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Why Children Climb Mountains

(maybe all you needed was a friend)

The small teenager hugged their torso tightly as they were buffeted by the blustery winter wind. It had only taken two seconds of consideration to decide where to go after escaping their house. The walk was not a long one, but every step felt like a mile as they were taken further and further from the first place in seven years they'd been able to call 'home'. Tears burned behind their eyes and their throat tightened as they pushed on through the chill. They couldn't go back anymore. The humans had taken their place of belonging from them once again. And soon they would take everyone they loved as well.

When they reached the house they were looking for, instead of walking up to the front door and knocking like they normally would've, Frisk went around the back and felt around for the door they knew was hidden there. Fumbling with frozen fingers, they pulled out their key ring and inserted what they hoped was the correct key into the lock. To their relief, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

The room was slightly different from what Frisk remembered of its counterpart in the underground. Firstly, the unreadable schematic was gone, replaced by several dirty dishes stacked messily on the counter, one of which Frisk recognized as the container Toriel had packed steak and veggies into two nights prior. Secondly, there were now pictures posted on the wall; photos of Frisk and all their friends that had been taken in the months following the monsters' exodus from the underground. Seeing everyone's smiling faces staring back at them without a care in the world caused fresh tears to well up and Frisk had to look away.

They felt so hopeless. Everything had gone so wrong so quickly and all Frisk could do was watch it happen. They backed up until their back found the wall and then they slid down it until they were sitting on the cold floor. There, they buried their face in their knees and sobbed quietly. For minutes or tens of minutes, they sat there, unaware and uncaring of time passing. They knew they'd only delayed the inevitable by running. Megan Campbell would certainly come looking here, and when she did, Frisk would be taken away. Not to mention their friends would probably get in even more trouble after their little running stunt. In hindsight, coming here had been a bad decision. Sans and Papyrus were going to be the ones the humans punished if they were found here. Yes, they would leave. They would get out of here and go…somewhere. They didn't know where yet, but they'd figure it out.

"kid?"

Frisk pulled their head from their knees with a start. Where before there'd been nothing, Sans now stood in front of them. He was looking down at them with concern, his brow slightly furrowed and the light of his pupils a hair dimmer than normal. He must have teleported because they hadn't heard the door open.

Frisk didn't wonder how he'd known to find them here. Sans always knew. They just stood up and took a deep, shuddering breath before throwing themself at him, wrapping their arms around his back and burying their face in his shirt. Sans was clearly startled by the action and he froze up as though gearing to push them away, but in the end he sighed and returned the embrace. It was the first time Frisk had ever hugged Sans. It was a little odd, but it was also warm and comforting. "what's wrong?" he asked, all traces of humor absent from his diction.

It took a few tries to get their voice to work but eventually Frisk was able to choke out, "They're trying to take me away from mom."

Apparently Sans didn't need an explanation on who "they" were, because he made a displeased noise and tightened his hold. "tell me what happened," he instructed calmly.

Frisk nodded against his chest. "They came to our house; told me mom was being suspected for the disappearance of the other kids. They wanted to put me in foster care. I ran."

Sans brought a hand up to pat their head. The gesture made Frisk want to cry harder. "then they'll be coming here soon. we'll need to think of a way to get them off your trail."

Frisk pulled back and shook their head. "I don't want you and Papyrus to get in trouble."

Sans chuckled humorlessly. "we're already in trouble, kid. i told you before that we didn't want you to suffer the fallout from this. if you don't want to leave, then we're damn well gonna make sure you don't. that's all there is to it."

Frisk wiped their eyes stubbornly. "Sans…" they started to protest, but the stocky skeleton shook his head, quieting them.

"i want to protect this timeline," he told them staunchly. "remember how i told you i never had much determination? well, that's changed now. i'm sure this peaceful life all of us have been living together is what was always meant to happen. you, me, tori, undyne, pap—we all bled too much to let this future go to waste." He grasped their shoulder gently and his eyes softened. "it's time i stopped being an observer and started pulling my weight, and keeping you from ending up miserable in a place you don't want to be feels like a pretty good place to start."

Frisk opened and closed their mouth, soundly silenced by their friend's unexpected speech. When Sans grabbed their hand and pulled them out of the workshop, they didn't protest.

Sans led them into the main part of the house and up the stairs to his room. "first, we've gotta come up with a plan. i'll ring tori and let her know the situation. I hate tibia downer, kid, but you're probably not gonna be able to go outside for a while."

Frisk nodded dully. They looked around the room at the sparse furnishings and recalled how they'd been in this same place just days ago under much different circumstances. Now that they had time to properly take in their surroundings, they realized something was different.

Sans followed the direction of their gaze and made a noise of understanding. "papyrus complained that the trash tornado was too noisy. said he kept hearing barking. can't imagine why," he explained with a shrug and a wink.

Frisk managed a small smile, comforted by Sans' effort to act normal. Sans grinned back and shuffled around in his sweatshirt pocket. Pulling out his phone, he started to dial Toriel's number but he was cut off by the phone suddenly going off in his hand. Frisk just had time to make out the tune of Andrew Gold's Spooky Scary Skeletons before Sans hit the receive button.

Before Sans could say anything, they heard Papyrus' voice blast through the speaker. "SANS! HAVE YOU SEEN FRISK? SOME HUMANS JUST CAME BY LOOKING FOR THEM AND THEY SEEMED IMPORTANT…? I TOLD THEM THAT IF THEY WEREN'T AT HOME THEY WOULD PROBABLY BE WITH YOU. IS FRISK WITH YOU, SANS?"

Frisk's heartbeat accelerated as panic filled them. Unaware of the situation, Papyrus had told Megan Campbell and John Doe right where to find them. The two of them could be here any minute and Frisk had no plan. What were they going to do? Hide in Sans' room and just hope they went away?

Despite Frisk's rising anxiety, Sans was unmoved. "thanks for the heads up, bro. yeah, frisk is here. we were thinking of having a sleepover, actually—maybe pick up some movies and turn it into a few night long marathon. how 'bout it?"

"SPLENDID IDEA, SANS! I SHALL STOP BY THE VIDEO RENTAL STORE AND ACQUIRE THE MOVIES. DO YOU HAVE ANY REQUESTS?"

"anything is fine. we trust your judgement."

"OF COURSE! NOBODY IS BETTER AT CHOOSING VIDEOS THAN ME. SEE YOU BOTH LATER!"

Frisk heard a beep signifying the end of the call.

Sans slipped the phone back into his pocket and turned to Frisk lazily. "welp, looks like they've found us."

Frisk met his relaxed gaze with alarm. They grasped the end of his sleeve with a worried hand.

Sans chuckled. "it's okay, kid. you're not going anywhere. i'll handle it. better wait to start settling you in until they're gone, though. don't want them getting suspicious."

As it happened, they didn't have to wait long. It was only a few minutes later that they heard the doorbell ring. Sans motioned for Frisk to stay in the room while he took his time walking down the stairs. Frisk listened to through Sans' bedroom door as he opened the front door and greeted their guests with a casual, "sup?"

There was a moment of silence and Frisk imagined Campbell and her partner's shock at being greeted by their second grinning member of the undead in one day. After a beat, Campbell regained her composure and said, "Good afternoon. You must be the brother or Mr. Papyrus. I'm Megan Campbell and the man here with me is Michael Martino. We're from the Department of Social Services. We're looking for Frisk Dreemurr. Is she—pardon me, are they here?"

"frisk? nope, 'fraid not," Sans answered easily.

There was another pause, shorter this time, and then Campbell said, "I was told by your brother that Frisk often visits here. There's been a situation and we have reason to believe that Frisk may come here. If you see them, we're requesting that you give us a call immediately."

"a situation, huh?" Sans said, making himself sound interested. "how ambiguous. so, what did the kid do?"

Campbell, sounding like she'd much rather not be having a conversation with a vertically challenged, perpetually grinning skeleton, explained, "Earlier this afternoon we approached Frisk about a matter of safety. As I'm sure you're aware, there's an investigation into the whereabouts of several missing children that is currently ongoing and the state feels that Frisk's present living situation may not be the most appropriate given their guardian's status as a suspect in that case. Frisk apparently was not fond of this arrangement and fled."

There was another pause, shorter this time, then Sans spoke again. "and what about frisk's guardian? did she have anything to say about your arrangement?"

"She…was not home at the time." Campbell answered somewhat reluctantly.

"i see," Sans said mildly. "so, what you're telling me is that you cornered frisk when they were all alone and told them you would be taking them away from their adoptive mother based on a decision made by people they had never met who think they have a right to control frisk's life based on unconfirmed suspicions that said guardian may in some way be connected to a several year-old case dug up by some yokels living under a mountain."

"Technically—"

"listen, megan," Sans cut her off, his tone still mild, "have you or the people who made this decision to remove frisk from their home ever given any thought to why frisk might have climbed that mountain in the first place? i'm sure you watched the interview on saturday and i'm aslo sure you're a smart person so I wonder if you can tell me: what would make a child want to disappear?"

"Sir, I don't think—"

"now, i'm no mind reader, but it seems pretty clear that whatever was lurking on or under that mountain would have to have seemed less terrible than what they were leaving behind, don't you think?"

"I—"

"now, we know that frisk climbed mt. ebott voluntarily and we also know that upon resurfacing they expressed no interest in returning to the life they'd left behind. in essence, to them, monsters were less frightening than humans."

"I think—"

"megan, rest assured that i know what you think. now i'm going to tell you what i think. i think you need to reevaluate how much good you're actually doing by taking frisk away from the mother they love and sending them back into the hands of people we've just inferred they have a poor history with. keep in mind that the person who barged in and upset frisk's life today, the person who caused them stress and made them feel like their only option was to run away from home was not toriel, it was you."

"Sir, I understand that our system of dealing with the safety of minors is probably foreign to you, but I assure you the happiness and protection of the child is our first concern and—"

"i think you misunderstood me," Sans cut her off again, and, as though a switch had been flipped, his tone suddenly darkened, sending a shiver up Frisk's spine. They knew that tone. "I'm telling you to get lost."

The sound of the door shutting loudly notified Frisk that the conversation was over.

Frisk waited a few moments before leaving Sans' room to be sure the coast was clear and then they plodded down the stairs to join their friend. He greeted them with his usual grin. "see? taken care of."

"They'll be back, won't they," Frisk expressed their concern in a resigned fashion, looking past Sans to the door.

"i don't doubt it," he agreed, not appearing troubled in the least. "probably even with a shiny search warrant to wave around and make them feel important. guess i'd better polish up my pranks."

Frisk felt a certain degree of satisfaction at Sans' surprised noise when they grabbed his skull and planted a sound kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Sans."

Somehow, despite his ever present grin, Sans still managed to look flustered. "'course, kid," he said, mussing up their hair fondly. "you know we're all here for you."

That evening, Sans explained to Papyrus that Frisk would in fact likely be staying with them until the investigation into the missing children was completed—on the down low, the smaller skeleton emphasized so that his brother wouldn't flounce off to tell the whole world about it. Papyrus was overjoyed to have Frisk as their house guest and promised his metaphorical lips were sealed.

True to his word, Papyrus had stopped by the old video rental store in the shopping center near their neighborhood and picked up a whole basketful of DVDs, and the three of them stayed up well into the morning watching silly Halloween themed movies. It didn't quite take Frisk's mind off their problems, but it helped that Sans had given Toriel a ring earlier in the evening and got her up to speed on the situation. Toriel explained that that she had already been contacted by the Department of Social Services about what had gone down that afternoon and described to Sans how shocked and angry she'd been when they'd told her that not only had they intended to steal Frisk away while she was out, they now had no idea where Frisk even was. She was relieved to hear that Frisk was safe with Sans and Papyrus and that the brothers would watch over them until this whole mess was resolved. Frisk couldn't help but feel guilty, though, because now everyone was busy worrying about them when they already had enough on their plates what with the investigation into the whereabouts of the missing children being given the green light. It must've been around two thirty when exhaustion finally won over and Frisk conked out on the couch.

That night, Frisk had an odd dream. In it, Sans and Papyrus were talking in hushed voices—probably because that's what they'd been doing when Frisk had fallen asleep—though they couldn't make out what the brothers were discussing. As Frisk lay there, drifting, the conversation eventually stopped and at some point Papyrus must have left because Frisk was pretty sure it was just them and Sans. They thought about checking but they didn't have the energy to open their eyes. It was quiet for a time and Frisk's brain flittered about between half formed thoughts. Absently, they heard a rustle and then a hand was on their forehead, stroking their bangs gently. At first, they thought the hand belonged to Sans, but they quickly dismissed that notion when their brain registered the warmth and softness of flesh. It brushed through their hair, full of tenderness, and in Frisk's mind the image of a woman appeared, hazy and not fully formed, but Frisk knew right away who she was.

Mom, they thought drowsily, their heart filling with affection and longing. That face definitely belonged to their mother—their real mother; the one who had passed away when Frisk was still in preschool. It had been a very long time since Frisk had last dreamt of her. They smiled and snuggled deeper into their blankets, letting the feelings of warmth and love wash over them. They didn't remember anything after that.

oO0Oo

Wow. I'm sorry, there's so much about this chapter that I don't like but I couldn't be bothered trying to fix it anymore. Hopefully it didn't put you guys off. I think my brain is tired from editing overload. ( -_- )

To Liliana Dragonshard, thank you so much for dropping a review! It seems like the Undertale fandom is more active on AO3 so it's nice to hear from someone over here, too. :)