! I have a test in a couple of hours, been studying and doing papers and swamped with work. Still try to find sometime to write though, hope this was alright and you enjoyed it

Thank you for reading and please leave any feedback you may have :)