A/N: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ALCOHOL USAGE AND LOTS OF REALLY SILLY DRUNK PEOPLE. Go to the end notes for a brief summary of events sans (ha) the alcohol if you are uncomfortable with this! Just do ctrl+f and look up "chapter summary".
Also! I have a tumblr that I post chapters up onto, and I also post my own art of this fic and Spotify playlists! I made a playlist for Holly so far and for the Dancetale AU in general. Check me out at .com! Credit to Akinai_Sere and CadetSparkleWolf for being my beta readers 3
"So, Papyrus, how'd it go with your number one fan?" Undyne asked, her arm draped across the headrest of her best friend's seat. She'd demanded shotgun, of course, so Sans, Alphys, and Holly had squeezed in together in the back. Having the slimmest lap (being a skeleton was very convenient at times), Sans took the middle seat with the lap buckle. His eyes were closed; Holly wondered if he was dozing off.
"He was rather enthusiastic," Papyrus answered, both pleased and exasperated. "I am very happy to have such a fan! He asked me to autograph… well, everything." The skeleton went quiet to focus carefully on the road.
"Heh, see, you're super cool, bro," Sans piped up, opening one eye a sliver. "Ya got three fans now."
"Three? But… weren't there just the two kids?" Undyne asked, seeming confused. Sans grinned back at her, seeming as if he was waiting for the question.
"Yeah, and me." His eyes glanced into Papyrus's rear-view mirror, where the two of them shared a fond look. Holly couldn't help but to squeal quietly. Sans flapped one hand irritably, the other going to the side of his head as if to cover a nonexistent ear. "You two sound like a coupl'a mosquitoes," he griped, and Holly realized that Alphys had a sparkle in her eye.
"Anyway, bro," he said before either of the girls could gush. "Undyne wanted to have a li'l party at our place. Nothin' too crazy, just a few drinks between friends. You wanna join us?"
The tall skeleton's smile from a moment ago dropped into a disapproving frown. "Sans, you know I do not partake in such activities," he sniffed.
Undyne cackled, tossing her head back against the seat. "Aw, c'mon Paps, nothin' wrong with a little adult fun once in a while." She kicked a foot up on the dashboard and leaned her seat back slightly. Papyrus gave her a flustered glance.
"W-well, I know that, but I prefer not to indulge in such things. Though I appreciate the offer," he said, glancing back at Sans through the mirror.
"Yeah, I figured ya wouldn't wanna join us. I just wanted to make sure you weren't left out," the elder brother clarified.
"Is it all right that we're using your house, though?" Holly asked, wanting to make sure they weren't going to be a nuisance—even if Sans had already offered, since it was technically his house, too.
"Oh, of course! I soundproofed my room some time ago, when my brother decided to practice playing his trombone too many days in a row," he said drily, seeming to pout. How he pulled it off without having a lower lip, Holly had no idea. Sans seemed utterly unapologetic.
They pulled into the driveway and Undyne leapt out, prancing over to the door and unlocking it with her own key. She gestured for them all to hurry up and get inside; Holly had barely even begun to unbuckle herself by the time she disappeared into the skeleton household.
"Um, P-Papyrus, if you want I c-can ask her to hold off on drinks for a bit? If you want to j-just, um, hang out with us," Alphys offered as they walked inside. The tall skeleton smiled.
"Oh that is quite all right, Dr. Alphys. I always go to bed at this time so I can wake early and get started with my day!" he assured her. "Have fun responsibly, all of you!" And he was down the hall. Sans followed him.
"Back in a minute," he said, and Holly remembered when she saw him read to Papyrus at Toriel's. A small smile crossed her features.
"G'night, Paps!"
"G-good night, Papyrus!"
"All right, punks, I got the good shit," Undyne said, coming back with two large bottles of liquor. "Man, it's been a while since I've gotten to do this."
Holly wondered vaguely where the monster even got those bottles of alcohol, but didn't question it too much as she was already back in the kitchen to gather glasses for each of them. Holly insisted on pouring her own drink, especially when she watched Undyne make her own glass of straight alcohol. A mix with apple juice from the refrigerator suited Holly just fine instead. Alphys copied Holly and went light on the alcohol, while Undyne snorted at the both of them.
"Buncha lightweights."
Sans finally emerged from the room, eyeing everyone's drinks and pouring just a simple half-glass of straight liquor for himself. Undyne grinned at him, her smile pointy.
"Ha! See, shortie here knows how it goes. All right, what're we drinkin' to?" she asked, thoughtfully swirling her own glass.
"New friends?" Holly suggested, the corner of her mouth turning up. The black lipstick was fading slightly, a pink line visible on the inside of her bottom lip. Sans held his glass up, tilting his head at her with a grin.
"Yeah, new friends," he agreed, and the four of them tapped their glasses together. Undyne's sloshed just a bit with the enthusiasm before they knocked back the first of their drinks relatively quickly.
"Tastes like paint thinner," Sans commented, the bone over his nose bridge wrinkling.
"Hey, that's how you know it's good," Undyne cackled. Holly huffed in quiet laughter, her friend's behavior reminding her of a college age kid. "Short stack, you got any cards around?" Undyne asked, her empty glass clinking on the table. She was already pouring another for herself; Holly frowned, hoping that Undyne wasn't all talk about her tolerance. She really did not want to have to heft around a huge slab of muscular dead weight. She didn't have time to think about it too much when a ripple of fuzziness overtook her brain; it wasn't powerful, but it was enough to make her joints feel a little loose.
"Nope. Hang on, I need to make this taste not completely disgusting," Sans answered, heading into the kitchen and coming back with a bottle of ketchup. Holly downed the rest of her drink and refilled the glass with a little of just the liquor, figuring that her taste buds would be numbed enough to tolerate the awful taste. She sipped at it, curling a lip. It really did taste like paint thinner.
She was just noticing that her lipstick was leaving black marks all over the glass when she saw Sans unscrewing the cap to his ketchup bottle—not bothering with squeezing it through the nozzle. He poured it into his glass with the vodka that was already in it, and began mixing it together with a spoon. Alphys seemed unfazed by this, but Undyne made a noise of disgust.
"Sans, oh my God. That is… nasty," Holly commented, breaking down into laughter as a bit more of her composure slipped. The skeleton just shrugged and continued mixing the ungodly concoction.
"Hey, no knockin' my quirks." He finished mixing, contemplated the drink for a moment, and gave her a skeletal wink. "Now to old friends, 'm I right?" he said, glancing over at Alphys. She lit up.
"R-right!"
The four of them went through their second drinks this way, and though Holly hadn't had a whole lot, she was feeling quite tipsy. Before she could forget, and wake up with horribly smudged makeup, she pulled her pack of wipes and cleaned up. It took quite a few to get the full-face leopard spots off entirely.
"Y-you've still got the, um, black around your eyes," Alphys told her, swaying slightly.
"Yeah, eyeliner's tough to get off completely. If that's all that's left, it's fine." Undyne took the moment to pour Holly another drink, this one much fuller than she normally would have made. She shrugged, knowing she could simply slow down. "Hey, where's your cups and stuff? I'm gonna get some water, too," she asked Sans, her speech slower and more deliberate as she forced herself to concentrate through the haze.
"Second cabinet from the right, by the fridge," Undyne answered before Sans could. Holly tottered her way back with the glass, downing half of it before touching her drink again. She really did not want to wake up with a bad hangover.
"Okay so if you don't have any cards, what're we supposed to do?" Undyne complained. Her ear fins were turning an interesting shade of red at the tips and her words were getting very drawn out. "Every party's got games. We need a party game."
"Okay, okay I know one game, guys," Holly said, snickering for some strange reason. Her vision was starting to get fuzzy. "It's called. Um…" She snorted, the idea that she'd forgotten the name of the game becoming incredibly funny. "Wait, wait. Okay. It's called. 'Never Have I Ever'. The rules are, um." She paused for a long moment, trying to think through the fog of her mind. "We sit around, and, like. One person at a time says a thing that they've never done, but they think everyone else has. And then… then everyone who has done that thing has to take a drink and they lose a point."
"Wait wait. How many… points do we get?" Undyne asked, focus deteriorating.
"Well my friends usually did, like. You start with a whole hand and put one finger down every time you did a thing." She held up her own hand as an example and put a finger down. "So, like, everyone gets… five points to begin with."
Sans and Undyne nodded thoughtfully, accepting this rule, but Alphys stared down into her open palms. "But… I have f-four fingers…" she lamented, and her voice sounded so ridiculously upset about it that Holly burst out into peals of laughter.
"Hahaha, ohhh, my God Alphys… four fingers… haha, oh man, monsters are so weird," Holly giggled, trying to gasp air. Undyne, who had joined in the laughter, was trying to be serious.
"Hey… no… makin' fun of my girl!" she cackled, though the intimidating effect was not as effective when she was flushed and grinning. Her pointed teeth clicked together.
"Alph can jus'. Use two hands," Sans suggested, and the yellow monster looked horrified.
"But th-then I'll have eight!"
The room exploded with laughter. Poor Alphys looked so distressed and frustrated with them all, until Sans calmed down enough to speak. He wiped tears from his eye socket (Holly stared, fascinated to know that skeletons did have the ability to make tears).
"Alph. Alph. You just—you use one whole hand, and just one finger on the other one," he clarified, his voice still laced with humor.
The scientist's eyes widened in understanding. "Ohhh." She went back to staring at her hands in wonder.
"Okay. So, we got the rules? And we got our drinks. Who wants to start? Last person with their finger on their nose is it!" Holly and Alphys rushed to do just that, Alphys just a little bit after Holly (and knocking her glasses askew). The other two, however, protested against this.
"Ha ha ha, you're hilarious, Holly."
"Uhh I don't… got a nose, Holl."
The night was looking as if it would break down to just a bunch of tipsy, cackling idiots at this point. With Undyne scowling down at Holly and her girlfriend down the very flat plane of her face (which had no nose because, wait, did Undyne have gills?) and Sans trying to look offended, and failing… even Alphys was snorting.
"Ohhh my God, okay, okay. We'll just. Hee hee, no nose. I'll just go first," Holly finally said. The other three quieted down, giving her as much attention as they could. "Um. Okay. Never have I ever…" She thought hard, and remembered something Frisk mentioned once. She looked up with a smug smile. "Never have I ever used a ferryboat."
The three monsters groaned simultaneously. "Uuugh, no fair," Undyne complained, but she took a sip of her drink along with the others. "That's one point."
"Okay. Okay, Sans, your turn."
The skeleton swirled his viscous drink thoughtfully. "Never have I ever floated in water," he said.
"Oooh, that's a good one," Alphys complimented while everyone took their loss. "O-okay. My turn. Uhmm… N-never have I ever been in a battle!"
"Ha! Me either," Holly crowed while Sans and Undyne took drinks. The latter glanced over at Sans skeptically.
"Your lazy ass has been in a fight before?" she asked. The skeleton just shrugged.
"I'm full o' mysteries. But, uh. Me and my bro have gotten rough as kids," he answered, glancing off to the side. Undyne tilted her head in thoughtful acceptance, but Holly thought she saw… something in Sans's expression…
Eh, she was probably just tipsy. "All right, punks! Then it's my turn!" Undyne slammed her drink down. "Never have I ever had sex with a guy before!"
Alphys's face went from a pleasant flush from the drinks to a bright, cherry red. Across the way, Sans's eyes grew very round. Holly blushed as well, though a guilty grin spread across her face.
"Ha, looks I lose this time," she commented, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Undyne pounded on the table with raucous laughter.
"Hahahaha, get 'em Holly!" the monster roared, greatly amused at the reaction at her bold move. "Okay, now it's your turn," she smirked. A slow, devious smile came to the human's face as she regarded her next move.
"Okay, how about this, then: never have I ever had sex with a woman before."
The table went deadly silent, the grin sliding right off of Undyne's face to be replaced with a dark flush. Across the table, Alphys squeaked in despair and hid her face behind her claws. Sans left his drink untouched, same as last round.
"Ohhh ho ho! How interesting," Holly said as the other two monsters took silent sips of their drinks. They seemed to pointedly avoid eye contact with one another. "Was it with each other? I bet it was with each other." Her face was like the cat that ate the canary.
"Hollyyyyyy…!" Alphys whined. Undyne sputtered incoherently.
"Damn, Holl, ya got Undyne actually speechless," Sans commented in amusement, giving her an impressed look. "You are evil when you're drunk."
She tossed her head back and cackled, even when Undyne glowered at her.
"Okay okay, God. Sans, your turn. Ass," she added, narrowing her visible eye at Holly. There was a bit of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth when she glanced over at her girlfriend, however.
"'K, uhhh. Never have I ever owned a cat," he said.
"Aww, now you're just picking on meeee," Holly protested as she reached for her drink alone. "You saw Miki on Skype with my sister."
The skeleton gave her a mysterious grin. "Maybe."
The game kept going for quite a while; Undyne lost first, much to her chagrin, and Holly was out second. Sans ended up being the winner and the four of them decided to head out back for a bit of fresh air and porch space. There wasn't any furniture outside, unlike Toriel's house, but the back steps made a decent enough seat.
"Oooh, the sky's so clear tonight," Holly commented immediately, turning her face up. "The stars are really pretty…"
Sans glanced at her sideways. "Yeah, they are." He shifted next to her to gaze upwards, leaning back on his hands. Nearby, Alphys had settled her head on Undyne; the pair of them were fairly engrossed with one another, seeming to ignore Sans and Holly for the time being. The skeleton's face softened—as much as it could for a skeleton monster—into an almost wistful expression. Holly cupped her drink, sensing that he was about to speak.
"First thing we saw was the sunrise. Y'know, when we came up here," he told her. "It was… amazing. So bright, so warm. Pap's face… seein' it lit up like that, with all the colors…" She watched him closely, noting how his pupils got all bright and big when he spoke about his brother. "An' then, when the first day ended, and it got all dark," he continued, never tearing his eyes away from the sky. "The stars came out. Real ones, not the crystals we had Underground to look like 'em."
He finally turned to look at Holly. She blinked slowly, trying to focus on him, because he was giving her the most honest expression she'd seen on his face before. She didn't want to miss it; this seemed important, for some reason.
"That night… it was so clear an' calm. It got so dark, but when I looked up and saw all those stars, I just…" He trailed off, looking away. Holly took a breath, realizing she'd been holding it when he looked at her. "Almost wanted to dance under 'em," he muttered.
And then the expression was gone. Holly downed the rest of her drink and stood up, tottering precariously. "Why… why didn't you?" she asked slowly, her words running together. He didn't answer and she turned to look at him. "Sans?"
"That's… I just don't dance anymore," he answered, his voice clipped. His brows were drawn together as if he was irritated, but Holly knew that something was wrong. Alphys said monsters danced because it was good for their souls, right? So why didn't Sans?
She felt her mood drop and a tiny part of her brain was admonishing her for letting her guard down. She dropped down her knees; they smacked against the pavement, though she wouldn't feel the bruises until the morning. The skeleton monster blinked at her—they were on eye level and she was reaching a hand out. To do what, Holly didn't even know.
That was the last thing she remembered before her memory blacked out for the rest of the night.
Chapter Summary: Everyone goes to the skelebros' house, Papyrus decides that partying isn't for him and heads to bed while the others chill. They play a game together that lets them get to know each other; we find out Holly's 'done the do' with a guy before, Sans hasn't done the do, and Alphyne has done the do probably with each other. Because mature adults ask about this stuff. The four of them head out, Alphys and Undyne cuddle and stop paying attention to Holly and Sans who sit on the steps to chat. Sans mentions how he felt when they first got to the surface and says that he almost wanted to dance when he saw the stars for the first time. Holly asks why he didn't and reaches out for Sans when her mind fuzzes into a memory blackout.