Cover Art: FairyFan94 from Deviant Art
Chapter 1 - 'First' Meetings
Sans didn't waste any time. He took the nearest shortcut into the ruins. If he was the one resetting that would mean Frisk was the one without any memories right now. For her this run was going to be like the very first she went through or at least similar to it.
She had told him, that because of Flowey she had feared all of them. The flower had been nice to her but then was out to kill her. That time Chara had started to awake in her, though she didn't take Frisk over but she had whispered the doubt into her mind. That had been enough to cause Frisk to reset and going on a genocide run possessed by Chara. The distrust, the fear, the betrayal it were all parts of the things that triggered Chara.
The skeleton was going to prevent that. He would make sure that Frisk would learn first that she didn't need to fear them or to kill. For that he needed to make sure she was not going to meet Flowey first. Arriving in the ruins Sans found the still passed out Frisk laying in the golden flowerbed. He stopped shortly to stroke her head, careful not to wake her just yet.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." He whispered his grin softening when he saw the small smile on the child's face.
He moved on into the next area to find Flowey waiting already with a friendly smile. "Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the… Wait... you are not the human!"
Sans only grinned as his eyes went pitch black. The flower sensed that something was going terrible wrong and was about to duck into the ground as it was suddenly ripped out of the ground its roots hanging in the air and a blue glow around it.
"You are coming with me." The skeleton told the flower with what looked like a sadistic grin. A wave of his hand and Flowey was forcefully planted into a silly looking pot. It had a few comic drawings of a flower showing its teeth and someone had scribbled 'Be aware. Floored flower knows how to bite and plants on doing so.' on it.
Flowey let out an angry hiss before trying to send some 'friendliness pellets' in Sans direction that was until Sans pulled on one of its yellow petals. "Try that and you will be a bald flower."
"I will kill you!" The flower hissed more in pain than anger when Sans tucked harder on its yellow petal but not ripping it out. He stared at the flower slightly bored and thought about what to do with it as the sound of soft and light footsteps were heard. Wide eyed the skeleton ducked into the dark corners of the room, his boney hand pressed against the mouth of the flower to keep it shut.
Little Frisk stumbled into the room. She looked slightly confused as she walked nearer to the patch of green grass where Flowey had been earlier. Her knees buckled and she was kneeling on the ground. Frisk small hands were slowly swishing over the grass and her eyes traveled around the room.
Sans hold his breath when Frisk looked in their direction and he released it when she turned away. The flower in his hands struggled against his hand and tried to say something which was muffled by his boney hand. The skeleton could see that Frisk was picking up on that noise. 'She had always been a sharp girl.' Sans mused before he turned his attention back on the flower.
"You better plant that mouth of yours shut!" He hissed dangerously to the flower his right eye dipping into a light blue color. The skeleton slightly hoped that due to little light in this room was enough to conceal their presents. But the small girl seemed to notice something and stood to move in their direction. Sans once again hold his breath, even though skeletons technically don't have the need to breath.
He was trying to think of something as he inched deeper into the darkness away from the approaching girl. He didn't want her to meet Flowey first but maybe he could be the first she met. But that would kind of ruin their 'first meeting' they usually had and he would have to think of a plausible lie to explain why he was hiding in the dark. A lie that wouldn't make him sound like a creep. Also…
He did not bring the whoopee cushion with him.
The skeleton shook his head. 'No.' he thought. 'It's better if the kid meets Toriel first. She is one of the kindest monsters around here.' Which brings him back to his current situation on how to avoid the kid finding him right here and now. He glanced to the side and saw a shortcut. The only problem was he didn't know where it lead to and he didn't really feel like taking a trip around Underground, especially not with an annoying flower.
"Oh dear. Did you fall from above?" Sans let out a relieved sigh when Toriel walked into the room and drew the childs attention to her. "You are not hurt are you my child?"
He saw Frisk shaking her head lightly before staring up at Toriel with wide eyes. "Don't be afraid my child. I will help you."
Toriel smiled softly, patted Frisks head and took her hand in hers before leading her out. Stepping out of the shadows Sans could hear the goat mothers talking calmly to the small child and he knew that Frisk was in good hands from here on out. Now he only had to wait by the gates for her arrival. Turning and taking a familiar shortcut out of the ruins Sans carried the still cursing flower home and into his secret lap.
"Do you really believe you will be able to protect her?" Flowey snorted as he smiled evilly. "If not I then someone else will go and kill that little human!"
Sans glared at the flower before ignoring it and going through his notes. "Besides without me you won't ever be able to leave the Underground and I sure as hell won't help that little…"
Whatever Flowey was about to say was swallowed by the shock of the blazing blue flame burning in Sans right eye and the shattered vile next to it. "Look here little buddy."
Flowey swallowed by the dark tune that Sans voice had and stared at the skeleton before him. "You better watch what you say, or I will make sure that you are going to have a very bad time."
Before Flowey could muster up the courage to retort something Sans was right before it taping its mouth shut with some good old tape. The skeleton didn't want to think about how much truth lay behind the flowers words. Especially when he slowly believed more and more that Frisk had not told him the full truth about all the timelines. Yet he didn't want to think about this right now. Sans eyes returned to normal as he grinned happily at the stunned and muted flower. "Now how about some ice puns?"
A few days later Sans was sitting by the gate in the snow. The cold wasn't effecting him much since… well he was a skeleton. His eyes traveled up a few trees as it started to snow. The skeleton thought about how it was possible to snow here since they lived in a cave but then he was getting to lazy to follow that train of thoughts. He glanced at the closed gate. Frisk was taking her time. Normally the girl should have left the gates already but this time not. She was six days late.
Sans didn't mind the waiting. It gave him an excuse to nap around here in peace and quiet, aside from the times Papyrus had practically dragged him along to build up some new puzzles for when a human would come along. Even thought he was a lazy bone he still enjoyed these times too. It was some quality brother bonding time, like Papyrus called it, similar to the times they build their snowman… or snow lump in his case.
Suddenly a muffled scream was heard through the closed gates and Sans sat up straight, pressing his head slightly closer to the gate in an attempt to hear better what was happening behind it.
"I don't want to fight you mom!" His eyes went wide for a moment. Frisk had told him about this fight. Toriel was testing the small child in a fight. Yet in all timelines he had never heard the small child's voice that scared and strong at the same time. He could hear the desperation in her voice, a plea to stop this pointless fight. Another cry of pain was heard and Sans winced with it.
This was something he couldn't protect her from. It was something she had to go through to get stronger, not in the regards of LOVE and EXP but in regards of mental strength and the strength of her soul and heart. The skeleton closed his eyes and waited for it to end.
It only took a few more minutes before he heard slight sniffling behind the door. Fast Sans stood up and hide behind some trees waiting for the little girl to step out of the gates. The door creaked and there she was. His grin faltered as he saw her rubbing tears away and he could hear here mumble something about only wanting to know what was beyond the ruins.
Yet he didn't miss the determination in her eyes and he grinned. That was the Frisk he knew. Moving on he followed her the way he did every other time. Watching how she lightly stepped over the branch to not trip on it while he stepped on it on pure purpose. He chuckled as he hide behind another tree when she turned around, eyes wide and slightly scared.
No, he was not trying to scare her but that how it has always been. He couldn't resist pulling her leg. Besides why should Pap be the only one to get a cool impression, he would like to have one too when it came to her. Once she was before Paps gates he bound here feet onto the ground with a little magic and snickered how she struggled with moving forward.
He walked up to her and unbound the magic without her knowing. Sans cleared his non-existing throat. "Human. Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" He started and grinned when he saw her tense.
"Turn around and give me your hand." The skeleton held out his hand and watched how Frisk turned and took it slowly. A loud farting noise echoed from the trees and Sans grin went brighter the moment Frisk broke out in a giggling fit. Her giggles were like a beautiful melody to him. God had he missed it.
"Welp the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It's ALWAYS funny." Frisk was covering her mouth with her hands as she tried to keep her giggles in and Sans took that chance to take a closer look at her. She was dressed just like he remembered. A stripped sweatshirt, light blue pants, brown shoes, neck long hair. Yep no wonder they had trouble getting her gender right till she hit puberty. She did look neither like a girl nor like a boy really.
"Anyway... You're a human, right?" Frisk stopped her giggling and looked curious up at Sans. He had thought about it a lot of times how he was going to protect her through everything. He took in that she was lightly shivering and grinned as an idea came to his mind.
"Here take my jacket." He chuckled at the suspicious look she gave him as if she expected another whoopee cushion in it. Deciding that she was taking too long, he promptly placed it over her shoulder not caring that Frisk did not have enough time to put her arms rough the sleeves of the jacket and zipped it shut. It obviously was too big for little Frisk and Sans chuckled once more when the girl duck deeper into the jacket.
Pretending not to see the girl anymore sans placed his hand over his eyes and pretended to look around. "Now where did that human go?"
He loved the sound of her giggling even if it was muffled by his jacket. "Hey wanna meet my bro? He is really cool! I bet you will like him."
"Mm-mmh!" He watched how his jacket hopped comically in one place when only the top of the girls head was seen and he grinned more. "Well come a long then I know where he is and I am sure you want to jacket-out."
The girl in his blue jacket giggled once more as he picked her up and carried her to his sentry station under his arm. He knew his brother was going to show up any moment there, he did that regularly, making sure Sans wasn't becoming too much of a lazy bone.
With the human in jacket and in his hands he walked there and grinned when he already saw his brother Papyrus looking for him in the distance. "By the way kid. I am Sans. Sans the skeleton. And my brother is called Papyrus."
Before she could really introduce herself, a loud voice boomed in their eardrums. "SANS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
"Sup bro." Sans greeted lazily.
"YOU KNOW WHATS 'SUP' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN 14 DAYS AND YOU…" Papyrus was stopped in his rant as Sans hold up his jacket buddle.
"Wanna see something cool?" The shorter skeleton asked innocently pushing the buddle, and Frisk more in Papyrus direction.
"NO BROTHER I DON'T WANT TO SEE SOMETHING COOL! I WANT TO FIND A HUMAN!" Papyrus stomped his foot and Sans grinned as he heard muffled giggles from his jacket.
"Come on bro I bet you will like it a skele-ton." Papyrus let out a loud groan.
"BROTHER I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR…"
"Just take a peek…" Sans grinned wider hoping Frisk was naturally going to play along, judging by the giggling she was. Papyrus arched a skeleton eyebrow at Sans word and took a step closer to the jacket, inspecting it. Papyrus was even more skeptical when he noticed the muffled giggling and moving of the jacket in Sans hands.
"SANS THIS BETTER BE NOT ONE OF YOUR PRANKS!" Papyrus missed the mischievous twinkle in Sans eyes and how his grin went a little wider.
"A BOO!" Frisk yelled popping her head out of the jacket and giving Papyrus a little scare enough to make him fall backwards on his behind.
"Tibia honest here kid. That was some good teamwork." Sans laughed grinning at the cheering child while Papyrus stared at them wide-eyed. After a few moments Papyrus seemed to get a hold and pointed at the human.
"SANS! IS THAT… IS THAT A HUMAN! IT LOOKS SO FAMILIAR!" The shorter skeleton and human child stopped laughing and shared a look before looking back at the taller skeleton.
"That's because it's my jacket." Sans shruged and Frisk giggled once again.
"OH." Papyrus answered a little confused.
"But what's that inside my jacket?" Sans added his grin going a little wider as Papyrus eyes light up.
"OH MY GOD! SANS! THAT'S A HUMAN!" Before the shorter could do much the jacket with Frisk was ripped out of his boney hands. Papyrus spun around with the jacket in hands lifting it up high into the air going on a rant on how he finally found a human and was going to join the royal guards, all the while Frisk was a joyful buddle laughing in glee and having fun being spun around high in the air.
"Actually brother…" Sans started waiting for the tall skeletons attention. "Since I caught it, don't you think it would only be fair if I keep it?"