A few hours later, Sans was slumped over the dining room table, giggling like a moron with a light pink blush on his face. Toriel tried to stay seated upright but was alas, noticeably swaying. Everything that had to be said has been said. Sans explained the trials of the past few weeks. Explained his current situation he found himself in and explained, without much of a thought, his fears of it. Toriel had listened intently, nodding along and making comments when she deemed necessary. They made a bit of a game of it. Whenever one of them began to feel a bit unsure, they'd both take a small drink. Now the bottle of butterscotch-flavored wine was practically gone.
But they finally told their stories.
Toriel shakily got up from the table, went into the kitchen, and got them both tall glasses of water. She was frankly unsure of how getting intoxicated was for a skeleton, but she figured a nice cold cup of water would help snap them both back to reality.
They sipped at their waters slowly. Sans's teeth made a soft clunk noise as they bit down on the edge of the glass and he took long, controlled sips. The clock ticked the time away. Aside from that, and the sound of two monsters drinking water, it was silent. The blue in Sans's eyes wavered, flickering in and out and glowing bright and then dimming down. His soul felt like it was pounding in his body. Whether he was imagining it or it was actually happening, he decided not to care.
Toriel was the first to break the silence "So, is Alphys going to be well?"
Sans nodded "i think so. she's got a nasty bruise but she seems to be breathing okay."
"That is good." She sounded distracted.
"Toriel?" Sans frowned.
"The flower attempted to kill your friend, correct?" she recounted.
"yeah." Sans said, the corner of his grin tilting downward "why?"
"Sans." Toriel muttered. She swallowed a moment and steadied her voice "The other day, when I went to tend to Chara's grave I found…." She chewed on her lip a moment "I thought I might have imagined it. But I thought I had seen a child's corpse dangling from the ceiling."
Sans felt himself tense up. Frisk?
"Tori-" he started. But he cut himself off. What could he have said? That he knew the human that was probably dead now? Were they actually dead? Maybe they were just stuck there… "can you take me there?"
Toriel blinked up at him but nodded mutely. She fidgeted with her claws a moment and got up, leading him deeper into the RUINs. Sans decided to ignore the thrumming headache going in through his skull, left behind by the alcohol he had so enjoyed. He had better things to do.
The RUINs was filled with puzzles and small monsters that avoided them. A few Froggits eyed Sans, surprised by the new face but didn't do much more than that. They walked in silence. God, Sans was getting tired of that. Usually he'd be fine with quiet, easier to sleep. But this was getting so redundant and repetitive. He was sick of it.
"do ya know any songs?" Sans asked. Toriel glanced back at him with a confused blink. She seemed to have caught onto his despair and turned back ahead.
"I know a few." Toriel said. "They do not have any words, they are just….humming."
"that's fair." Sans said with a shrug. He didn't ask her to hum it but instead started thinking of some other conversation starters. He got that what they were looking to find was… not really a place to talk. But the constant silence was driving him mad. He needed some sort of noise. As he thought about something to break the silence, his thoughts were interrupted by a soft song. Toriel's back was still to him but she was humming a song. It was a strange tune. Both hopeful and…sad, in a way. Sans closed his eyes and felt something stir. Had he heard this before? He might have.
But…not from Toriel. The music box in Waterfall. Who put it there? No one really knew.
Eventually her song thrummed away. "Right through here." She said, motioning to the tall purple gates. Sans steeled himself and walked right on through.
"you stay here." He said. She ignored him and followed and that was that.
The two walked side by side into the small cavern. A small beam of sunlight filtered through a gap in the top and gather like golden silk upon a patch of blooming flowers. Sans looked up at the ceiling of the cavern, trying to catch a glimpse of the child's corpse Toriel supposedly saw. Vines and roots weaved in and out of the cave wall like a pack of large snakes. Toriel was fidgeting, apparently also trying to find the body amongst the debris.
"Perhaps I had simply been in a waking nightmare of sorts." She pondered out loud.
"or maybe they moved." Sans said. Toriel squeaked a bit in surprise and slapped her claws over her mouth.
"The child is alive?" She sounded horrified "And I just left them there?" Her red gaze snapped back upwards, scanning the cavern with a laser-focused glare.
Sans looked too. Not very hard as it was he was debating. If it'd save the kid's life, perhaps he should risk emotionally harming Toriel.
"toriel, y'know how i said i've been through a lot of RESETs?" Sans asked. Toriel didn't look at him but nodded mutely. Sans winked out of habit "i think i might know this human." With that her eyes snapped to him, widening.
"Sans-"
"they're probably not dead." Sans shrugged "they're way too determined to be dead like this." He looked up towards the cavern ceiling and called out "Frisk! hey kid, are you up there?"
His words echoed about the cavern, coming back to him distorted and confused. After that, the two were left in silence. Sans almost yelled something just to avoid that dreadful silence when the sound of rustling caught his attention. Both him and Toriel looked to the noise and saw a tangle of thorny vines bounced with movement. Sans's eye sockets narrowed as he focused and he caught a flash of a blue sleeve.
"there they are." Sans said. Toriel immediately took a few steps forward, stopping only when Sans held out his arm and it collided painfully with her waist. She glared down at him for a minute to which Sans simply winked up at her "i'll get 'em."
He waved his left hand and a blue magic tore apart the vines. A small, brunette child tumbled out and Toriel raced forward, catching them in her large fluffy arms. Frisk blinked weakly for a moment then smiled up at Toriel, then to Sans. They gifted him with their goofy grin, a row of white teeth with one missing near the middle.
"I figured I'd drop by." They chuckled. Sans grinned and winked at them.
"nice one, kiddo."
Frisk chuckled a bit, coughed, and nestled themself into Toriel's hold.
"Thanks for catching me, Goat Mom." They said quietly.
Toriel smiled gently down at them and hugged them to her chest. She must have gathered that in previous timelines, she had met and cared for them. And she was more than happy to continue that trend.
"My child" She asked gently "How ever did you end up there?"
Frisk smiled their strange smile again "I fell down and when I was falling this vine smacked me into the wall." They looked at Sans "I think it was Flowey?"
Sans frowned "might have been- Kid?"
Frisk's rarely-seen eyes widened, their brown irises contracted around their tiny pupils.
"Y-your eyes-" they started. Sans cut them off with a wave of his hand.
"a lot of stuff happened this time around, kiddo. let's get back to toriel's house and talk about it."
Toriel nodded, adjusting her hold on Frisk so they were more comfortable. "And I apologize, my child, for not realizing you were there."
Frisk laughed that off. "I didn't know you saw me, to be honest. I was kinda unconschmous for a while."
Toriel frowned "…It is 'unconscious', my child."
Frisk grinned their weird grin "Yep!"
Sans chuckled a moment, trying to shake off the sensation of dread he suddenly had.
Back at the True Lab, a screen lit up. The smiling red-eyed face of a child glitched in and out of existence as a wild flower's demonic laugh echoed down the halls.
A/N
Wowie, many a things are happening. Frisk finally appears! Huzzah! Honestly, I have no idea how I'll write them as it is that Frisk seems to be…well, an anomaly. So. Enjoy my messed-up Frisk.
The song Toriel was humming was 'His Theme' in case that wasn't clear.
Tra La La, Golden Flowers, Golden Halls.