"chara…the king's daughter…" Sans murmured to himself.
They all had calmed down a bit. Papyrus, now confronting the potential cruel nature of someone he had believed to be his friend, had had his spirits dampened somewhat. He tried not to let it get him down. Undyne sat listening to Alphys's guesses as to why or how Chara would try to destroy Sans. She couldn't come up with any answers that made sense. Papyrus bounced his knee restlessly, becoming increasingly more impatient to do something. Snowdrake-alike had wandered off a while ago, supposedly going to a 'cold room'. Dogandgy had gotten bored and also ran off, and Lemon Bread had fallen asleep again.
"SHOULD WE GO BACK TO THE WEIRD ROOM?" Papyrus asked. They all looked at him.
"Oh…Oh!" Alphys stumbled to her feet "Y-yeah! The room w-where we f-found Sans's tape!"
Sans shrugged "worth a shot. might have something there."
"Something else Sans recorded, maybe?" Undyne asked. "I mean, we kinda glanced over the possibility he might have taped something else."
"Oh." Alphys shrugged sheepishly "Y-yeah. We k-kinda did, huh?""
Sans shrugged "not likely. i mean, we could look, but it's not likely."
"WELL IF WE CAN'T FIND ANYTHING THAT SANS RECORDED, WE COULD GO INTO ONE OF THOSE DOORS AND LOOK MORE." Papyrus said.
"W-we can't get into those d-doors, though." Alphys frowned.
"I'LL JUST KICK THEM DOWN!" Undyne declared, parting her feet and seemingly punching the air.
"ALSO SANS CAN WARP." Papyrus suggested "AND JUST OPEN THE DOORS FROM THE INSIDE."
"Oh. Yeah, that'd work too." Undyne nodded, seemingly satisfied. Sans shrugged his agreement and Alphys smiled a bit.
They went back to the room down the exceedingly long hallway, back to the mess of papers and drawers they were in earlier. The three doors stood as they had before. Unknown. Sans shuddered then took a subtle breathe.
"k. be back in a sec." he said. They nodded and he teleported into the door on the left. He knew this was where Gaster had done most of his research. Walking in the room, he tried not to look at the table he had been latched onto. Instead, he chose to remember how he marveled at the place the first time he had been there. Somehow, the inside of the rooms were so much bigger than what the doors were suggest. Down to the back of the room was a stair case that led to an upper level. Sans clambered up the stairs and stood in the doorframe of a small, small room. A single bed was pushed up against a wall, a desk parallel to it. Papers and books littered it. A small toppled chair, wooden and broken, was decaying against the floor. Out of a habit resurfaced, Sans picked the chair up and set it straight, then organized the papers and books on the desk. On one, a child's drawing in blue crayon smiled up at him. Two people, one tall and slender, the other short and stocky, grinned together in a field of echo flowers.
Sans and Dr Gaster: Science Buds Forever.
Sans chuckled to himself and burned it.
Sighing, he decided that that was enough of memory lane and went back down the stairs.
Quickly, he located the door and turned the knob. It didn't budge. He tried it with both hands, again, it didn't budge. Apparently they were locked from both sides. He shrugged to himself and decided that made sense. Otherwise, past-him would've just walked out the door. He put his hands back into his pockets and looked around the room. Perhaps he could find something.
He had been trying to ignore the hole in the wall to the center room. But now it drew his attention. He stepped through the gaping hole, into another room that was even more of a mess than the main one. A table was upset, boxes were all over the place. Vaguely, Sans remembered that the two rooms had been attached by a door. Well, he made his own door.
Sans walked over to the last place Gaster stood. He stared at the spot. And stared. Now there was no sign of the doctor besides a scorch mark and tattered bits of his black coat. Sans dropped to the ground, suddenly unwillingly to stand. He buried his face in his arms, hugging his knees to his chest.
The guilt was killing him.
But Papyrus didn't know that. No one needed to know that. Was it wrong for him to hide it? Was it wrong for him to not bring up the guilt of killing a man that never had existed?
He didn't know. But he didn't sob. He didn't cry, didn't shed a single tear. There was something that had to be done. Slowly, stumbling as if he was drunk, he got to his feet and tried the door to the main room.
…
Click!
"BROTHER WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" Papyrus yelled. He wasn't mad, he was worried. Scared, perhaps.
"sorry bro. first door wouldn't work." Sans shrugged. Alphys and Undyne came into the room behind Papyrus and looked around.
"Hey- S-Sans-" Alphys murmured, getting close to him "Isn't this w-where-….?"
Sans offered a mute nod as response. He then spun around into the room, not seeing how Alphys reacted.
"let's see what we could find." He said.
"UNDERSTOOD!" Papyrus grinned.
"I BET I COULD FIND MORE STUFF THAN YOU!" Undyne declared, flipping over a crate to prove(?) her point.
"DOES EVERYTHING NEED TO BE A COMPETITION?" Papyrus asked, sweat slicking down his skull.
"Hell Yeah!" Undyne grinned.
"B-but this i-is s-serious." Alphys reminded gently. Undyne lost some spunk and sighed.
"Yeah, Alphys. You're right. I need to take this a bit more…" she made a face "Seriously."
"you have my sincerest tanks" Sans said with a wink.
"Yeah-" Undyne looked annoyed suddenly, glaring down on him. "What was that?"
"A PUN, I ASSUME." Papyrus sounded annoyed.
"TANKS!? What, because I'm a FISH!?" Undyne screamed. Sans grinned, nodding contently. "GRAAAAAAHHH! SANS, THE NEXT TIME YOU DIE, SO HELP ME IT'LL BE BECAUSE I KILLED YOU!"
"UNDYNE!" Papyrus yelped. He scooped up Sans and held him protectively "NO KILLING MY BROTHER!"
"yeah undyne, no gilling me." Sans chuckled. Papyrus looked annoyed.
"SANS."
"Can I kill him NOW!?" Undyne asked, grinning toothily.
"NO! NO KILLING SANS!" Papyrus yelled back.
"i really fish you wouldn't." came the response.
…
"THAT'S IT, I'M KILLING HIM!"
Alphys busied herself looking through the files and such littered about the room, ignoring the conversation taking place. Soon enough, she decided, they'll start to help. Then she thought of something brilliant and blurted it out before she could stop herself.
"Are you t-three finished yet?"
The three stared at her.
"NOT YOU TOO!" Papyrus shrieked.
"Alphys, whhhhyyyyyy….!" Undyne moaned. Sans rewarded her with a light chuckle and a thumbs up.
"nice."
Alphys blushed and cleared her throat. "Well-er…. We n-need to get b-back to work…"
"Got it." Undyne muttered, rolling her eyes. She drop-kicked the crate she had picked up earlier and it exploded into shards of wood and now-broken lab equipment.
"woah." Sans responded.
"I SURE HOPE NOTHING IMPORTANT WAS IN THERE." Papyrus frowned.
Undyne laughed nervously, throwing her head back and baring her teeth "NOPE! NOTHIN IMPORTANT AT ALL! LET'S LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE!" She proceeded to open more crates in a less destructive matter. Papyrus, now content that Undyne wasn't going to kill his brother, put Sans down and proceeded to shuffle about. Sans lifted a paper then put it down. Then he decided he was tired, so he lied down on the ground and seemingly fell asleep.
"SANS-" Papyrus began, reaching to shake him. Alphys put a hand on his arm.
"I-I think we sh-should let him s-sleep." She said, smiling gently.
"Yeah, that way the moron can't tell any more damn puns." Undyne murmured, leafing through papers she found.
"SWEAR WORDS ARE BAD." Papyrus scolded.
"Damn straight they are." Undyne said with a smirk. Alphys rolled her eyes, chuckling a bit at the two and went back to her search.
The three of them were so involved in their scavenger hunt, they didn't notice when Sans stretched out, took a piece of paper, scribbled 'going to grillby's, be back later' on it, and warped away.
Although, the note was a lie. He wasn't going to Grillby's. Instead, he warped outside a purple door deep in the Snowdin Forest and knocked twice.
"Who is there?"
A/N
Wooh! Toriel is finally getting involved! I love Toriel so much, she's such a good character. I hope to write a more Tori-Centric fic in the future. But yeah, as I said, this isn't a ship-centric fic so Soriel isn't going to be obvious. Mainly friendship. But if you want to see Soriel, you may.
Tra La La, The Queen Of Hearts and Ace of Spades