It had been a week. It was probably time to answer your siblings' phone calls at least. Still, you held the device in your shaking hand without making any effort to press the answer button. Would they be mad?

Instead, you opened up the messenger app and sent a quick 'Sorry' text. You let out a screeching noise as you dropped you head into your arms, ashamed with yourself.

You phone pinged. 'Oh good. You answered.' Eve told you. 'I was getting worried. Are you okay?'

It helped you work up the courage to hit the call button. "_." Eve answered immediately. "Hey. You're okay?"

"Okay enough. Just a scaredy cat." You admitted. "Sorry I didn't answer before. I just…" You tightened your grip on the phone, not knowing how to finish that sentence. You what? Were you afraid? Of what? People who cared about you?

"I get it. I've been screening calls too. Damien and I haven't figured out how to handle it quite yet. We haven't found an option that ends well with our parents." She sighed. "I'm worried. I mean, I had planned to tell them anyway, but…"

"I kinda screwed it up." You supplied.

"No, you didn't. You did what you needed to do. I was already watching before you got there. Liam too. If there was any danger of Chara being removed from the city, you would have had no choice anyways."

"How is Liam taking the, uhh…what do we even call this situation?" You cut yourself off, inquiring.

"As I said before, finding a positive outcome is proving quite difficult. It was hard when we were planning to do it over dinner. We almost found one or two approaches that could work too. Now, though… Well, our parents seem to be unhappy with our keeping such secrets from them and then announcing it on national television."

"That hadn't been my intention." You argued half-heartedly.

"I know. I have to hand it to you, you've really learned how to handle people over the years. Those lawyers didn't know what to do with you at all."

"It was supposed to be practice for Mother and Father. At least, that's what I told myself when I was learning it. To be honest, it's been more useful in legal matters than anything else."

"We'll see what we can figure out _. You aren't doing this alone. Never again." Eve promised you forcefully.

You chuckled a little. "I'll keep it in mind. Talk to you later, Eve." You set the phone down on the table in front of you.

"WE ARE HAVING A DATE AT YOUR HOUSE?" Sans questioned as you opened the door for him.

"You'll see." You teased. The television had been moved into the dining room for this, easily visible from the kitchen. You moved in, leading your boyfriend into the kitchen where you found a few videos waiting for you, labelled in order.

"WHAT IS THIS? ARE WE COOKING?" Sans deduced.

"Better than that, we're doing a cooking challenge." You had his interest immediately. You set a hand on the videos on the counter. "Fuku has already gone through these and found if we have everything we'd need to make them. These are made to be paused several times as you cook, but we aren't doing that."

"WE AREN'T COOKING, OR WE AREN'T PAUSING?" He inquired.

"Pausing." You clarified with a growing smile. "The two of us will have to work fast, and cooperatively, to keep up. Hopefully at the end, we'll even get a great meal out of it. By the way, I have no idea what we're cooking."

"THIS SOUNDS BOTH EXTREMELY FUN AND CHALLENGING. IT DOESN'T SEEM VERY DATE-LIKE THOUGH..." Sans trailed off.

"It's a date. It may be a little unconventional as one, but if we're doing an activity as a couple with the express reason of spending time with each other, it's a date. We don't have to go out somewhere to have one." You reassured him. "It's fine. Don't worry about the technicalities. As long as we have fun, what does it matter?"

His expression cleared, casting away the hesitance. "YOU'RE RIGHT. I SUPPOSE I SHOULD JUST ENJOY THE NIGHT. SO, HOW DO WE START THIS?"

"Well, first I suppose we should familiarize you with my kitchen. We're going to have to scramble, so it's best if we know where everything is." You answered, tugging the fridge door open. "Produce is in the drawers at the bottom, veggies on the left. Butter is up here…"

Despite its size, it only took a few minutes for you to point everything out in the kitchen. The both of you took a deep breath in preparation before you started the first video.

Croquettes. Crap. You dashed to the fridge and pulled out some potatoes to peel as quickly as you could as you started water boiling on the stove. Fuku really cranked up the difficulty, you supposed. How were you supposed to mash these quickly at all?

Thankfully she was still in the introductory speech as you dropped the potatoes into the boiling water. Sans, in the meantime, had gathered the chicken and vegetables he could see on the screen during her dialogue. You dipped into the pantry for the vegetable oil.

Where were the bread crumbs? You didn't have time to question it as the woman in the video began talking about how to properly get the potatoes set up. You grabbed the seasoned croutons and dumped some in a Ziploc bag before pounding them into powder.

Sans startled a bit at the sudden noise, looking at you distractedly as his knife sliced through an onion. "Couldn't find bread crumbs." You told him hurriedly as you pounded on the bag again for good measure and emptied it into a mixing bowl.

He laughed as he went back to slicing vegetables.

Oh Gods. Did she say two tablespoons of milk or three? "I THINK IT WAS TWO." Sans informed you with a chuckle.

Your lips stretched into a dumb smile as you mashed the potatoes as quickly as you could before throwing them in a new mixing bowl with the milk. Sans took over the stove to cook the chicken and veggies he'd cut up before as you mixed the croquette coating as well as you could.

You ducked back into the fridge for the eggs as she mentioned them only to find that they weren't there. Glancing around quickly, you noticed them already sitting on the counter. You stared blankly at the two eggs you'd grabbed as she said to beat them.

What? What was beating an egg? Like, scrambling? You cracked them into a coffee cup and grabbed a fork, breaking the yolks and mixing the eggs as well as you could. You dumped them in with the potatoes before grabbing a third one to repeat the process.

Sans had finished cooking the filling and moved to put them in the blender just as you moved to grab a small bowl. You collided, both dropping what you were carrying. Without thinking, you reached out to grab the nearest falling object, which happened to be a hot pan off of the stove as Sans phalanges closed around the cup of beaten egg you'd been holding.

It was surrounded in a blue light before it met your skin, a fact you were suddenly very grateful for as the heat made itself known from less than an inch away. "Sorry." You told him as his magic lifted the dangerous object away from you and set it on the counter. He took a few seconds to inspect your hands, making sure he'd caught it in time. Nodding at the fact he found no burns, he smiled at you and the scramble resumed as the video woman popped her first set of croquettes in the oven.

You filled the bottom of the baking pan with a half inch of vegetable oil as the blender whirred. Sans moved to add the filling to the potato mash as you set up the egg and bread crumbs for dipping. He formed the mash into balls and handed it to you to dip in the egg and crumbs before placing the croquettes in the pan.

Unlike video lady, all of yours fit into your pan, so you set the timer for twelve minutes and popped them in before leaning back against the fridge with a sigh. Sans moved forward to pull some eggy crumbs out of your hair. Likewise, you moved to wipe some of the mash off of his skull.

You both burst out laughing.

You were not the best cook, Sans noted. It was easy enough for him to pay attention to you as he diced, thoroughly enjoying watching you dash around. At first, he'd been uneasy about the idea. Most ideas for dates that he had found in his research cost money, so the idea of a night in cooking didn't quite match up with the idea of human dating that he'd gotten.

He was glad he'd agreed. This was all sorts of fun.

Sans vaguely wondered if you were aware that you poured magic into your cooking. You didn't seem to be overly aware of it, certainly not freaking out over the task like you were everything else. At this rate, despite the fact the food wasn't inherently magical to begin with, he would probably be able to eat it easily.

Then again, it could easily be second nature to you. You did live with Fuku after all, and she would need magical food just as much as he did.

He'd forgotten to pay attention to you in his musing, which almost proved disastrous as you both dropped what you were working on as you collided. Trained reflexes easily allowed him to catch the nearest object: your cup full of egg. Who beat eggs in a coffee cup? You apparently.

He had grabbed the wrong thing. There were no thoughts that rushed through his head as your soft hands reached out to catch the only still-falling object. His magic had flared to life without his even having to think about it to catch the hot pan before it touched your skin.

You seemed to belatedly realize why catching it would be a bad idea, and Sans found his mind suddenly full. He set the pan on the counter, lifting your hands for inspection just to be sure. Humans could be amazingly fragile for how strong they were. While the heat couldn't bother him, it could have seriously hurt you.

It was terrifying, how fragile you were. Was this how you felt, remembering him in that alleyway? Suddenly, he understood why you had been so protective for so long.

But you were fine, so he released you, allowing your rush to continue. His attention didn't waver from you again.