Sans jolted awake when he heard someone squeal. His eyes darting to try and find who was being hurt. It took him a moment to work out he was in his lab, mostly due to the fact he was not alone in his lab. Alphys was sitting across from him typing. No danger, must have just been a bad dream.
"alphys what?" Sans said sleepily as he leaned over to look at her screen before pulling her chair away. She stumbled over her words when she saw he was awake and looking not very happy.
"SANS! I...I was just...They s..s..tarted t..to, a..nd then I..I.." The poor yellow lizard monster was practically shaking as she stuttered and tried to explain. Jumping off her chair Alphys looked ready to run. She had done it again, she had messed up. Even after Sans had specifically told her not to respond to any messages that came up. She had never seen him looks so...worried. Sans never got worried. God he was never going to let her help him again. Maybe they would never be friends again? That would put a strain on Papyrus's and Undyne's relationship and that would mean Undyne would have to choose between the two skeletons she had known and worked with forever, okay maybe not Sans but still, and some silly little nerd. It was all crashing down. Why wouldn't the floor just open up and swallow her whole?
"it's cool. don't worry about it alphys." Sans waved her off, not really listening as she had her mini meltdown. Shit, he should have been more careful. What had they said? He did a quick scan at the conversation but it looked...safe enough. Quickly typing a reply Sans closed the document. The less distractions the better. Alphys continues to apologize, her hands wringing nervously but Sans pushed everything to the background as he watches the little green light glowing to one side. Only when it goes dark and the red blinks on does he relax and focus on the now panicked lizard.
"A..aand I..I know we a..a..re not c..close anymore, *sniff* well w..we have n..n..never been c...close,...b..b..but..I..I t..tthough m..m..maybe we c..ccould, i..iif we s.. " Alphys now had her head in her hands as she tried to stem the building tears and hide herself away. She had been on edge from the very moment Sans had asked her to help him with a new project. It had been so long since Sans had opened up to any of them and now she had ruined it. He was never going to trust them again. She would never find out what all of this is about. Her one shot to prove that she was not just a waste of space and she had messed everything up.
"alphys, ugh...you ok there?" Sans rubbed a hand over his skull. He could handle timeskips, resets and interdimensional beings but this...this was something he was out of practice with.
"hey, hey i'm not mad. you er...just rattled my bones a little. you have to be careful with this thing, can't believe everything it says." Alphys parted her fingers to look at him and he give her an honest grin.
"D...do you w..want me t...to leave?" She sniffed and tried to wipe away the tears with her sleeve.
"what? 'course not." Sans suddenly realized that Alphys had taken this a little too far. This wasn't just a mini meltdown, she looked distraught. Haddent she been doing better after she started dating Undyne? Now Sans thought about it he didn't really know how anyone was really doing at the moment. Other than Papyrus. Had he really pulled away that far from everyone?
"look alphys i need you on this. not only that but i want your help." That worked. Alphys was now almost meeting his sockets with her eyes.
"Y...you're *sniff* just s..saying that"
"nope, s'true. i never was much good with computers. guess i just don't have the memory for it. i know what i want to do, problem is knowing how. would have taken me ages to work out how to sync the systems but you look at the code and just seem to know"
Alphys was smiling shyly now at the praise.
"B..but you managed t..to establish the l..link"
"Eventually." Sans gave an exhausted sigh. He had spent hours scripting the programs to try different methods of establishing a link.
"it was more brute force than skill. throw enough bones and one of 'em will hit." He chuckled and the mood seemed to lighten.
"I..if you're sure" Alphys climbed back up on to her chair and carefully moved to the monitor and keyboard.
"ok, lets see where we are. Then we can grab something to eat and have a little nap while we run some more of the data. Should have at least another five to eight hours till our scheduled 'chat'. plenty of time so long as we don't get distracted."
*****Seven hours later*****
"Oh oh try that one!" Alphys stood next to Sans pointing at his screen, a big smile plastered on her face.
"hmm, kinda slow, oh the beat is kicking in now, nice." Sans let his skull bounce slightly to the music as a finger tapped on the desk in front of him. They had been at this for about an hour now after managing to get more access and sync up some more systems. Neither had expected to find a huge cache of music, nor that they would lose track of time as they 'explored'. It was an interesting range, some of the songs they recognized, others were completely new. They both wondered if this was a collection from all of the worlds connected to the void.
Just a couple more songs Sans thought. Nearly everything was synced up now so they could start properly working on things after his scheduled meeting with the anomaly. Though he was more tempted to shift to the name of 'User' now they were a little less 'unknown'. Plus it seemed to fit better since they clearly spent their time using the people, timelines and worlds they had access to for their own enjoyment.
The song playing reached a lull in the middle.
"hu? what was that?" Sans suddenly frowned when he heard a quiet popping noise that didn't seem to fit with the music. Backtracking the song a few seconds he tried to find the sound again but it wasn't there.
"W..what is it Sans?"
"hmm dunno, thought I heard something odd." Suddenly there was more crackling and popping. It didn't last long but both of the monsters held their breath unsure of what was happening.
"could be something interfering with the system." Sans pulled up a few diagnostic tools but didn't have much time to run them when a very clear voice cut it's way through the air.
"Sans?"
The skeleton's sockets went wide as he looked from the screen to Alphys who was biting her lower lip. The yellow monster quickly grabbed a pen and note pad. Before turning the message she had scrawled to Sans.
-I think I might have hooked up all the audio system's, output and input-
Sans groaned as a boney palm met his forehead. This was not what he needed right now.
"err, hey there buddy" both of the scientists heard a gasp on the other end.
"thought this might be easier then using that notebook." He might as well try and play this off as deliberate. So much for trying to keep everything under the radar until they were fully operational.
I've not seen many Sans and Alphys scenes in fics but these two are really sweet and fun to write together. Just signed up and posted this fic over on AO3 (slightly diffrent chapter set up) Same name and Username as here ^.^
