The next few days were filled with laughter. Frisk wanted to spend some time with the skellington brothers before she returned home to the castle. So they had Papyrus keep her arrival a secret for now. Neither of them asked her about her disappearance, and she was grateful for that. It was nice to have some sense of normalcy before things became complicated again.

Frisk spent her days with Sans mostly. He was still a little shaken up after what had happened, so he never let her out of his sight, which was fine with Frisk. She was a little shaken up as well. She could not be left alone in the dark anymore. The first night that she stayed with the brothers, she slept on the couch. That only lasted roughly a half an hour before she started screaming. Papyrus was so scared, the poor boy, he did not know what to do, or what was wrong. All it took was Sans' arms wrapped around her to calm her down. Needless to say, she now sleeps next to Sans every night.

Mornings were her favorite. She always woke up before Sans, so she would take the opportunity to turn around, rest her head on his ribcage and watch him sleep. He did not sleep talk or anything; she just found great joy in it. He'd wake up not long after she would, as if he somehow sensed her awake. He'd catch her staring at him and would smile as she blushed. Then he would pat her head. They would say a soft, "Morning." Then they would go down stairs together. Papyrus was always up with breakfast ready by then.

Surprising, Sans actually worked. Since neither felt comfortable leaving the other, Frisk would join him for work. She noticed that he had a lot of jobs. Every morning he would do guard duty, which was just helping the towns people, and after that he would go to Waterfall to sell some Hot Cats. There was some telescope business on the side there, but that was mostly Sans prank on people. Before ending his day at Hotlands with his Hotdog stand. She always thought of him as lazy and assumed that he slept all day, but he was actually very diligent. Frisk mentioned this to him, but he made a show of not understanding what she had meant. She did not bother him about it after that. Whenever she saw Papyrus nearby, she did notice how Sans would feign to be asleep. It was rather cute to her. He must not want his brother to know just how hard he worked, so that Papyrus wouldn't worry about him.

Since she worked for Sans, he gave her some money to spend. She refused him at first, but he insisted. Frisk reluctantly took the money and gave it to the inn keeper. The inn keeper refused her money though. The inn keeper's sister had made a wig out of the hair that Frisk gave her and made a small fortune on it. Apparently, wigs made with real human hair were very popular among monsters. So Frisk felt that the money just wasted the space in her pocket. After he saw that she was not going to buy anything, Sans gave her a little pink piggy bank, the new home for her unspent money. They kept it on Sans' dresser for now.

Every day after work, Sans would treat Frisk to a milkshake at Grillby's for her hard work before going home. Later they would either watch TV or play a game before bed. It was really lovely, simple yet still wonderful.

Tonight was different though.

Just after Sans turned off the light and joined her for bed, he asked the question that Frisk dreaded to answer. "What was it like for you? Being there?" He whispered against her hair. Frisk froze in his arms.

She did not answer him. She was not sure if she was going to. She thought to herself that she could easily pretend to be asleep and Sans would not ask her again. He would not pressure her to answer and would let her come to him when she was ready. For that reason, she chose not to pretend. She lifted her head from his chest and faced him.

"It was dark. After my battle with Flowey, I just walked and searched for a way out. Time passed, but at the same time it did not." Frisk scrunched up her eyebrows as she thought about that time. She still did not know how long she walked. She never asked. "I was alone for so long. So long, that I began to forget details. It started off small. Like who was the last person I talked to but eventually, I even forgot my own name."

Frisk rested her head on his rib cage once more as she told him of her experience. She rubbed soft circles on his chest as she spoke. "I felt nothing after a while. I was numb. I did not know why I was walking, but I had nothing else to do, so I walked. I eventually met someone there. I did not think much of it at the time, but I think he was a skeleton like you guys. Only he had cracks in his skull. He touched my heart and walked away. I didn't know it at the time, but he saved my life. Whatever he did, he made me feel and remember again. I can't believe I forgot you guys."

Sans lifted his hand and gently rubbed her head. He did not say anything. He did not make any move to stop her or interrupt her. He just listened to her quietly and let her speak. Frisk was grateful for that.

"After that, I found these lights. They were cracks to the outside world, to our timeline. Whenever I looked in them, I saw you guys as kids. My favorites were ones with your jokes in them." Frisk paused remembering the light with those two skeleton children. Should she ask? Would she want the answer? If those children had existed that means that, that woman did too. No, wait, Sans was older in that one. So it had to be a crack in the future. That means that Sans was going to meet this woman. He was going to love her and be with her. Frisk's chest tightened up again. Why did it do that whenever she thought of Sans being with another woman? She should be happy for him. He looked happy with her. Sans of all people deserved happiness.

"What's wrong?" Sans asked. She was quiet for a long time with a look of concentration.

Frisk decided not to ask after all; maybe another time. She was not ready for the answer to that question. "It's nothing. When I ventured further, there were more and more lights until I came to a door. When I opened it, I found myself in the Ruins again."

"The Ruins? Where you first fell?"

Frisk nodded her head. "How long was I gone, Sans? I know that it has to be a long time but..." she drifted off not needing to say more. Sans knew what she meant.

"It's been three years" he mumbled to her. The topic of her time away was always hard for the both of them to talk about.

Still, three years. It was a long time for sure, but it just seemed unreal. She was ten years old when she- when she went away. She should be thirteen now. The appearance of her body was more of that of an adult.

Luckily for her, Sans read her like an open book. "Being outside of time and space for a long period of time has side effects. The longer you are in there, the worse it becomes. My guess is, is that your body aged faster than normal."

It was surprising just how much Sans knew on this subject. He seemed to have all the answers. It was like he had spent a lot of time there himself. Was he ever trapped there like she was? She suddenly remembered something that he had said before. Back when they were at his lab, when he thought that she was dead, he had said something about 'searching' for her. Can he go to that dark place at will? That would explain so much about him. Why he was able to show up at places so far apart in no time at all.

"Sans," she whispered and caught his attention. "Can-can you go there?"

He did not say anything at first. Neither spoke a word as Frisk absorbed this new founded information. Finally, Sans signed before speaking. "Yes, I can." He then sat up in the bed to look out the window so Frisk joined him. "It's a long story."

Frisk leaned forward, wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. When she was finally comfortable lying up against him on his lap Frisk whispered, "We have all night"

Sans smiled at her cuteness. If only she knew of the things that he saw in the darkness she ventured in. He gently started to rub her back as he told her of his tale.

"I use to be a scientist." he began.

As soon as the words left his mouth, she let out a loud chuckle. "You? A scientist?" she asked in disbelief.

Sans gave her a tickle under her armpits for laughing at him. "Yes, I was. Do you want to hear the story or not?"

She immediately went silent and stilled in his arms. "Yes, I do. I'm sorry."

"Okay then." Sans took a deep breath as he started his tale again. This time with no interruptions. "I used to be a scientist. I worked under my father who was the royal scientist before Alphys. We created the core together."

"You created the core!?" Frisk looked at him in shock but looked away quickly when he gave her a look for interrupting him. "Sorry."

"My father and I did, yes. He did all the work. I mostly did research on how to use the core's power as a weapon against humans. I used myself as my own test subject. I injected some of its power inside my heart, my soul."

He paused to see if Frisk would say anything but she was silent as she waited patiently for him to continue.

"One day, my father fell into the core and disappeared to the outskirts of time and space. That dark abyss you were in. Only, everybody forgot who he was and that he even existed. I was the only one who remembered. I think it was because of the core I injected myself with. I live separated from this world but at the same time, I'm here. I did a lot of research on this subject, in hopes of bringing my dad back. But I could not find him anywhere. That man you talked about earlier, it's possible that, that's him."

"Do you think that he can ever be saved?" Frisk whispered.

Sans looked down at her with kind eyes. "I hope so." He placed a quick soft kiss to her forehead before readjusting them to a more of a laying down position. "We should get some rest."

Frisk did not argue with him. They had a long day and she was tired. She curled up against him, resting her eyes for the sleep that came in mere seconds.

Sans stayed up a little longer to gaze at the sleeping Frisk. Talking about that place brought back memories to when he walked a little too far in that darkness searching for his dad. He had gotten lost just like she did. And when all hope was lost, his dad appeared to him to guide him out of there. He saw those lights that she talked about, the cracks to reality, just before facing the door out.

Thoughts of two skeleton children with hair filled his mind as he drifted to sleep.

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