"Who is there?" came the almost immediate response.
Sans was startled for half a second. How long has she been sitting there?
"woo." He said.
"Woo who?"
"Woah." Sans winked, shrugging even though he knew she couldn't see it "Calm down, you're getting way too excited."
He closed his eyes and listened to the blissful laugh that washed over him. He leaned against the doors and slid down it, sitting in the snow with a crunch! She laughed for an incredibly long time. But somewhere along the line, her laugh became a gurgled, muffled kind of noise. And then it stopped.
"hey-" Sans frowned, feeling concern bubble inside him like a cauldron.
"I am all right." Said the voice. Toriel, one of the few people he cared to keep relations with throughout RESETs. She spoke again after a moment "I… I apologize."
"what for?" Sans asked, looking up toward the tree line. She laughed at that.
"I…er, I am ashamed to say this. But I thought perhaps you had gotten bored with me." She said "You have not come by in quite a while. I understand you probably had your reasons, but I could not help but wonder-"
"woah, sounds like you practiced this or something." Sans said, winking at the door.
Toriel laughed again "I might have."
"sorry." Sans apologized, changing the subject. "the last few days have been pretty hectic."
"Is that so?" she asked. "Would you like to talk about it?"*
"…I dunno." Sans said honestly.
"It is all right." Toriel said. "I understand. But please understand, I am here should you need me."
Sans chuckled "oh wow, i heard that so many times in the past few weeks."
"Are you going to be all right?"
Sans stayed quiet but answered honestly again "I don't know."
It took a while for her to respond this time. Sans just stared at his shoes as the sincerity of his words sunk into him. He honestly had no clue how this was going to play out. He didn't know if he'd get out of this okay, or if he'd end up like Gaster. Just…. No longer existing.
His own words echoed in his skull.
[JUST LET YOURSELF DIE]
Would he drag someone else into his fate?
"Excuse me, are you still there?" Toriel said.
"yeah, sorry." Sans responded. "zoned out for a sec. what's up?"
"…I do not believe we ever introduced ourselves." She said. Sans chuckled a little bit.
"i guess not."
"My name is Toriel." She introduced herself for the latest of the first times. Although, granted, this time around was different.
"sans." He said to the door.
"Sans? What a lovely name." she giggled. Sans saw his chance and took it.
"hey, isn't that the name of the queen or whatever?" Sans asked. The giggling stopped abruptly. A moment of silence hung over them like a cloud of lead.
"Correct." She said after a moment, slowly.
Sans laughed "woah, from how fidgety you're being, you might make me think you are the queen."
No response.
Sans winked. "just joking with ya." He took a leap of faith "i know you are."
Again, no response. No sound of movement. No abrupt noises of claws scratching the stone floor, no quick words of farewell. Nothing.
And it lingered on.
"hey, toriel?" Sans said. His eyes lit up blue as memories from different lives rained down on him. The sound of fire, the brisk metallic shing of a kitchen knife. Dust.
Dust leaking out from the door.
"Toriel!?" he screamed, jumping to his feet and pressing the side of his head to the door.
"I am here!" She yelped, startled "I apologize, I did not mean to frighten you."
Sans let out a heavy sigh of relief. "N-nah, I'm….good…. just… fell half-asleep and had a nightmare." He plopped down into the snow again.
Another moment of silence. Sans fidgeted.
"Sans, how long have you known I had been the queen?" she asked.
Sans didn't know how to honestly answer that. "… awhile."
"But you still spoke to me?" Toriel muttered. "Why?"
"honestly." Sans gave a shrug "'cause you like my jokes."
She laughed at that. "Oh goodness, Sans…" she chuckled, trailing off into a silence. "Was there any other reason?"
"i like your jokes." He winked even though she couldn't see.
"Is that really all? There is nothing else?" she asked.
Sans fidgeted "well, i only bring it up today because i need to ask you something."
She hesitated. Sans expected as much, but eventually "What is that?"
"What can you tell me about Chara?" he hated having to do this to her, and it was apparent in the way he shrugged into his hood, how he nestled his chin to his shirt and mumbled under his breathe. He heard Toriel gasp slightly, could practically see the tears brimming over the corner of her eyes, the way she covered her face with her hands to hide her shock.
"Why-why would-" she took a breath and steadied her voice. And when she spoke, she no longer sounded like a friend addressing a friend. She sounded like a Queen addressing a subject. "Why would you like to know?"
Sans couldn't help but laugh for a good long minute. He took in several deep, giggly breathes and wiped at the magic blue tear seeping out of his left eye socket.
"o-oh, wow…" Sans chuckled "alright, how much free time do you have, tori?"
"Er…" Sans envisioned her confused half-blink as she tried to process the spontaneous laughter "I suppose as much as I want. Why?"
Sans leaned back against the door "story time, if you'll hear me out."
Another moment of silence "Very well."
"alright." He slouched "here we go."
A/N:
And how much he tells her will be revealed next chapter! Or, or. Maybe instead we'll see what the other group is doing? OOOOOOOOoOOOh.
Sorry this update is a bit late. I was really sick yesterday. I'm sick today too. But, less. (blows party horn)
*Bloopers.
"Is that so?" she asked. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"sure." Sans shrugged "so a few weeks ago, i died, and then my brother and i figured out my soul is trying to rip me out of existence. so we looked around and stuff after i died the second time. apparently the ghost of a kid named chara is trying to kill me with the help of an evil flower. dunno why. but yeah, anyway, how was your day?"
"…Good?"
Tra La La, Mescty Page Sirc