Chapter Text
It had never really been a realistic prospect for the underground to clear overnight. Monsters took a look at the surface. There were celebrations, jubilation, and then a realization that this might take a bit more planning than first thought. That was overwhelmingly okay with the two kids mostly responsible for the overhaul of existence, though. Settling down at home in a certain snowed in town in the meanwhile was the best possible outcome for the exhausted, fractured-souled pair and their family.
King Asgore was confident in his people and their sun-filled future, though, and the town layout designing began. Put up to a vote, the name Starhome—in honour of the beautiful view from the mountaintop— was chosen, resoundingly beating Newest Home and Mt. Mountain, just as it had a rewound year ago.
They made contact with the humans. At first, it was just via radio: a brief, friendly announcement that the mountain had been opened up. Then, Asgore talked to one of their leaders on the phone. Then, through a video chat. Finally, a week later, they organized a meeting in the mountain, at Asgore's home.
It was a lot like the first time. This round, however, he had an uncanny feeling that he knew how it should go. Frisk did, too, and this time she brought Papyrus with her as well. Though Asgore had been uncertain, Frisk was sure he would really point things in the right direction much more quickly than the first version.
As she expected, the human leader and the people he brought with him seemed only mildly startled by Asgore. They had seen images of him in their picture books forever, after all. A lady even brought one for him to sign, a short children's story called The King Under the Mountain that portrayed him in a surprisingly benevolent light. He read it with her, chuckled, and offered them all tea.
The humans, in fact, had come bearing an apology. The war had been so long ago, and things had changed so much over the centuries that the outside world wasn't even sure if the monsters were still alive or how to contact them. Magic had drained from the world up top. There were no longer any red-souled wizards. There was even a significant amount of the population that thought that the monsters may never have been real at all. The humans (for the most part) were happy, actually, to get to see them again.
The envoys had been surprised, though, to see the human child joining the King after introductions had been made and tea and cakes had been served, and downright alarmed by the tall skeleton that walked in holding her hand. But, as Frisk thought, her brother's enthusiasm and energy infected the humans like a cold. He offered them pasta, assuring them that magic food was delicious, and shared a couple of his graph-paper puzzles, essentially derailing the meeting and turning it into a game. The human leader couldn't keep up his stoic front as his advisors, in turn, couldn't help but try to solve the theoretical switch puzzles, "no flying or snow pants allowed". Papyrus wooed them in minutes.
Frisk, of course, received some questions as well, about living with monsters; how she had been treated. She explained that she was an orphan and had fallen, an "accident", and how she'd been adopted and cared for. That monsters would never hurt a human without cause. That soul-stealing was essentially a myth. Asgore got a little sweaty-looking and excused himself as she fibbed on his behalf. But, she explained, very honestly, that even the monsters with the biggest claws and the sharpest fangs really just wanted to be friends. That skeletons and ghosts weren't scary; didn't mean any harm. Papyrus was living proof of that. She did have to explain, though, that he wasn't made of a dead human— the thought of which absolutely horrified him— and that skeleton monsters were just born like that.
Everyone at the meeting went home happy. Things wouldn't be over in a day, but it certainly sped things along a great deal. What had taken almost six months before was almost over in two and a half.
- - -
In the meanwhile, Asriel and Toriel moved into the skeleton household almost immediately after the barrier fell. Sans didn't care where he slept, so gave up his room to Toriel. Though the place suddenly seemed a little crowded, it all felt very right.
Though building her school again was near the top of Toriel's mind, the family's attention had to remain squarely focused on Asriel and Frisk for the time being. Their souls were unlike any in recorded history. Testing every day in Alphys's lab saw them trying hard to recombine themselves. Determination knitted into every facet of the Prince's new soul, so strong that, for a while, Frisk had to act as a conduit for it. It would burn any monster in direct contact with it. Alphys had a few new, orange scars on her fingers as proof.
Physical changes came along with progress. Asriel got worse before he got better, his form becoming more beastly as the determination seeped through his new soul to bind it properly. Two months from its creation, he was a hulking, knuckle-walking, sabre-toothed beast with huge, curling horns, and white irises on black sclera, who had to sleep exclusively on the living room floor. That is, until one day, about a week later, there was a shift. The soul finished remaking itself, snapped into place, and Asriel woke up just a smidgeon taller than Frisk. Pale, mist green eyes; adorable as ever, with the only physical changes remaining being the stripes on his face and back, and that his horns had begun to show a bit longer than his age would suggest. It was a relief if only for the sake of standing-room.
Frisk's transition was simultaneous, but less dramatic in the sense that she certainly did not grow to almost eight feet tall. She did, however, grow horns for a little over a week. Nubs at first, they sprouted a few inches, developing a faint, lyre-shaped curve, and then receded into nothing just as she was starting to come to terms with having them. She also turned blue for three and a half days, which— after the initial shock— gave Sans ample material for jokes. Mostly, though, her soul was readjusting. Already more attuned to monster magic than a regular human soul, it seemed to be coping just fine with only a few hiccoughs along the way.
That wasn't the only thing that changed for Frisk, though. Despite all the good they had done, the glowing handprints of magic and memories had faded from her face ever since the day the barrier had broken. With them went the borrowed powers of her brothers. Papyrus was probably more disappointed than she was, though. The invisible lines between her fingers hadn't lit up since then, either, and though the circular scar was still on her back, it hadn't glowed again.
The hairline cracks in Asriel's soul and Frisk's sparkling constellation points were rarely visible anymore, and showed less and less the more time passed. Only a great effort revealed them— a shining white, sometimes prickled with a faint spectrum of colours. But, their souls were solid now, even though Asriel's glowed red with determination: a fractured, mirror image of Frisk's.
No one was entirely sure what had happened, but the chunks missing from those who had given soul fragments to Frisk had started to come back on their own. Alphys began keeping track when she realized the missing piece of her finger started, very slowly, to reappear. It seemed to be exposure to Frisk's magic, but gaps missing from Sans, Papyrus, and Toriel, were nothing more than a memory within the first month. They weren't regrown pieces, though: the energy acted as if it had never been gone in the first place.
Alphys theorized that it might be that Frisk's magic was unconsciously turning the souls backwards in time. Sans was the only one who didn't seem the least bit surprised. The others took a little longer, from what Alphys guessed was less natural exposure. Sans actually seemed a little disappointed that the hole in his hand closed up, but Alphys was pretty relieved to have the rest of her pinkie back.
- - -
Three months in: though some monsters had already begun to set up outside— including Mettaton, who had raced to plunk down what would eventually become his television studio and Alphys's new laboratory— it was going to be about a month or two more before Frisk or any of her friends would build their homes on the surface. The last time, there had been a bit of scramble and, as a result, the initial "surface CORE", or SCORE, construction was plagued with issues and setbacks. This time, Alphys was taking no chances, going over the original CORE by the inch to make sure she had every little detail she would need before she moved to turn it down to almost zero, a necessary step before connecting the SCORE to it on the mountaintop in order to power what would become the city-state of Starhome.
This afternoon, though, she was out hiking the mountainside, camping with Undyne for a much needed break. Mettaton would be hosting a big surface party soon, humans included, and she was expected to help out. After days of spending almost every waking hour staring at schematics and computer screens, being dragged away from the artificial glow was really what she needed. She still posted update photos of just about everything every ten minutes or so, though. Campfire cooking, exploring the forests; jumping off a small waterfall over Undyne's head to play in the river under a free and open sky. Frisk had been keeping track throughout the day.
She was on the surface this afternoon, too. The roadmap of Starhome was laid out on the ground, a little different than how it had been, and a few houses had already been erected though, as scattered as they were, made the whole place look very quaint and rural. It wouldn't always, though. Eventually, the main bulk of the city would come to look a lot like New Home had, with merloned walls and the occasional domed roof. If things went like last time, it was the outskirts that would eventually end up looking more quaint and cozy, like Snowdin but with a lot more space.
The sun was shining, warm and inviting even as it began to fall towards the horizon, though the ground was damp from rain hours past. Now that she had proper shoes, Frisk quite enjoyed the squishing sound as she walked on the grass. She double-checked a photo on her phone— one of a house that looked like it was a boulder carved into a rectangular cottage, with some crystals jutting out here and there and a waterfall pouring down its side and into a pond in the front yard.
Frisk put a hand to her eyes and squinted into the distance. She could have sworn she saw a shimmery, pink sheen blink back at her. She turned to Sans and held up her phone, then pointed at a small, stoney lump in the distance. He took it and stared at the screen.
"Whatcha think?" she asked.
"Think you found it," he said.
She grinned and grabbed his hand.
Down the hill, they arrived at exactly the house from the photo, except for more crystals had sprouted from its left side, glimmering bright in the sunshine. Before they even crossed the yard, the door flew open and they were greeted by a beaming, rocky ram monster.
"You found it!" Flint said. "Have any trouble?"
"Nah," Sans said.
"Frisk!" A tiny little rockram shot out of the house around her father's legs and glommed onto the kid, squeezing her tightly. "You came! Come on, you gotta see my room, okay? It's brand new!" She hopped back, the blue stones on her cheeks glowing faintly, and she grabbed her hand to drag her inside.
"Okay, okay!" Frisk laughed.
As she was whisked away, Flint beckoned Sans towards the door. He had a big grin on his face.
"Good t'see you again," he said.
"Yeah, same," the skeleton replied. "How is she?"
"Like night and day. Could hardly believe it," he said. "Come on, come in."
The inside of the house was furnished like a cozy cottage, decorated with shells, chunks of crystal, and vinyl records. The little fish boy was setting the table and his mother laid out a casserole dish filled with something purple.
"I'm so glad you two could make it!" she said, grinning upon seeing him. She crossed the room quickly and wrapped him in a hug. "How have you been? Are you planning on moving up soon?"
"Eh, maybe in the next month or three. We got a spot; we're okay with bein' in the back end of things. Looks like you got this place all put together pretty quick," Sans said.
"It was a lot of work, aye, but worth it," Flint said. "You hear they're openin' up the way back into Home? Heard it was supposed to be for the scientists or somethin'."
"For all the eggheads," Sans said. "Yeah. Should be helpful for the SCORE, too, or whatever."
"I was a wee kid when I saw it last," he said. "Interested in takin' a look myself!"
"Hey, Sans? Saaaans?" Adaro darted over and grabbed onto his sleeve. "Okay, like, you know more about this place, right? The sky can't suck you up, right?"
"What, like a vacuum?" Sans tilted his head. "Nah."
"So when the world goes upside down, we'll be okay, though, right?" he insisted. "We won't fall off?"
"And what, go spinnin' off into space?" He grinned. "Nah. Gravity stuff. Same thing that makes you fall back down when you jump."
Adaro grinned brightly and punched the air with both fists. "That's awesome!"
Lari and Frisk returned shortly and, with a few more table settings, everyone sat down. Naiad gladly served them all the purple something—that ended up tasting like some very good potatoes— and some crispy fish alongside sweet, leafy vegetables. Flint was hyuking it up about all the novel things they'd seen above ground. The clouds rushing past, the birds twittering in the bright-leaved trees, the casual breeze; the little bugs in the grass.
The whole family was so exuberant and excited. Frisk couldn't help but catch a little of that enthusiasm as she listened to them. Naiad really did look so much better here. There was an iridescent shimmer to her scales that had been absent beneath the ground. Adaro, too, had a little glimmer of blue and green in the purple of his scales in the right light.
She was happy to see them— happy for them, too, but she couldn't keep her mind all the way there. This wasn't the last meeting she had to go to today, though the final one wasn't going to be as nice as this, she could bet.
"Frisk, sweetie, is something the matter?" Naiad's voice cut through her thoughts. She smiled gently. "Is it the veggies? It's alright if you don't like them."
"Oh, no no, they're great." Frisk realized, with hot embarrassment on her face, that she'd been nudging her food around with her chopsticks for a while. "S-Sorry."
Sans gave her a knowing look. She took a quick bite and Lari leaned over to gently grab her sleeve.
"What's your favourite surface thing, Frisk?" she asked.
"Um… Stars, I guess. And wind," she said.
"But you were up here before, right? Have you seen more? Like, from far away?" Adaro asked.
"I guess… Oh! The ocean's good. You guys should go there," she said.
"Ah, yes! I've always heard such wonderful things about it," Naiad said. "But, Frisk? Are you feeling okay?"
"Ah, it's just… I, umm…" She wasn't sure how to explain.
"Some treaty finalization thing with the humans tonight," Sans said. "She's worried because they've, uh, taken a bit of an interest in her."
"Oh? Eh… Why?" Flint asked with a blank look on his face.
"They think she's one of them." He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Nothin' they can do either way."
Frisk knew he'd been reading their laws ever since the first day they'd ever brought her up in their meetings with Asgore and Toriel. It wouldn't matter, she'd assured herself. Asgore'd declared her a citizen as soon as it was relevant to do so, and it wasn't like she even had a record of existing anywhere else. It'd be fine. Still, it put a knot in her stomach. It also didn't help that she'd been dreaming about a human coming in and dusting some people precious to her through some horrible misunderstanding. Not even her subconscious would let her thoughts go elsewhere.
"So what's that about, anyway?" Flint asked, a furrow in his heavy brow. "They lookin' for your folks?"
"It doesn't matter." Frisk almost had an edge to her voice— she couldn't help it. "Even if they do, I don't care and I don't want to see them."
Naiad smiled sympathetically. Sans didn't seem concerned. He took a swig of his drink.
"They won't find a thing." He sounded utterly confident.
The kid smiled slightly. That always made her feel better, even if she wasn't sure she believed it.
"Ah, don't worry." Flint waved his hand and smiled wide. "You're such a good kid! I'm sure everythin'll work out just fine for ya! Besides, don'tcha got all those superpowers? You'll be fine."
"Yeah!" Adaro agreed, grinning his bright, pointy teeth. "You're super tough! Doesn't matter what they do, you're a monster like us now! Even if you're not!"
They all seemed so earnest about it. Smiling at her like they believed in her with all their souls.
"Y-Yeah. Yeah. I guess you're right," Frisk said.
- - -
Lari had a new game she wanted to show off. It was funny to Sans how bright and enthusiastic that little rockram got around Frisk compared to her normally sheepish manner. It was even funnier to him that his kid was actually taller than that little monster— seemed, somehow, to be the older and more mature of the two. Maybe that wasn't a surprise, though. She was the shortest one in their house and she was still fiercely protective of everyone there, even if that sharp tone didn't come out unless someone mentioned the surface and some hypothetical missing family to her.
None of this distracted him, though. No, he'd been focused on the meeting with the human Ambassador for days, now. He was almost grateful that Asriel and Papyrus were currently occupied helping make something for Mettaton's party so he could focus on the emotional wellbeing of only one person, for now.
He wasn't worried— not really. He knew with every note of magic in his bones that nobody would ever find someone related to her in the human cities. He'd told her a dozen times: she was his sister. Even so, she still carried a lump of guilt in her sometimes, some misplaced, heavy thing that turned her stomach and made her fingers shake.
Sans watched over the kids for a little while until the time they told Asgore they'd meet him started to creep up on them. He excused them early, his eye kept closely on Frisk. She seemed in relatively good spirits despite everything, and wasn't bothered when he suggested walking the "town" a little. He used the excuse that he wanted to get a lay of the new roads. Not untrue— he couldn't shift himself well without knowing an area, and the patterns on the ground helped.
"S'nice, huh?" he said as they wandered. "How you feelin'?"
"Okay," she said. She had her hands stuffed in her pockets and she looked a little distant, but she smiled tepidly at him. "It's always nice to see them."
Sans nodded. Maybe it was a bad time to ask, but he'd been wondering ever since they'd started visiting the family. "Not too hard with Adaro?"
"N… No. Nah. I mean…" She smiled a little brighter, though there was sadness in her eyes. "He doesn't have a reason to hate me this time."
"Wasn't your fault back then," he said.
She shrugged. "I can see it his way, though," she said. "I mean… Okay, maybe this isn't, like, good for my brain, but I counted the days and—"
"I know. She went down a day before it did. It was rough."
"I know!" she said loudly. "Jeez, like, that would suck so much I can't even…! Ugh."
"Still wasn't right, what he said," Sans said.
"…Doesn't matter," she said. "Didn't happen."
The skeleton nodded. Frisk took a deep breath and then puffed it out as a sigh. Her shoulders slumped and she went quiet for a while.
Sans watched the kid closely. Her eyes were up and alert. It was like she was waiting for something. She walked like a wary cat.
There was one bus-stop in the area, coming off a dirt road at the edge of a tree line on the town's border. The only real link to the human world from here, connecting their newly made city-state to the nearest country. There was a small general store set up nearby, as well as the house of the only humans in town. They were an old, retired couple, insistent on spending their twilight years as far from the bustle of the big city as possible. They had certainly not chosen poorly.
The bus, painted a friendly pink and blue, was just up the road, in fact. Frisk paused and clung to her brother's sleeve, edging behind him slightly as it rolled up and wheezed to a halt at the wooden bus shelter near the tall, blue signpost. When all that offloaded was those old folks with armfuls of grocery bags and a busload of Tems, the kid relaxed slightly.
"Chill," Sans said.
"I'm trying," she whined. She let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged. She pouted and clenched her fingers into his sleeve, watching as the dozen Tems waddled swiftly into the general store like a fluffy tidal wave. Sans levelled his finger at the place.
"Want anything?"
"We just ate," she said.
"So?"
"And that's like, a million Tems, I'm gonna sneeze to death," she said.
He snickered and patted her on the shoulder. "Alright. Gimme a sec. Might get a bit hairy in there."
"Pffft." She folded her arms and held back asking him to hurry as he wandered off across the road.
After a minute, the bus rumbled and pulled forward past her to turn around and then was off, heading back to the human world, kicking up a spray of dirt behind it. Frisk crossed to the wooden bus shelter and took a seat to wait. Her feet dangled from the bench and she listened to the birdsong coming from the woods.
The sound of an engine soon rattled the air again and a bright orange sports car zoomed by, stopping just a little ways away with a screech. The kid bristled and leaned forward to put a foot on the ground, only sitting back when she saw a lumpy slime monster with eyes on stalks roll out of the back seat. A deer smoking a candy cigarette and a pink crocodile with shaggy red hair popped out of the front. The latter pulled out her phone and held it up to the car, where it sparkled, dissolved into glitter, and spiralled right into the tiny device.
The three teenage monsters aimed themselves back towards the mountain. The slime caught sight of Frisk with his wiggly eyes and twisted all the way around to wave. She'd never met him before— or any of them, for that matter— but she waved back. He bounced and nudged his friends. The crocodile stopped to look and then cupped her hands around her mouth as if to amplify her voice.
"HEY KID, THANKS," she shouted.
"Happy to help!" Frisk called back.
Seeming satisfied, the monsters continued on their way back towards the mountain. Frisk let out a sigh of relief and sat back on the bench. She didn't know why her nerves were so shot. If it had been humans, they probably wouldn't have actually bothered her, either. She'd have to remember that trick when they got Papyrus a car at the new house. They could maybe have a proper guest room instead of a garage-slash-guest room this time.
She peeked at the time on her phone. The meeting was soon, but still enough time to breathe in between. Maybe that was worse, though.
Heavy footsteps caught her attention, as did a gravelly laugh. She looked up to see an old turtle smiling down at her with yellowed teeth, a grocery bag slung over his arm.
"You youngsters, always with your nose in your phones," he teased. "Back in my day, we only had rocks to keep us busy!"
"Hey, Gerson," Frisk said. "What'd you do with those?"
"Threw 'em. Skipped 'em. Chewed 'em." He guffawed and sat down beside her, letting out an ancient wheeze and a chuckle. "How you been, kid? Likin' the sky? Hah! Guess it hasn't been that long since you seen it, right?"
"Guess not," she said. "I dunno. It's good. Everyone seems happy. How about you?"
"Mm. Well. Never thought I'd see it again, that's for sure," he said. "Didn't realize how much I wanted to. Saw your brother in the shop. Thought you hadn't moved out yet."
"Oh! We didn't," she said. "We're just visiting friends."
Gerson nodded. "Glad it all worked out how it did," he said.
"Me too," she said.
"Hey. I'd like t'ask ya somethin'," he said. "It's been on my mind for a long time. So. I know what you and the Prince did for us without actually seein' it. How's that work?"
Frisk smiled. "You know, you're the first person to actually ask me that?" She tented her fingers. “Long story. So, Sans has special memory magic. When Az took every monster soul to do the barrier thing, it sorta left, like, a small magic memory imprint on them. That’s normal, but with Sans’s magic, it helped everyone remember a little more, so they’d understand why we hoped we could get everyone to let him keep just a tiny piece of their souls. You know, so he could come back to life properly and stuff.”
"Aah, I see, I see." Gerson pulled a notepad from his jacket and nodded to himself. "I'm writin' a history book, see? I'd love to pick your little human brain about some of this stuff. I mean, heck, I saw some crazy things in the Before The Mountain Ages, but nothing like a tiny human kid bringing a dead prince back to life through the power of love and all that. And breaking a centuries-old spell in one go."
"It wasn't just me, it was a whole bunch of people," she said.
"And yet nothin' started until you got here." He smiled. "You're a weird kid, ain't ya? But you're a good egg. Thanks for humourin' this old coot."
The time-worn turtle creaked back onto his feet and stretched his old bones. He turned his head and raised his hand to wave at someone. Frisk leaned around him and saw Sans ambling back towards them. Her eyes instantly lit up. The monster patted her shoulder with a heavy hand.
"Might send a list of questions for ya to your mum," he said.
Frisk stuck her thumbs up and the old turtle went off slowly on his way. His new house wasn't in sight but Frisk knew that it was in a cave off the beaten path, at the edge of river that ran down from the mountain.
"Good chat?" Sans asked as he got close.
"Yeah, not bad," she said as she slipped off the seat. She sneezed and covered her nose.
"Whoops." Sans laughed and he took off his hoodie. He emptied the pockets into her hands— a bunch of candy bars— and then stashed it in the dimension box on his phone. "Hope you're not furry-ous."
She laughed and gently nudged him with her elbow. He patted her head and tilted his down the road. She nodded and followed him as he stared to wander. She shoved the candy into her pockets, but he instantly reached in and took one. He offered it to her. It was butterscotch flavour in chocolate. She took it gratefully.
"Feelin' any better?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I dunno. I guess?" She gnawed on the end of the chocolate bar. She broke off a piece from the other side and offered it to him, but he shook his head. "I dunno, I… Eh…" She pouted.
"Talk to me," he said.
"It's just whining, forget it," she said sheepishly.
"Oh, my favourite." He cut his eyes at her and grinned.
Frisk laughed tiredly and she rubbed the back of her head. "I… I guess I just wish… I wish I hadn't done whatever the heck I did that made them pay attention to me this time," she said quietly.
"You'll be okay," he said.
"Nuh-uh, I bet some weird important human is gonna show up with their dumb stuff and be like, oh, wow, a human, she should live with other humans, let's just cause trouble for no reason even though it's not like we cared when she did live near humans," she grumbled.
"They got nothin' on you," Sans said. "No laws say humans get to tell humans what to do because they're human. I checked."
"At least that's not garbage," she muttered quietly. "Ugh. What if I have to run away and go into hiding? W-Will you come with me?"
"Obviously." He shot her a grin. "Hey. You're gonna be fine."
"And what if some mysterious guy comes in and shoots everything up?!" she demanded.
"We just don't let a mysterious guy in," Sans said. "You'd recognize him? I know sometimes the dreams aren't great at faces, but…?"
"Um… I think I could," she said.
"Then you're good. Don't worry," he said. "Wanna go home until, uh…" He checked his wrist as if looking at a watch, though he didn't have one. "Well. We have a little time."
Frisk paused to consider it. Her face soured and she rubbed her eyes. "Shouldn't I do that math test?"
Sans snorted. "Why?" he asked.
"Because…! Because I… I should do something, right? I mean… I should try to keep up, right?" she insisted.
He shrugged. Frisk pouted.
"Um. H-Hey. Mom's not… mad at me, is she?" she asked softly.
"Pffft, no, course not, why?" Sans said with a laugh.
"Well, it's just… She wanted so much to do school stuff and now I…" She put a hand against her chest. Her heart was already fluttering uncomfortably. "I can hardly go."
"Hm. She didn't mention?" he asked.
"Mention what?"
"She was the one who suggested mostly homeschoolin' you for now."
"She was?" Frisk couldn't help but look taken aback. "Really?"
Sans nodded. All of a sudden, the scenery switched. There was rough rock beneath their feet and the view from high up on the mountain. He plunked down, dangling his legs off the edge. He patted the stone by his side and the kid slid over to sit down with him.
"She can see you wanna learn. But, uh, havin' trouble breathin' and pukin' your guts out isn't really helpful, huh?"
"Y-Yeah." She sighed quietly. "I'm really sorry. I didn't used to have all these problems."
"Well, I mean, can't really blame you, can we?" he said.
She shot him a confused look.
"You thought you were safe," he said, "and then had the whole world yanked from under you. That kinda thing isn't just gonna go away in a month or two, y'know? And then this extra crap, well…" He raised his brows.
Frisk's face flushed a little. She nodded and stared out over the edge, looking at the forest spread out beneath them. "Yeah, I guess it is kinda a lot," she admitted. "I never thought about it like that before."
Sans tapped the side of his skull and smiled. "So. Take it easy. School's important, but nobody said you gotta do it at any pace except your own."
"Or yours," she joked, grinning. "I kinda like that, actually, I feel like I actually always get what you're talking about." She gripped onto his arm again. She was kind of glad, truth be told. The more time she could spend with her brothers, the less anxious she felt. She looked up at him hopefully.
He laughed. "Really wanna do that math test, huh?"
She nodded. He smiled fondly and ruffled her hair.
"Alright. Jeez, so responsible," he said. "Guess we have time. Shouldn't be too long, it's for little kids, anyway."
"I am a little kid!" she said.
"Oh, perfect," he said.
He brought her home, pushed aside some books about geography, cooking, and ghosts, sat her at the side table in the living room with a hot chocolate, and tossed the worksheet Toriel had made in front of her. Pretty straightforward stuff. She was finished quickly; he wasn't surprised. He knew exactly how her brain worked, after all.
He plunked down beside her to check it over and she went back to her phone to wait. Asriel and Papyrus were posting photos from the plateau of the mountain, where the party was being held. Asriel, especially, was posting a decent amount of selfies with humans. They all thought he was adorable. The kid couldn't disagree. The stripes on his cheeks suited him.
She sat at the table, tapping her toe against the floor. Her fingers wandered to an old string of texts that kept, on her end, bouncing back. With a lump in her throat, she sent a quick message to an old friend, though, as she knew would be the case, it returned to her with a message that the account didn't exist. It had been the same for months, but that hadn't stopped her.
She tried her best to not look outwardly disappointed and started to browse Alphys's pictures to distract herself. She supposed she'd be up on the plateau soon, too, but for now, she was hanging out with Undyne in the woods, hiking leisurely back up the slope. They probably weren't too far from where she and Sans had just been. Alphys looked good in the sunlight. It gave her a healthy sheen to her scales. Undyne was just like Naiad and Adaro— her scales were iridescent up there, the dark blue shimmering with a little turquoise throughout, and just a tiny bit of red in on her upper arms, neck, and eyelids.
"Take a look at this," she said. She showed him the photo Alphys took of Undyne laughing under one of the waterfalls on the mountainside.
The spray made a faint, misty rainbow in the sunlight. He grinned.
"Pretty cool," he said. He put a final pen stroke on the test sheet and then tapped it with his fingertip. "Okay. Done. Wanna go over it now or later?"
"Now, I think," she said. "Did I do okay?"
"Mostly, yeah," he said.
"Mostly? Uh-oh," Frisk said.
Sans laughed. He pushed the test back to her and she saw he had circled red around some of questions at the bottom. Frisk felt a sinking feeling.
"Really? Those?" she squeaked.
"Welp. We didn't cover division yet," he said. "Guess they did in class, though."
"Division?" She tilted her head. "Um… I don't, uh…"
"I know. Sorry. Shouldda looked through this first. That symbol means division."
"What?! No way. I… I thought the printer just goofed up a plus sign," she said.
Sans laughed. "I figured. I'll give it to you. If it were addition, your answers would be right."
"Phew. But… B-But I don't know… division," she said quietly. "Do I…? Uhh…"
"Ah. Think I got it. I mostly used a kinda slash symbol instead, right? Same process, though." Sans put his chin on his fist thoughtfully for a few seconds. "What you wanna do is usually divide the first number by the second one. This ringin' any bells in there?"
"I… I think maybe I can get it?" she said hopefully.
"This one's easy, right? Six by two." He drew six dots on the paper. "Image that's candy or whatever. You're there with Papyrus. You wanna split it. How many do you each get?"
"Oh, he can have like, five, I only want one," she said quickly.
Sans laughed. "Sweet thought, kiddo, but in this hypothetical, you're goin' half and half. How many?"
"Oh! Easy, three," she said.
"Right. That's division," he said. "Six by two is three. Get it?"
"Ooooh. Okay. It's kinda like backwards multiplying!" Frisk's face lit up.
Sans grinned. He pointed to the next one. "Thirty six by three. So, thirty six candies, you, Paps, and Az, how many do you each get?"
"Twelve!" she said right away.
Sans wrote in the answer for her. "You're a natural, kid. Okay. Last one. Twenty nine by two."
"Um…" Frisk frowned for just a second. "F… Fourteen and… and a half? Is that right? Can there be halves?"
"Sure can. You got it," he said. He looked quite proud as he wrote in her final answer and gave her a perfect score. "Welp. Good job. I'm done as heck for today, you?"
She nodded.
"Thank god," he joked.
Another ten minutes of lazing, and it was time. Sans grabbed the kid and whisked her straight to Asgore's place. The stones and the ground outside it had started to regain the tiniest bit of colour saturation. It was the first timeline they'd ever seen anything like that. The inside of the house was similar. When they stepped in, they were instantly greeted with a hug from Toriel, who was tense despite trying very hard not to look it.
"Thank you for coming," she said. "This shouldn't be long."
She lead them into the living room where Asgore had a small desk set up near the fireplace. It boasted a large computer monitor with blinking, colourful lights on a metal panel on its side and a digital keyboard laid out before him. Currently, he was fiddling with some knobs on rim of the monitor. He turned in his spinning chair— like Alphys's but a few times larger— and shot them a big, fond smile.
"Howdy! I'm glad both of you are here! Frisk, it's so good to see you! I feel like it's been ages," he said. "We're just waiting for the human Ambassador to join us, now. Thank you so much for coming to, well, translate— for lack of a better word— if we need a little cross-species help."
"No problem," Frisk squeaked. She was never sure how helpful she could actually be, but Asgore seemed confident anyways. She pulled out a chair at the dining table and sat off to the side, out of view of the monitor but still able to see it clearly.
Sans patted her shoulder. She took a deep breath. It'd be fine, she told herself. Just a few more talks about borders and gold trades. Then it was done.
The first time this had taken over six months to finalize. Because of the whole monster thing and the lack of any real ability to gather resources from it, no human country really held claim to their mountain home in the current era. In fact, Frisk had learned that a monster kingdom called Annwyn had once been there. The name Mount Ebott, as their mountain had come to be called, was from monsters as well, coming from the name of a mysterious white dog that had, apparently, once lived there in bygone eras. Asgore had no desire to reclaim any lost territory, completely content with the mountain and the unclaimed miles around it. Easy.
Maybe it wasn't so bad, Frisk thought. At the same time as wishing she hadn't been seen, she was still, strangely, a little glad that she had been. Somehow, her talking with the grown-ups on the other side had reassured them of the monsters' peaceful intentions. That was worth her anxiety, wasn't it?
A pleasant chiming noise from Asgore's computer made her jump. Her focus shot to the screen as Sans slipped off towards the kitchen and Toriel positioned herself near the computer as well. Asgore hit a big green button and the whole monitor filled with the live video of a woman. She was probably in her mid-thirties, with a sharp but friendly face. She had jet black hair cut in a shoulder's length bob and pale skin, which made her dark, round eyes stand out brightly through a pair of reading glasses. Frisk had seen her before, though she didn't know her name.
The Ambassador smiled and bowed. "Hello, your Highness, it's good to see you again."
"And you!" he said. "Howdy! I would have thought you'd be at the party tonight."
The woman looked taken aback. "The party? But I… I wouldn't miss our meeting," she assured him swiftly.
"Oh, come on, we can always reschedule," he said. "I'm always around! But Mettaton's event is just for tonight! If you'd like to cut out early to go, please do! I won't be offended, I promise."
"Th… That's very kind of you. Either way, I don't think this should take very long," she said. "Can I assume Lady Toriel is here, too?"
"Yes! She's just off to the side here, as she would probably not fit in past my shoulders!" Asgore said with a laugh. "I also have my Royal Advisor around here somewhere… Uh…" He cast around, eyes roaming for the decidedly absent Sans. "Well! I can't see him at the moment, but he sort of slips in and out like that, I'm sure he'll catch everything."
"Perfect," the woman said. She looked down at some papers in front of her and then back up at him. "So. The issue with the borders is resolved— they'll be internationally recognized, and your proposal regarding the gold trade was well received."
"That's a relief!" he said.
"And have you decided if you plan on building a wall around your lands or not?"
"We did discuss it. I tend to think we have been walled off for too long, actually," Asgore said with a chuckle. "We may do something decorative. Maybe a hedge. Any word on Tideston's port usage?"
The Ambassador smiled and nodded. "They'd like your people to use passports, but otherwise it's a go," she said. "It'll all be listed in detail in the treaties. Aside from that, we're expecting our people will use ID as well, coming into your lands, is that right?"
"Sounds right to me." Asgore grinned. "That's wonderful. Could you send it along?"
"I was just about to suggest the same thing," she said.
She pressed a button somewhere on her side and something inside Asgore's computer buzzed. A blue button lit up, and as he pressed it, a slot opened in the front of the frame and spit out a stack of papers.
"You can take your time to look it over," the Ambassador said.
"I'll read it now," Asgore said. "Honestly! You should go to that party if you can get up there. It should be going all night. It's still early and the busses are still running."
"I might," she said earnestly.
Asgore took the papers in his big paws and knocked their bottoms against the desk to straighten them before laying them flat to read them. He hummed a gentle tune and followed the words along with his finger.
Toriel took a moment to move her chair closer to him and flipped her ears, her brow furrowing ever so slightly. Frisk could tell she was impatient to read it herself.
Asgore toddled through the documents contentedly for a few minutes. A visible bristling of his fur drew their attention and he straightened his back slightly. Toriel looked at him skeptically.
"Wait. Wait, what is…?" Asgore's face went slack-jawed and he looked up at the woman on the monitor with wide eyes. "I am sorry, but I can't sign this."
"Oh! I'm sorry!" She looked alarmed. "Is there something wrong?"
"Hang on. One moment." The big monster got up from his seat and Toriel grabbed his shoulder. He passed her the papers and winced. "Absolutely not."
Toriel snatched up the forms and her eyes shot across them quickly. She began to snarl and her ears pinned back. "That's my daughter!" she barked. "That. Is. MY. Daughter. They have no right—!"
"I know. I know, I know." Asgore raised his hands as if to calm her. "They don't. They…" He looked aghast all of a sudden. His eyes turned on Frisk as if he'd forgotten she was there.
Frisk's vision had long since tunnelled. Her heart was beating up in her ears. She felt like she might be sick.
"Your Highness? Are you there?" the Ambassador asked worriedly, tapping on the screen. "If we've offended, we apologize, but we need to discuss this."
"Oh, we'll discuss it alright," Toriel growled, folding her arms.
Asgore grabbed her paw in both of his and patted her gently. He sighed and returned to his seat.
"The provisions about the rehabilitation of the displaced human," he said. "I need them removed."
"Pardon?" The Ambassador looked perplexed. "What's wrong with them?"
"She's a citizen here. She has a home, a family, and a life, here," Asgore said. "She won't be leaving under any circumstances except by her own choice."
The woman seemed surprised. She drummed her fingers, at a loss for words. She shook her head. "We didn't know. I'm sorry. Of course, we'll send another draft. But…"
"But nothing." Toriel strode up with fire in her eyes. "You will remove it. You will not mention it again. And you will leave my daughter alone."
"Technically, you can't actually tell her what to do, anyway." Sans appeared behind them on Toriel's seat, a large, heavy book open on his knee. "Your, uh, human laws say you can't order her around outside your country if she's not a citizen. You guys don't have any record of her bein' one. I checked."
"Ah! O-Of course!" She shuffled through some papers, her eyes skimming them quickly. "Yes. Okay. That's fine. In that case, we would just like to send someone to talk to her."
"What for?! She's here, you can talk to her through the call," Toriel said.
"I'm sorry." The Ambassador did truly look apologetic. "That's what our policy says in the, um… Well. I guess they thought this situation would be a lot more unlikely than it, uh… I'm sorry." She put her hands up. "Don't worry, I will make this as painless and stress-free as possible."
"But, excuse me, if she was never a citizen of your country anyway…" Asgore said.
"It would be more to just confirm what your skeleton friend has said, in person. That we have no record of her," the woman said quickly. "It wouldn't take long. Just an hour or so. We'd only need passage for one human. It could be me, even, if you'd prefer. Would that be alright, your Majesty?"
Toriel snorted. She shot Asgore a cold look. He sighed.
"One moment, please," he said again. He got to his feet and gently pulled Toriel aside. "If it gets them to leave her alone…"
"We should not give them anything. They have no right," she said.
"That's… true. Um." He turned his eyes on Frisk and looked apologetic. "My child, I'm so sorry about this. I thought I made it clear…"
"M-Me too," she said.
"What d'you wanna do, kiddo?" Sans said. "Tell 'em to buzz off?"
Frisk did. She dearly wanted to tell them to never come here. She wanted to beg her family to stay under the mountain so no human would ever even see her again. But that was no solution. And if it was just the Ambassador, then that might not be so bad. The human she'd dreamt hadn't been a woman.
"…No. No." Frisk sighed. "Let someone come. I'll talk to 'em. Then they'll know they can just leave us alone for good about me."
"Are you sure?" Toriel said.
Frisk nodded. Her mother sighed and she nodded as well. Asgore wilted with relief. He returned to the monitor.
"Okay. One human," he said. "The child has agreed to the meeting with one human."
"Thank you so much, your Highness!" The woman's face lifted instantly and she smiled. She scribbled something quickly on her notes. "Would next week work?"
"Tomorrow," Toriel said.
The woman froze. "T… Tomorrow?"
"The sooner the better," Asgore agreed.
"We, um… That's so sudden. Would it be possible to compromise and do the day after?"
The King looked back at Toriel. Her eyes narrowed.
"C-Considering preparations and travel time is all, your Highness," the Ambassador said swiftly.
"Fine," she said. "No later. And after this, I don't want to hear of this nonsense again."
"We will do our very best," the human said with a shy smile. "Thank you. I'll bring the revised treaty as well and… And we should be good to go! Thank you." She bowed. "Is there anything else urgent or otherwise you'd like to talk about?"
"No. No, that's alright. Thank you," Asgore said.
The woman bowed again and disconnected the call.
The monitor buzzed and cranked out a transcript, like a receipt. Asgore heaved out a long, deep breath and massaged his brow. Toriel growled to herself and then hurried over to wrap Frisk in her arms.
"Nothing will happen," she said quickly.
"Y… Yeah," Frisk said.
"It'll be fine." Sans didn't look worried at all. He held up his large book for a moment and then tossed it onto the floor. "They wouldn't have a leg to stand on even if they did wanna try somethin' sketchy. And, to be honest, that human just kinda looked… I dunno, just sorta normal concerned? I mean, hell, it's not like they know how important you are, kiddo, they're not gonna be real eager to try to break a peace treaty over a human kid just livin' here."
"Y-Yeah. Yeah. You're right, bro," she said. "Yeah. Nothing to worry about." Even so, her chest was getting tight. Her vision was blurring at the edges and she was having trouble catching her breath.
"What's wrong?" Toriel asked gently.
Frisk felt words disappear down her throat. Sans stared at her for a moment and then sighed. He took her by the shoulders.
"I'll take her home," he said.
Before she knew it, Frisk was being plopped right on the couch back in Snowdin, and Sans sat with her, a hand on her head sparking with magic and his eye lighting up.
"It's okay. You're fine," he said. "Breathe deep, okay? In and out. Count it."
Frisk shakily nodded and did like he said. It took her a minute before she could force out a few words. "I… I f-feel like…"
"I know. But you're okay," he said. "Nothin' wrong with you, alright?"
She reached out for him and he cuddled her into a warming hug. She shook and closed her eyes to get away from the grey in her vision. She forced herself to take deep breaths until she wasn't being deafened by her own heartbeat.
"Sorry," she said quietly.
"Don't." Sans gently bonked his brow against her head.
"Wh-What if they find someone?" she asked.
"They won't," he said.
"B-B-But what if…?"
"Hey." He lifted her face and cupped her cheeks, staring into her eyes seriously. "Listen, okay? They won't find anyone. There's no one to find. You're my sister."
"Not even s-some weird distant cousin or—?"
"No. Nobody," he said. "I promise."
He looked so steady. She didn't understand how he could say that with such confidence. Even so, Sans didn't really make promises. She could count the times she'd heard him say that on one hand. He must've been serious, right? Frisk took a deep breath and she nodded.
"Okay. I trust you," she said.
"Good." He grinned and mussed up her hair. "Poor little nerd. Hey. You're gonna be fine. Besides. See how pissed Tori got? She won't let anyone sketchy get within a mile of you."
"Right," she said. "Y-Yeah. Besides. O-One human versus all of us, I think… I think we'd be okay."
"You bet," he said. "And don't forget. She breathes fire. And so does Az, y'know."
Frisk flopped backwards onto the couch and groaned, rubbing her eyes. She sighed deeply. "Hey, I didn't cry this time," she said tepidly.
Sans snickered. He got up and ambled off towards the kitchen. There was a clinking sound, a clunk, and water running. Then, the kettle softly bubbling. Frisk's blood ran cold.
"Sans," she said. "Mom has that conference on the weekend. And… And Az was gonna stay at Asgore's, so… H-He won't be here either."
She heard him clunk something onto the counter. She knitted her fingers and clenched them nervously. He let out a long, deliberate hmm.
"She'll skip it," he said.
"I… I don't want her to," she said. "Not just for me, as… as long as one of you is here…"
Sans sighed. "I'll tell Undyne to escort the human either way, then."
"Thanks, bro," she said. "It… It'll be fine. Right?"
"Course it will," he said.
Frisk sighed. She felt a weird roiling inside her. Her face got hot. "Oh. Oh no."
"What?" Sans asked.
"Aaaaactually might need to puke, um…" She ran out the door as quick as she could.
Sans picked up the trail of her footsteps out in the snow, but could find her just by the awful retching sound she was making. He rounded the corner to the house, going just barely around to the back before he paused and put his back to the wall, giving her a little privacy.
"Here if you need me, kiddo," he said.
She might have mumbled a thank-you, but it was quiet and shrill in between deep breaths. She was muttering something. Cursing, maybe.
"That bad, huh?" he said.
"Uuuugh…" It took almost another whole minute, but she wobbled over to join him, looking dazed and embarrassed. There was a little red flickering in her irises. "It, um… It was that… black stuff again."
"Yeah? Jeez. Sorry," he said. "You okay?"
She nodded. He grabbed the kid around the shoulders and plunked her back into the house where she had been trying to rest before.
He brought over a glass of water and some hot chocolate for her, then dragged a blanket around her to warm her up. She drank slowly. She didn't feel nearly as bad after that.
"You are just havin' a garbage day, huh, kiddo?" he said sympathetically.
"Could be worse," she said with a weak shrug and a smile.
He patted her head and flopped down lazily beside her. She grabbed him and curled up at his side.
They watched TV in a lethargic heap. He grabbed her purple comb and brushed her hair for a while; she almost fell asleep despite her anxiety.
Sans's phone buzzed from somewhere inside the couch. Took him a minute to find it, only to see it was Toriel. He answered.
"I. Am. Furious," she grumbled.
"Hey, Furious, nice to meet ya, I'm Sans," he said.
"…Pffft…" Toriel sighed. She let out a small, quiet laugh. "I needed that. Is she okay?"
"Puked black slime again, otherwise, sure," he said.
"My poor girl…" she muttered. "Alright. So. I'll cancel my trip and I'll—"
"Better not," he said.
"What?" She sounded baffled.
"She said she didn't want anyone to change their plans. And Paps and I will be here. Won't be too bad. I'll get Undyne, it'll be like a dumb party or something."
Toriel was silent for a few seconds. Frisk caught Sans's eye and looked at him certainly. He shrugged slightly.
"Ah… Would it be easier…? If I was not there?" Toriel asked. "I have to admit. I might start a fire or two if I am."
"That'd be hilarious, but it's not about that," Sans said.
"Yes. Yes, I know. She knows it wouldn't actually be a bother, right? She is not a bother," she said. "Tell her that?"
"Will do," he said. "Comin' home?"
"Soon, hopefully. We have a few more things to go over." She sounded tense. "Thank you, Sans."
"Mhm. See ya." He hung up and then leaned over to Frisk. "You hear that?"
"Y-Yeah," she said. Her cheeks flushed and she nestled up with him, exhausted. "Thanks, Sans."
Frisk hadn't hoped for reprieve through her dreams as she dozed off, but she certainly didn't expect to see what she did. The CORE. Blazing and churning a stark, hot orange, so bright in places it hurt to look at.
There was black ooze globbing down onto the rocks from somewhere, as if seeping from the heat-thickened air itself. She felt a sudden pain so intense that everything went numb and cold as if to cope. As the pool began to thicken, a hand that wasn't hers pulled itself out of the sludge. It was a skeleton hand, moving as if it belonged to her, in tandem with thoughts that were her and yet weren't. She had barely enough wherewithal to think about how weird a dream it was as she was carried along in this form that wasn't hers.
The bony fingers gripped tight into the rock and, shaking and rattling, arms aching as she weakly heaved herself out of the sludge. She desperately gasped for air, feeling an anxious pressure everywhere— sluggish, heavy heat passing through an open ribcage. Her vision fogged and she clunked impotently onto her side until a wave of nausea overcame her. She struggled up onto her knees and wretched. More of that pitch slime poured out and it was instantly a relief.
She coughed and heaved voicelessly and clattered back onto the stone, then tried to get an arm under her body to shove herself upright. She saw more bones. Bare leg bones. There was a long, shallow gash carved out of one. It was worth it, for some reason.
She became disoriented suddenly. The dream shifted into colours and then darkness. Heat and cold, and more strange black, ooze. When her eyes refocused, she was heaving back that door to the inner CORE and stumbling back out onto cool, hard tiles. The CORE thrummed deep behind her, but the only other sound to break a silence was the clack of bones against the smooth floor. The next thing she knew, she was clawing her way into an ancient locker, shivering and chattering. Her fingers locked into thick material of an old, tatty leather jacket.
Frisk woke with a start, surrounded by fluff and a smell of fresh popcorn. It took her a moment to process that Asriel was snuggling her groggily. The room was dim, making the TV stain the place with coloured light that was a bit harsh on her eyes. She looked up as her brother yawned wide, showing his big fangs before smacking his lips sleepily and rubbing his heavy eyelids. He had almost nodded off.
"When'd you get back?" she said with a tired smile.
He jolted slightly and then looked down at her with a sympathetic grin on his face. "Little while ago. Hey. You okay?"
"Kinda." She shrugged and sat up a little, rubbing her eyes. "I think I had a really weird dream."
"Our kinda weird?" he asked.
"Nnno, I don't think so," she said. "I was like, a weird skeleton puddle or something and then I went to get a coat because I was cold even though there was lava, I think."
"Pffft, okay, that is weird," he said with a laugh. "Glad it wasn't that other one again."
"You didn't wanna stay for the party?" she asked.
"Nah. I'm beat," he said. "Besides. I heard from parents that you had a pretty rough time, huh? I gotta set anyone on fire?"
"No, no no, it's okay," she assured him quickly. "It's just… It's stressful. But it'll be okay. Is, um…? Is mom still mad?"
"She's super pissed," Asriel said. "They're going through every letter of every contract thing, she said. Just to make sure."
"Waste of time," Sans said from somewhere. "They're not tryin' some underhanded thing, they just made a real stupid mistake."
"Hope you're right," Frisk muttered.
"I'm totally right," Sans said.
Frisk sighed. She couldn't get that nagging doubt out of her head. She settled back against the cushions and tugged a blanket up more tightly around her shoulders. Asriel flicked on the TV and turned the volume low. There were cameras on Mettaton's party. It was lively and the stars were bright. Frisk sat up slightly. Papyrus, in blue, was way off in the background as Mettaton spoke straight to the camera about something.
"Saaaaans, Papyrus is on TV," she said.
"Nice." He was beside them instantly on the arm of couch. He leaned forward curiously. "Huh. That outfit looks kinda familiar."
"People actually came expecting to meet the famous actor who played Cooper the skeleton. Weird, huh?" Asriel joked. "Seems like Mettaton always has that outfit on him, somehow."
Sans snickered. He rested his chin on his fist. "Got some humans there, too, huh?"
"Yeah, a couple," Asriel said. "Some of them brought food so that's going to be, um, interesting tomorrow for a few people."
"You didn't eat any, did you?" Frisk asked.
"Pff, no, no way," he said with a laugh. "Didn't have time, anyway. No, I just, like, spent all my time making cauldrons of popcorn for… who knows why, actually."
"Mettaton's weird," she said.
It wasn't too long before both the kids had fallen asleep again, despite the commotion and flashing fireworks on the TV screen. Sans didn't mind. He took them upstairs to tuck them into the second bed they'd shoved against the wall opposite the race car. Asriel stirred— just barely— for a moment. The green in his eyes was shining and he clutched Frisk with a shiver in his grip. His fur was standing on end all along the back of his neck. Sans put a hand on his head and one blazing eye shot up to stare into him.
"Chill," he said. "You're home. And look, you got hands and everything."
Asriel's gaze darted over his own body. He slumped. "Thanks," he muttered. The glow dimmed and he collapsed in a heap. He mumbled something into his pillow. His soul and Frisk's flared faintly red in the dark.
"You're alright. Sleep well, huh?" Sans slipped off, turning the lights out and gently closing the door.
He took the couch and proceeded to do basically nothing for a long while, skimming a tattered old car magazine inside the cover of a joke book intermittently mixed with almost dozing off, until Papyrus burst into the house, looking around frantically. Sans pointed upstairs. The tall skeleton took the flight two at a time.
"She's asleep," Sans said.
"I need to see her though, I'll be quiet," he insisted. "Sans. Nothing bad will happen, right?"
"Course not, bro," he said.
Papyrus nodded quickly, though he was gripping his hand, thumb nervously running over a scar that wasn't there any longer. He rushed into the bedroom and was gone. Sans supposed he must've already heard all about it.
He came back shortly after, a determined look on his face. He grabbed Sans's shoulders tightly. "Tell me, honestly, do we need to go on the run?"
Sans laughed. "What? No."
"They can't have her," he said.
"They won't," Sans said.
"Did I tell you? Honestly? This is my worst secret fear," he said quickly.
"Paps. Don't worry. She's our sister."
"Yes, but THEY don't know that!" he said shrilly, gesturing wildly to an imaginary human. "And… And! Even though she definitely has my stylish, cool looks, what if they think she looks more like them than she looks like us?!"
"It doesn't matter," Sans said. "They can't do anything."
"Are you SURE?!" Papyrus said.
"Unless they wanna start a war, then, yeah," he said.
"But what if they do?! What if they love wars?! What if wars are their absolutely number one favourite thing?!" he demanded. "Frisk is the most special and important human in the whole world so—"
"Not to them, she's not," Sans said. "She's some random little kid. Don't worry so much, okay?"
"…Okay. Okay, fine." Papyrus sighed. He ran his hand over the top of his skull. "What. A. Mess. I'm going back up. I will read them a story or something."
"Good plan, bro," he said.
Papyrus gripped his hands with each other tightly, locking his fingers together, unable to keep the anxiousness from pooling shadows around his eyes. He sighed. He bounded back up there and vanished.
When Toriel arrived a while later, a concerned, curious look on her face, Sans pointed up the stairs again. The large monster seemed to deflate as a sigh left her.
"She managed to get to sleep? What a relief," she said. "Any more episodes?"
"Nope," Sans said. "Just the one."
"Thank god," she said. She puffed out another sigh. "I was about to roast Asgore, let me tell you. But… There was nothing hinting at this in the previous documents, so… It wasn't his fault. Of course. He wouldn't risk her like that."
"Sure wouldn't," Sans said.
She smiled at him fondly. She sat down beside him and her eyes traced to the door and she stared for a little while. Her ears perked. "Papyrus is snoring." She laughed softly. "I guess he decided to stay with them. He's so good."
"You know it," Sans said.
Toriel leaned back and rubbed her face with her palms. Sans smiled sympathetically. She looked exhausted, too. Drained. Couldn't be easy, any of this.
"I told her the same thing," he said, "but they won't find anything."
"Can't guarantee anything," she said reluctantly.
"Sure can," Sans said. "They won't."
"I wish I had your confidence, sweetie," she said.
"Trust me," he said.
"I do," she assured him.
He smiled. She went quiet, looking like she had words on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't quite spit out. She grimaced.
"She did her math test," he said.
"Really? After all that?" she asked. "Silly girl…"
"Aced it," Sans said. "Kid's got a calculator head. And I'm pretty sure it's not from me."
Toriel chuckled quietly. She hesitated with something more to say again. She bit her lip and crossed her arms tightly to her chest.
"Grillby's?" Sans suggested.
"Oh. I don't know." Her eyes sparked in a way that said she dearly wanted the reprieve. "Should we? I mean. The kids are—"
"Just fine," he said.