Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Undyne closed the door to Sans’ room.

Another day, another failed attempt to get a word out of Sans.

Three days ago, he had vanished in the middle of their volleyball game, after taking a hard hit from the ball in the forehead. (Undyne admitted she may have played too hard.) But he was gone for hours. Soon, they all became worried, Frisk had told them he would be gone for a while. He had a thing to do, they had said. Everyone had shrugged it off. Sans was Sans, after all. It was always difficult to get him to tell them anything he was doing without turning it into a joke or changing the subject completely. That was just who he was.

But then he came back. Just like that, he was suddenly standing there. And he looked awful. His jacket was ripped in so many places, and there were cuts and bruises across his skull. With blank eye sockets, he stood there looking at them like he hadn’t seen them in years, and Undyne thought she could see a tear roll down his cheek. He held a locket in one hand - Frisk’s locket - which he dropped to the floor. Everyone stood frozen, watching Sans in shock and horror. Before he fell onto both his knees and began to cry. It was the first time Undyne had seen true sadness on his face and not just lazy amusement.

Since then, he spent all of time laying on his bed, unresponsive to anything anyone said to him. He hadn’t spoken a single word since then. He wouldn’t say where he got his injuries, where he had been, or anything. Frisk would wring their hands in anxiety when someone would go to check up on him. Papyrus, being the wonderful monster that he was, hardly ever left Sans’ side. Toriel had brought him food regularly, but more times than not, the plate would return to the kitchen completely untouched.

It seemed he did nothing but cry during random periods in the day.

Undyne had tried to coax him into talking, even raising her voice at one point, but he had watched her rant as if he were a zombie. It’s like he didn’t hear a word she said, lost in his own little universe. It was hopeless. She just wish he didn’t stay that way too much longer, and then maybe they’d get some answers out of him.

Just as she began to walk away from his bedroom, she heard the door creak and turned to see Sans, cautiously stepping outside. He looked at her with a blank expression on his face.

“Undyne…?” he cautioned, stepping out of his room. His voice was rough and cracked, either from not speaking or from his tears. Probably both.

“Are you finally gonna tell us what happened?” she asked with resentment in her voice. She didn’t understand why he never told them anything. Always costing them so much stress. It was selfish, in a way.

Sans let out a dry chuckle. “I… I don’t know if I could. Personally, I don’t know everything that happened. I’d be talking for hours.”

Undyne sped up to him and grabbed him by both shoulders, startling him. “Well then start talking, dammit! We’re you’re family. We’re always gonna have your back, you crazy little shit! I know I come off as uncaring, but I do care, Sans. I care a lot. We ALL care a lot. So are you gonna keeping whining and hiding all by yourself, or are you gonna tell us who the fuck hurt you so we can go kick their sorry ass??”

Sans gave her a smile. “I appreciate the support. But this… what I just faced. This isn’t like a fistfight in the street. This is a more… universal problem, you could say.”

Undyne gave him a look. “Universal?”

He sighed and looked down at the ground. “All those people… all those timelines… they’re all gone. Oh my god…”

“Hey, hey!” Undyne said, raising her voice and thunking him over the head. “Don’t you get all boo hoo on me! Can you-”

“THEY'RE ALL DEAD! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM BECAUSE OF THAT BACKSTABBING TRAITOR! DON’T YOU SEE?” He yelled through his tears, causing Undyne to reel back in shock. “THIS ISN’T SOME GAME, LIKE THEY SAY IT IS. I JUST WITNESSED THE DESTRUCTION OF COUNTLESS WORLDS, COUNTLESS TIMELINES, COUNTLESS CIVILIZATIONS. THEY’RE. ALL. DEAD!!!”

He shrieked the last word, causing Toriel, Alphys, Papyrus, Frisk and Asgore to make themselves present at the end of the hall. Meanwhile, Sans had sunken to his knees, beginning to sob again. Undyne looked behind her at her friends for help, but they looked just as saddened and confused as she.

Sans looked up to all of them with anger on his face. “We are all in great danger. The very ground your standing on could be ripped away from you any minute. Maybe they only left this place alone because it was the original. Maybe Cross Gaster’s just waiting for the opportunity to strike. But he and Ink - they’re erasing everything. Everything is going to be ripped away, and we will all just be little pieces of extra code for their ‘game’.”

He glanced at each one of them, reading the fear and panic in their eyes. “I couldn’t protect all those other universes. Ink and Error were too strong. But maybe… maybe I can find a way to protect you.”

Toriel stepped forward. “My friend, you’re not making any sense. Please, sit down and tell us everything. We’ve been desperate to know what’s been troubling you.”

Sans looked to each pair of eyes before closing his own and sighing, standing up. “Well, I suppose we have time,” he said, dusting himself off and wiping his cheeks dry. “Actually that’s a lie. We could be obliterated from existence any second. I have no idea what they’re planning for me, or for us, but what I do know…

“Is that this is far, far from over.”

Chapter Text

Stretch took a drag from his cigarette and leaned back in his chair, looking at Classic with a raised brow bone.

“Which one is the cranberry juice, and which one is Rage? And no holding the glasses up to your face to see how they make you feel - that’s cheating and we both know it.”

Ever since learning of the true nature of Ink’s vials, game night in the multiverse got a lot more interesting. Ink had insisted that absolutely no one was to touch the vials of emotion he had on his sash or stored at his place, or else there would be massive consequences. Naturally, nobody listened. Especially Stretch.

“Where did you get Rage from? I thought Ink had that one safe guarded?”

“Oh, he did.” Stretch said, looking at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression - he was definitely high. “But I go where I want.”

Classic stared at him for a few moments, before sighing and looking at the two glasses of red liquid. One would taste like cranberries. The other would probably make him punch a hole in the wall.

Red, who had been spectating from the sofa, piped in while Classic was thinking.

“Go for the one on the left!” He hollered.

Classic turned around to face him. “Why?”

“Because! Last time Stretch made me play, I took the ‘lemonade’ on the right and became so high on raw ecstasy that I was vibrating in the corner of the room with a stupid grin on my face. I missed out on spin the bottle.”

“That’s your problem not mine!” Classic called back to him as Stretch popped an edible in his mouth. “It’s a 50/50 chance, so… I’m going to take the one on the right, just to piss you off.”

Red grumbled and sunk down into the pillows on the sofa, complaining about how he never got taken seriously and switching the TV channel to a war hero movie, much to Blue’s dismay. Steven Universe had been on previously.

On the other side of the room, Razz, Swipe and Fedora sat facing each other, making a half circle around the dinner table. There used to be a vase as a centerpiece, but that was shoved aside to make way for their gambling. They always played poker or blackjack on game nights by themselves - and they got along pretty well, seeing as all three were con artists in some way. Each match would usually end in a tie and an argument - it's hard to play a fair game when every member hides aces up their sleeves

Fedora slid a stack of coins towards the middle of the table. “Razz, I bet you 50G that the one on th’ right’s the Rage.”

“Tch. And how would you know that?”

“Pal, Stretch is a clever bastard. He knows exactly what gold tooth over here will say and exactly how Classic would react. He said his brownies tell him the future. I think it’s total hogwash, but he hasn’t been wrong in selecting what’s on the right and left. Every single time I’ve watched, whoever’s Stretch’s victim is ends up going marbles with whichever emotion he managed to snag from Ink.”

Fedora rolled his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other, watching his two opponents look at each other with shifty eyes as the both slid extra cards into their deck.

Swipe tossed a brown pouch of gold into the center of the table, and kicked his feet up. “Didja ever stop to think that maybe he spikes both drinks? Geez, I thought you were a con man, can you not even pick up on how basic trickery works?”

“Oh shut the hell up.” Fedora drawled, rolling his eyes with a puff of his cigar. “Do you twats even watch the game? Stretch always drinks the leftover. And so far, he’s been fine every time.”

“I don’t know how he does it…” Razz grumbled, clicking his high heels against the wooden floorboards. “I wish my brother was as interesting as him. Mutt is just liability to me, honestly.”

He stared at his hand of cards in thought, before confidently laying down an ace of spades and immediately getting tackled by Swipe, knocking over a couple of the extra chairs. Fedora casually began going through his cards as the other two tumbled around on the floor, grunting and throwing punches at each other.

“Could you little sleazebags NOT DO THIS EVERY TIME!” Red roared, baring his teeth at them. His request went unanswered, as Swipe and Razz kept wrestling each other and Fedora ignored him altogether.

Red began rolling up his jacket sleeves to joint the scuffle when he felt a tug on his shoulder. It was Blue, and he was giving Red a very disapproving look.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He said with an exasperated tone. Red looked at the tiny monster and laughed.

“What are ya? My mom?” Red asked, poking Blue on the tip of his nasal cavity. “I can handle myself, pipsqueak. Now go back to watching yer stupid cartoons and scram.”

Blue didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. “Number one, I’m literally the same age as you, number two, Steven Universe is one of the most well written cartoons in history with a brilliant underlying story and deep characters, and number three, Classic is about to explode. I wouldn’t add to the already imminent chaos.”

“What?”

Blue pointed to where Stretch and Classic were having their game. One empty glass was sitting on the table next to Classic, while Stretch was in the middle of downing the other glass. The whole room slowly fell silent as Stretch chugged the red liquid. Even Razz and Swipe stopped tugging at each other’s skulls to watch the outcome.

Stretch slammed the glass onto the counter so hard Red was surprised it hadn’t cracked, and gave them all a big smile with ever so slightly red stained teeth. “Y’know, cranberries just have to be my favorite fruit,” he said, hamburger grin growing as Classic, who hadn’t looked up from where he sat, began to clench his fists.

“Oh shit,” Red managed to say, before Classic slammed both of his forearms onto the table and stood up, seething.

“YOU GODDAMN CHEAT!” screamed Classic, with fire in his eyes, leaping like a pouncing lion across the table towards Stretch. With a lazy and somewhat amused expression, Stretch casually teleported to the other side of the room, allowing Classic to grasp at thin air and tumble to the ground. Stretch watched him with a lazy smirk.

Classic leapt to his feet, breathing heavily through his teeth, looking around the room, eyes wide and crazy. Red took a small step back, and all the gamblers looked to one another in fear.

Classic shrieked again, gripping his skull. “I’M SO FUCKING MAD RIGHT NOW AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY!!” He turned to a toaster oven on the kitchen counter, and hurled it across the kitchen floor. Stretch watched it fly and skid to a halt across the floor. It was completely dented.

“Guess I’m gonna have to buy a new toaster.” he said, taking another drag. Unfortunately, that comment alone was enough to push Classic over the edge. With a yell of fury, he took a running leap at the tall skeleton, only to be effortlessly snagged out of the air by his hoodie.

Classic flailed around in the air furiously, trying to free himself from Stretch’s hold while spewing every insult he could think of out of his mouth. He was in too much of a rage to realise how easy he could free himself by slipping out of his jacket. He kept reaching his arms up to try and grab Stretch’s hand, or swing his feet and gain momentum to kick him, but Stretch was simply too large for any Sans of his height to compete with.

“Papy, let him go…” Blue pouted from the couch. “Why do you always have to torment them after they take a vial?”

“Because.” Stretch said, more focused on his cigarette than Classic, still going out of his mind to be free from Stretch’s hold on his jacket hood. “I don’t want to have to go out and replace everything in my house. I quite like the dishwasher we’ve got right now.”

“THEN I’LL BE SURE THAT’S THE FIRST THING I GO FOR!” Classic screamed, now attempting to bite Stretch's baggy orange hoodie sleeve.

“My point exactly,” Stretch sighed, attempting to re-light his cigarette with one hand.

Click.

Classic immediately stopped struggling and whipped his head around to see Red snapping a picture with his smartphone. He threw his head back and laughed, gold tooth shining bright under the ceiling light.

“Oh my God. Classic,” He said in between obnoxious, wolfy laughs. “This is DEFINITELY going to be my new wallpaper. Wait til’ I show Ink who took his vials!” He doubled over and fell onto the couch, wheezing so hard he couldn’t breathe. Blue, standing over the couch, poked him in the side a couple of times, testing to make sure he was okay, before giving up and going to sit back in an armchair by the TV.

When Red finally looked up, he glanced at the gamblers quickly before doing a double take. All three pairs of eyes were wide with fear, eyelights being reduced to mere specks in their sockets. Confused, Red followed their gaze, turning to look at Classic and feeling his non-existent stomach drop.

A large blaster skull was floating in midair, large and menacing, with twisting horns spiraling a good length behind its head. And It was looking directly at Red. Stretch, for the first time that night, actually looked rather frightened as Classic’s left eye began trailing a light blue flame. The beastly skull slowly opened its jaws, and a sphere of bright light began building in between the jagged teeth. Red yelped like a scared puppy and dove out of the way as the high pitched whine grew bigger and bigger.

And that’s how game night ended early and a massive hole was blown through the entire left side of Stretch’s house.

Ink had a few words with them all after that.

Chapter Text

“Sometimes. But I don’t go to crazy.” -Classic

“IS THAT FRENCH FOR CANDY?” - Papyrus

“I used to smoke. Mostly for show. Then Boss started screaming ‘bout second-hand smoke that he watched on stupid health documentary. Needless to say, he got me outta the habit pretty quick.” - Red

“It would ruin my voice! How am I supposed to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies if I sound like swallowed a bag of rocks??” - Edge

“Eh, I tried one of Papy’s cigarettes once. It tasted like it could’ve been my dead next door neighbor’s dust.” - Blue

“Weed. Eat weed. Smoke weed. Breathe weed. It’s good for the mind. I make pot brownies, and occasionally they speak to me. Very insightful.” - Stretch.

“Absolutely not. Those are for plebeians.” *takes sip of red wine* - Razz

“Cigarettes are for babies. Cigars are where it’s at.” - Fedora

“Why should I care? Oh right I don’t. How much will you pay me for this?” - Swipe

“DØ I ŁOÒK LÏKË Į HÆVĒ TĮMĖ FÕR DRÜGŠ??¿?” - Error

“Um...don’t do them???” - Ink

“I...I honestly don’t know what to say. I don’t know anything on this matter.” - Dream

“I’m down. As long as someone out there is suffering on them.” - Nightmare

“Totally unradical! Don’t do ‘em, my ultimate broski, they’ll kill yo brain faster than I can!” - Fresh

“Um.” - Cross

“Nah officer, it’s ‘Hi, how are you?’” - Epic

“Hm… seen it, but I honestly don’t like them. It throws off my persona so much, you know~?” - Violet

*Unintelligible, horrified screeching noises* - Life

“Dude though, like all of the pot. All of it. Shove it in your skull. I’m telling you, it hella speaks.” - Stretch again, but this time extremely high.

Chapter Text

Error is one of the most feared beings in the multiverse. He has destroyed countless universes without a hint of remorse, and has an incredible amount of power at his literal fingertips. He has tortured these broken timeline’s residents, turning brother against brother and friend against friend, making them his twisted puppets. He has Levels of Violence that make Dust and Killer envious, and hangs the souls of his victims across the ceiling like a nice decoration. One look at his mismatched eyes and psychotic smile could send anyone backing away, terrified for their lives.

However, once you get to know him on a personal level, such as Ink has over the several centuries they had been around, a few things come to light that had never been noticed before.

Error is… extraordinarily petty. Like, really petty. Ink must have watched him have five anxiety attacks just over how he should position his scarf in the last week. The place where he calls home, a small pocket in time-space, is meticulously clean. Not a crumb of food could sit on the floor without Error immediately noticing it and picking it up. He even has the souls of his victims that dangle from strings, both human and monster, organized in alphabetical order. (Ink asked him about this once, and Error simply responded with a “don’t touch them.”)

Needless to say, he was kind of a big baby when it came to small stuff. It was lucky that Ink was willing to help him along when he got out of hand. Like now, for instance.

“H͡O͏W ͝D̶O̵E̡S̸ THIS̷ ͜EVE҉N ͞HAP͡PEN??̶” Error shrieked, gripping his skull. If he had hair he’d be tearing at it. Ink watched him hyperventilate, extremely bemused.

“Look, it’s not a big deal. You’re making the issue seem way worse than it actually is.”

“OH, ͜I’M̸ ͝MA̧KING U҉P ̡T̶H͟E P͞RO͠BLE͝M?? I͢T҉’͘S N̡OT̵ TH͠AT̛ B̴IG ̴OF A ̷DEA͘L͏????” Error shouted, advancing on Ink. Ink simply nodded his head, making Error tense up, eyelights going blank. He began to twitch in a few places.

“T͘H͠EN̛ ҉W̕H͟A̕T̵ ͟D͟O Y͟OU ̢CAL̡L ͜T̕HA̵T?” He protested, flinging his arm behind him to bring attention to the ghastly object.

“I call it a fruit punch stain on your sofa.”

“T̛HĄT ̶C̢O͟ULD P̸O̧T͡E̴N̢TIA͜LLY͜ BE̡ THERE͘ FO̷ŖEVER͢!͡!” Error screamed, turning away from Ink and stomping towards his couch. He looked at it for a few moments, seething with anger. It was a simple couch, and a small reddish stain, contrasting its bright white color, made a little mess in the corner of one cushion. It could be fixed with a simple dry cleaning.

Error did not see it as such, wrapping the furniture in blue string and hurling it across the room. Ink narrowly avoided being crushed to death by a sofa. For the guardian of the multiverse, that would be an interesting way to go.

Ink started pushing himself off the ground, still breathing heavily as adrenaline coursed through him. He looked at the glitch with wide and angry eyes.

“WHY THE HECK DID YOU DO THAT?” Ink yelled, dusting himself off and straightening his sash. “You. Are. INSANE!!”

Error was too busy pacing back and forth to listen to Ink, obviously deep in thought.

“Error…?” Ink asked.

“U̖̺͖ͥ̉̑̊̄R̙ͦ̇͟G̢͍͕͎̀̄̓̒ͪH̀҉̩̩͇̭̻͎!͇̊͊̐̓ͯͧ̚ͅ!͚͕̣͕̬͡” Error screamed again. “D͞o ̨y͡ou e̡v̴e͝n k̴no̴w̢ ͏h͏ow̸ much͝ th͏i͏s S̨C̡REW͝S͝ UP ͡my҉ ̛c͟a͟lc̸ula̸t͟įon̕s͝? No͝w̢ I҉’͏m g̷o̴ing to ̷need̴ a̸ new ͝s̵ofa, ͞e̛xac͞t̷l͏y̡ ̴48 inc͠he͢s̵ ̸l͞o̕n̨g, it ͝h̶as to͏ line up͠ wit̸h ̷t̛he gri̧d I̶’̢ve ̕app҉l̡i͝e̛d ̵i͝t t͘o, ̴an̢d it ha͟s t͜ơ b͞e cr͝e͜a͡m w̧h͢it͠e an̢d͘ t̶hre҉e҉ feet̴ ̕ta͏ll ̵a̶n͡d ͞H̷E͝Y ͠DO̴N’T ̢T̵O̢U͘C͡H ̴I͜T!”

Ink levitated the couch back to its original position in Error’s room. The couch, encased in rainbow colored magic, was gently dropped onto the ground, while Ink walked over to where the sofa was placed, despite Error’s constant string of insults in Ink’s name.

With a deep sigh and an eye roll, Ink grabbed his paintbrush from where it sat on his back and made a quick simple stroke across the couch, with a white looking paint on the bristles.

Error, more curious than aggressive now, angrily waddled over to where Ink was and looked at his couch cushions. They were perfectly spotless, and the stain was nowhere to be found

Error looked at it quizzically and tapped where the stain used to be for a few moments while Ink watched him, waiting for his reaction. Eventually, Error groaned and flopped onto the couch, pulling a blue patchwork blanket out of thin air. He wrapped himself up and turned away from Ink, nestling himself in between the cushions.

“T̻̻̩̬̲̖h̭ạ̻̻̩̲̭̹n͇͓k̰̞s̲̠̘̘ ̰͍̗̝̹̯͓l̖̜̪̣̣o̜̖s̝e̱̹r͉̤͔̘͍.̱̱͍̟͚͈ ̣͖͍̝N̜͓o̝͙͉͉̥̖w̻̖̠̤̯ͅ ̯̞̹s̯̝͈͇̞̜c̜̜͎̻̬̯r͚͎̯a̲͚̗m̯͔.̮̫̗ ̩̙͉̯̭I ̹͈̙̺̯n͖̜̠e̻͉̥e̳d̦ ̗̝͕͉a̬̻̦ ̳̝̙͚̠͚̲n͔̫ap̝̲̦.̬̳͎̻̣”

Ink blinked in surprise, watching the glitchy lump on the couch, before giving him a small smile. Error could be difficult, but he really was a nice guy, once you got to know him, even though he was terribly temperamental. Sure his mindset on AU’s was a little bit off, but that could be fixed with time. Maybe-

“I̧̯̟̩͖̋̅̊̋̇ ̞̞̠̖͛ͨSͬ̍̔͊̃̿͏A̠͚̪ͦ̄ͨ̈́̈́̉̚͞I̸͕͎̳̘̘̻ͅD͈͕̭̅ ̷͙̝̹ͣ̋̆͐̆͒ͪS̮̺̠͙̳̰̾ͣ̅̔̍̑C̴̫͚͎̮̗̲̭̓̃͊̌R͚͉ͪ́̾̋̏̽Ä̧͚́ͬ̌̎̒M̡͈̟͇͎̽̓ͪͭ͐̇̾!͈̙̼͇̰̿̎͛!̦̺̥͈͕͍̈́̾͠”

Ink took the first portal out.

But not before snapping a quick picture with his smartphone.

Chapter Text

“Hey guys I have a question for you.”

It was a beautiful evening in Dreamtale. It was dusk, and no matter where you looked at the horizon you could see the gorgeous oranges and yellows of the sunset. Ink had popped in for a visit before the two brothers, Dream and Nightmare went to sleep and the Arboradfectus put under its protective spell. Dream was always happy to see Ink whenever he visited. He would bounce up and down, shake his brother awake to say hi, and then offer his side of the tree to Ink, who would always refuse. Nightmare, even though he was a little more downtrodden and deep thinking, was eager to see Ink as well, but was better at hiding it than his brother.

“Yeah, what is it?”

They were all sitting with their backs against the trunk of the massive spiraling tree, Ink in between the two brothers. He was busy doodling something on his sketch pad, when a question he had been meaning to ask them for a long time popped into his mind.

Ink shifted his position so that he sat criss-cross, facing the tree and both brothers. He capped his pen and inhaled.

“You guys know you are technically the exact same person, right?”

The two guardians looked at each other quizzically, and then back at Ink.

Dream tilted his head to the side in surprise. “Um, well, I mean we’re twin brothers, so there are some similarities, but-“

Ink shook his head. “No I mean, literally. You are biologically the exact same person twice.”

Again the two looked each other up and down, studying every aspect of each other that they may not have caught. Ink did the same. Their skulls were the exact same shape, their eyes were identical, both with bags that just seemed to never go away underneath them. Same height, same bone structure, same teeth. How, Ink wondered, had they never even stopped to consider why they looked so similar?

Eventually, both shrugged and looked back at Ink. Dream still gave him a confused but curious stare, while Nightmare folded his arms and gave Ink the evil eye.

“No, we’re not.” Said Nightmare, confidently.

Ink ran his hand down his face. “Actually, you are. Look at yourselves! Same face, same eyes, same smile, same sense of humor - have you ever wondered why you guys literally look like clones of each other?”

“Yes.” Responded Nightmare with no hesitation. “We have. But that didn’t last long because we realized we are twins.”

“No! You- Oh my god. Look, I’m also your clone!”

Dream and Nightmare scrunched up their faces. It seems they had officially lost Ink’s train of thought.

“Listen you guys, I’m going to make this as simple as I can.” Ink said, and both of them nodded, still not quite sure what to do with his previous comment.

“There are alternate universes right? And, I’m from one of those different universes, right? So - do any of you guys know anyone named Papyrus?”

They both shook their heads.

“Well, he was supposed to be one of your brothers and-“

“Wait Wait Wait, are you saying that we could have had a third brother???” Dream yelled.

Ink gave them an apologetic smile and waved them off. “Oh no, what I’m saying is that, in every universe, there is typically one S variable, and one P variable, and both are brothers. However, you two are a special case. Instead of one S and one P variable, we accidently got two S’s, and no P’s.” Ink said, holding up two fingers. “And those two are you guys.”

The brothers blinked at him in confusion. “So one of us should have been… a ‘P variable’?”

Ink clapped his hands together “Now you’re getting it! Honestly, judged on how you act Dream, I’m surprised you didn’t take the role of the P variable. I think the only difference is your looks. The personality would have probably been the same judging on your background…”

“Alright, alright, you lost us again.” Nightmare said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Question. I’m sure the ‘P variable’ stands for Papyrus, as you previously mentioned. Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why -er, who is Papyrus?”

“That’s typically his name across majority of the universes.”

“Okay. And how about the ‘S variable’?”

“It means Sans.” said Ink, expectantly, as if the name might strike a bell.

Both Nightmare and Dream looked at him with blank stares. “I don’t...I don’t know who that is.”

“That’s you!” Ink cried. “You are two copies of Sans! I am a copy of Sans!”

“Who is Sans?” Nightmare shot, now somewhat aggravated. “You’re not making any sense!”

“I am making perfect sense, thank you! You guys technically are Sans, but that’s not your names, and I am a Sans as well, from another universe which was ripped away from me in an accident I’d rather not go into details about. My name is Sans.”

Dream threw a glance at his brother that said this guy has a few screws loose then looked at Ink again. “But you told me your name was Ink…”

“That’s a nickname, Dream. Gosh, this is going to take a while…” Ink clasped both hands together and inhaled deeply, looking at the two with a very intense expression.

“Look. Typically across almost every universe, there is a figure or character named Sans, who is most always a skeleton. He looks exactly the same as us, and has many similar traits. I am a Sans. My name was originally Sans before I stars going by Ink to avoid confusion. You know Error? He’s name is also Sans - Error is just a nickname. Basically in most universes Sans is a lazy, unmotivated slob that can for some reason remember resets. Again, emphasis on most. Universes can be wildly different from each other. Anyways, what was I saying…? Oh yeah. So you two are both Sanses, however it’s different because your actual names aren’t Sans - they’re Dream and Nightmare - And that’s something I don’t think I’ve seen before. As well as two Sanses in one timeline, but I’ve already gotten there. So my point is, you’re both Sanses, even though your name isn’t Sans, and my name is Sans, and we’re all just clones of each other?”

Ink was silent for a few moments, reading both brother’s faces for any signs of understanding. Alas, they just looked more confused than before. Nightmare gave a grunt of annoyance.

“Okay, literally - all I heard was the word ‘Sans’ repeated over and over again.”

“But-“ Ink began to protest. Dream shut him up quickly by putting of finger to his mouth. It was pretty difficult to get Dream aggravated or even annoyed, and Ink could tell Dream was trying his best not show that that was how he was feeling.

“Watch the sunset, buddy.” Said Dream. “How about we talk about this later, okay?”

Ink was silent for a few moments before sighing and returning to his original spot against the trunk of the tree, placing his arms behind his head.

It really was a beautiful sunset.

But Ink was still ever so slightly pissed off.

Chapter Text

@thecreativebrush started a group chat!

@thecreativebrush: Hi everyone! Welcome to the Multinet! I automatically installed it on your phones, if you were wondering about the mystery application. It’s like Undernet, but now it’s completely multiversial. Now we can keep in touch, no matter where we are in the universe! It took me a while to make this chatroom, especially with the issue of no Wifi, so please don’t use it for naughty things! Thanks!! -Ink

@magnificentwarrior101: HI INK!!!! ( ﾟ▽ﾟ)/

@thecreativebrush: Hi Blue!! What do you think of this? Now we can chat with each other!

@magnificentwarrior101: IT’S SO AWESOME!!! THANK YOU FRIEND!!

@dying4coffee: hey whatsup guys. Cool app Ink.

@thecreativebrush: Death, I presume?? Welcome!

@dying4coffee: yep. Hey quick question. Can u post pics on here?

@thecreativebrush: Yes you can! :D It works like any other social media!

@dying4coffee: k then. I’m starting a kylie jenner fan account. L8r

@thecreativebrush: ...okay?

@magnificentwarrior101: I’LL BE YOUR FIRST FOLLOWER!!

@beheinz_the_times: so is this like - something that everyone in the multiverse has?

@thecreativebrush: Heya Classic! And no. I only put this on the phones of the people I personally know and feel like can handle talking to the other AU’s.

@beheinz_the_times: and is one of those people error becuz red just got fifteen death threats through his email address. he’s sitting right next 2 me btw.

@thecreativebrush: could you get him on the chatroom?

@beheinz_the_times: yeah. hold on.

@r4d_br0ski12: HOWZIT HANGIN MA DUDES??

@magnificentwarrior101: FRESH!!! HI FRESH! IT’S ME BLUE!!

@thecreativebrush: Hi Fresh!

@beheinz_the_times: oh god not him

@screweverything: INK YOU BETTER FUCKING EXPLAIN WHY YOU THINK ERROR IS TRUSTWORTHY TO LET ON THIS SITE BECAUSE I WAS JUST SENT SO MANY PSYCHOPATHIC DEATH THREATS DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?? HE’S THE DESTROYER OF UNIVERSES AND NOW HE HAS MY MOTHERFUCKING CONTACT INFORMATION!!!!!!

@thecreativebrush: Please calm down Red! I didn’t invite Error, but knowing him, he probably found a way into the app regardless. I’ll try to stop him from getting in again, okay?

@screweverything: YEAH YOU FUCKING BETTER

@r4d_br0ski12: ma dude, that is som UNRADICAL lingo u got there!!

@screweverything: Shut up, you NEON COLORED DISGRACE

@magnificentwarrior101: Stop it, Red! We’re all friends here!

@beheinz_the_times: seriously calm down

@screweverything: I’M LITERALLY SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU WHY ARE YOU TEXTING

@beheinz_the_times: idk y did u text back

@screweverything: BECAUSE YOU TEXTED FIRST ASSHOLE

@thecreativebrush: STOP FIGHTING GUYS SERIOUSLY

@r4d_br0ski12: srsly it’s real uncool ma guys

@thecreativebrush: Okay, so I found the account that Error was using and blocked it. I’m so sorry Red.

@screweverything: eh whatever it's fine. As long as he doesn’t come to kill me i’m cool.

@magnificentwarrior101: YAY!!

@highimhigh: eeeyyyyy wassuuppp

@thecreativebrush: Who is this?

@magnificentwarrior101: Hi Papy!

@magnificentwarrior101: Wait... r u high again :/

@highimhigh: okay

@screweverything: HA! he’s definitely high.

@beheinz_the_times: you still haven’t given us our brownies stretch.

@thecreativebrush: Are you guys dealing in DRUGS??

@magnificentwarrior101: PAPY I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THIS

@highimhigh: I am an okay person

@beheinz_the_times: aren’t we all?

@r4d_br0ski12: DON’T DO DRUGS! They make yor brain stupid, m8

@screweverything: I don’t even think I have a brain. We’re skeletons, dumbass

@highimhigh: I have a brain. It’s a pretty nice brain.

@beheinz_the_times: that’s amazing stretch

@thecreativebrush: Can we PLEASE get back on topic!!

@magnificentwarrior101: Yeah!! Papy I’m gonna need to talk to you about this when you get home. Where are you right now??

@highimhigh: at that one PLace

@magnificentwarrior101: Where??

@highimhigh: i am here

@magnificentwarrior101: WHERE

@highimhigh: here

@screweverything: one drag too many, bud?

@r4d_br0ski12: stahp. Y’all r cyber bullying!

@highimhigh: piss away rainbow shit

@screweverything: I think that pot is giving our friend here some common sense! And now that we’ve all come to a consensus, we ask for fresh to unkindly fuck off

@thecreativebrush: Guys! Stop it! He just wants to talk to someone!

@beheinz_the_times: he can talk to the wall

@magnificentwarrior101: Fresh, I think you’re awesome!

@r4d_br0ski12: Thx, brah!

@highimhigh: brahbrahbrah what that mean brah

@screweverything: BrAH

@beheinz_the_times: braaaahhhhhhhh

@thecreativebrush: Okay I will kick everyone off this chat if we keep acting like this.

@thecreativebrush: Can we pretty please get back on topic??

@beheinz_the_times: harsh

@highimhigh: same

@magnificentwarrior101: YOU GUYS NEED TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL!

@screweverything: I am VERY RESPECTFUL

@rAd_br0ski12: wat were we even chattin bout

@thecreativebrush: I actually don’t remember….oops

@screweverything: Well good thing it’s a TEXT MESSAGE and you can SCROLL BACK UP.

@beheinz_the_times: you can’t use your shitty memory as an excuse here ink

@thecreativebrush: HEY! I’m not THAT forgetful!!

@magnificentwarrior101: U sure about that??

@thecreativebrush: Well, I mean…

@rAd_br0ski12: Bruh u 4got ur emotions the other day lel

@screweverything: HAHA that wouldn’t have been good! Don’t need the X Event twice!

@thecreativebrush: we said we would not speak of that.

@beheinz_the_times was kicked from the chat!

@magnificentwarrior101 was kicked from the chat!

@screweverything: INK WHAT DID YOU DO??

@thecreativebrush: I DIDNT DO THAT!!

@highimhigh: I think this iss bad thing

@screweverything: NO SHIT SHERLOCK

@r4d_br0ski12: den who did this man

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: HËŁLØ THHĘRÈ

@highimhigh: oh fuck

@screweverything: PLEASE DONT KILL ME

@r4d_br0ski12: WASSUP MA GLITCHY HOMESLICE

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: WËLŁL WÊLL WĖŁŁ WHÆT DØ WĒ HÄVĖ HERĘ?¿

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: ALL MŸ FÀVÕRÏTĖ GŁĮTĆHEŠ ÍÑ ØŃÊ PŁÅĆĖ

@screweverything: LET ME LIVE

@highimhigh: go away plz k thx

@r4d_br0ski: ink where u at

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: ÄWWw. ŸÔŪ GÛŸŚ LŒOK ŠÔ ŚÇARÊD.

@screweverything: INK I THOUGHT YOU KICKED HIM OFF

@highimhigh: why did you kick my brother off u glitchy bitch

@rAd_br0ski: Itz bcuz he thinks blue is a kewl dood

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: HÃ. FÄR FRØm ĮT. Í JŪŚT WÆÑT TÕ TĀRGĘT HÍM ĮŃDÊVÎDÜ ŁLŸ

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: ŠHÚT ŪP

@highimhigh: srsly where ink

@screweverything: I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: THA ŃKŠ TŌ ĪÑKŚ FØÔLÏŠHÑĖŚS, Í ÑÔW KÑÓW ÃŁŁ ÕF ŸÖÚR ŁÔÇÃTÍÖŃŚ. GËT RĒÃDŸ FŒR Ã SÜPRÏŚË…

@screweverything: PLEASE I HAVE A BROTHER WHO WILL MISS ME I THINK

@thecreativebrush: Error...really??

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: WhÃT

@thecreativebrush: Is this really necessary

@thecreativebrush: No don’t type a response. I don’t care.

@thecreativebrush: Are you seriously hitting the accent key on every vowel to make yourself look glitchy and threatening.

@thecreativebrush: That’s actually really sad.

@thecreativebrush: Like - I know your hands are slightly unsteady, but there’s a reason I installed enhanced autocorrect on your phone.

@screweverything: PFFFFTTTT SERIOUSLY???

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: ŠHÜÚT ŪP!¡

@thecreativebrush: You don’t need to keep doing that you know. You can type normally.

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: ...

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: fine

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: what do you want

@thecreativebrush: I want to talk to you

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: I DONT WANT TO HEAR IT

@thecreativebrush: If you wanted an account you could have just asked instead of hacking the app and torturing everyone on it.

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: I DONT WANT A STUPID ACCOUNT. WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH IT, SET UP PLAYDATES LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER LITTLE FRIENDS??

@thecreativebrush: Well why did you kick off Blue when you threatened us? I thought you hated all AU’s.

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡: It was an ACCIDENT. I only meant to kick off Sans Classic

@thecreativebrush: But I thought you said it was because you wanted to target Blue individually, which I think is a pretty lame excuse.

@thecreativebrush: Error if you want an account you can ask me. This is why I didn’t add you in the first place.

@ÄkK3P9Gū&3¡ left the chat!

@screweverything: I’m taking that as a no?

@thecreativebrush: I’m sorry guys. I didn’t think that would happen the first time I booted this up...

@r4d_br0ski12: That was TOTES WILD mate!

@highimhigh: very

@highimhigh: I saved every1

@screweverything: stretch you didn’t do anything

@highimhigh: you didn’t either FANCY MAN

@screweverything: EXCUSE ME

@thecreativebrush: seriously guys. We’re arguing again?

@scarfedsurvivor: Hey guys! It’s Geno!

@scarfedsurvivor: ...

@scarfedsurvivor: Woah, did I miss something??

Chapter Text

Prompt: "The diamond in your engagement ring is fake" for Cream

Cross kicked his feet up on the armrest of the couch, sighing loudly. He haphazardly grabbed a men’s health magazine off the table and began to flip through it while starting on a bag of pretzels. He was outrageously tired - too much work to do with the reforming AU’s. As a “prime example” of someone who made the shift from bad to good, it was his job to make sure he stopped others from going down a path of hatred. And he wasn’t complaining - but damn, if he wasn’t about to collapse.

His exhausted mind didn’t even register someone else walking in the room, too lost in the world of shitty work out routines to “get the sexiest pack in just five days!!!!”

Dream cleared his throat, and Cross finally looked up, pretzel crumbs littering his grin.

“Hi,” He said smartly. Dream didn’t respond and took a seat on an armchair across from the couch.

“We need to talk.” Well THAT was never a good thing to hear from your partner. Cross blearily sat up.

“Yeah?”

Dream cast his bright golden eyes to the floor and took a deep breath. “I was in your room yesterday and… I just wanted to tell you that… I mean, it’s really…”

He shut his eyes and grimaced slightly. “The… diamond in the engagement ring is fake.”

Cross nearly choked on the air. Purple lit up his face as his eyes went wide, searching Dream’s face for any hint he might be lying. He began to sputter, outraged.

“Y-You weren’t… I was going to take you out - DREAM! What were you doing in my drawers??? You weren’t supposed to see that! That was a surprise I can’t believe it oh my god I’m -“

Dream held up a finger, instantly quieting Cross and taking his own turn to speak. The shock and mild betrayal never left Cross’ face.

“I came across it on accident. I was tidying up the living room and I saw the box tucked all the way back underneath the cloth napkins. And I knew that ring was new. I could only assume you had gotten it… for me…” He blushed and turned away while Cross put his head in his hands sadly.

“But I didn’t ruin the surprise. In fact, I think I helped. Cross, where did you get that ring?”

“…”

“Cross…”

“The shopping center…” he replied dejectedly.

Dream furrowed his brows. “At that one place?? No no no, they’re a bunch of cheapskates over there. The diamond they gave you was a fake. It’s already chipped and scratched.”

Cross managed his temples as he felt his face heat up in embarrassment. His grand reveal of how much he truly loved his Dreamy was now ruined, thanks to his boyfriend’s cleaning and the jeweler’s cheap, rip-off gems. He didn’t know what to do with himself.

However, he felt a comforting hand on his back and a familiar feeling of happiness find its way into his soul. “I just wanted to tell you so it wouldn’t be humiliating if you were to propose to me with it. I know a place where you can get absolutely beautiful hand-carved stuff, so maybe you could try there.”

Cross nodded into his palms, and Dream tsked, lifting his chin.

“And Cross?”

“Hm?”

“Yes.”

Chapter Text

Prompt: "Shh... calm down. They can't hurt you anymore" for Afterdeath

It was quiet in the save screen. So quiet, in fact, that the silence itself was slowly becoming a persistent, ringing noise in Geno’s mind. But he had long grown accustomed to it, and didn’t mind.

But one sound filled the emptiness of the space, echoing off walls that didn’t exist and resounding throughout the black void - the glitched skeleton’s own sobs.

It was bad enough that Geno could only watch as the rest of his soul went out and had a normal life with his brother, his friends. But what was worse, was seeing them all die, one by one, just because a knife-wielding toddler decided it would be temporarily amusing.

Watching his brother die was something he was used to seeing, but could never quite get over. Every time, he felt the same pain and heartache as he did the first. But watching himself die repeatedly? That was a whole other beast. He could almost feel the liquid fire of the DT, burning his bones, melting him inside and out, wanting to scream in pain but biting his tongue to not show any weakness in front of the damn kid.

He could almost feel the pain again, the blood staining his jacket a constant reminder of his never-ending agony.

But he didn’t have to suffer alone.

Reaper gently stroked Geno’s skull, the smaller skeleton positioned comfortably on his lap. He wiped away Geno’s tears with a finger, which shone under the only source of light in the void - right above the small, grassy patch where they sat.

“Shhh…” whispered the Reaper in an attempt to mollifying Geno’s fears. “Don’t cry, baby…”

Geno hiccuped and clung to the dark fabric of Reaper’s robe. “B-But I… I can’t… not again…

“Hey hey… calm down, alright?” Reaper leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Geno’s forehead. “They can’t hurt you anymore, love. They will never hurt you as long as I’m here.”

“B-But they hurt everyone else! They kill my friends and family and I’m stuck here watching and I can’t do anything-“

“You tried your hardest.” Reaper murmured. “And I’m proud of you for that.”

Geno nodded, burying his face into Reaper’s chest. The glitched skeleton usually displayed a lot of mock aggression towards the God when he tried to do anything flirtatious or affectionate, but now it seemed he was too distraught to be concerned with his “dignity”.

Reaper rubbed his back gently before an idea popped into his mind. He discreetly summoned his wings and wrapped them around his body, encasing him and Geno in a cocoon of soft feathers.

With a wide, curious gaze, Geno’s sobs gently turned into giggles. He smiled up at Reaper, another tear going down his cheek as he snuggled into the warmth of the feathers.

The God of Death began to hum gently, and Geno’s heavy breathing started to slow. His one good eye began to close as he seemingly melted into his boyfriend’s embrace.

“Do you want me to see what I can do?” whispered Reaper. Geno gave a sleepy - and frankly adorable - nod, before slowly drifting off.

Reaper kissed the tip of his nose.

—————

Chara had just been about to start another genocide route because why not. But a wickedly sharp scythe to the neck quickly halted their plans.

“H E Y B U D D Y. W H Y D O N ‘ T M E A N D Y O U H A V E A Q U I C K C H A T?”

Chapter Text

Prompt: "I'm too sober for this" for Errink

“Error!!!”

Said skeleton turned to the shrill voice calling his name, exhaling loudly.

“What do you want, Ink. I’m in the middle of-”

And then all the words left his mouth. He instinctively screeched and flung his knitting needles at the figure, promptly diving behind his beanbag in fear.

Because standing in front of him… was Ink. his figure looked the same, his clothing was standard, but his eyes… holy fucknards his eyes-!

“Look!” Ink said cheerfully, pointing to his sockets. “I just had a brilliant idea! So I know my skull is hollow, and I was just thinking about how my mouth leads to the same place that my eyes do, which is the back of my skull. Yet when I eat, it goes wherever the heck food goes for skeletons. I thought to myself ‘I wonder if I can eat through my eye sockets?’ And so I stuck cut-up carrot chunks in my eyes, and it worked! All the food in my skull goes to my stomach. Are you following me so far?”

Error nodded, horrified, looking like he was on the verge of a major reboot. Ink keep talking regardless.

“But if I wanted to eat with my eyes I couldn’t just keep cutting up food with a knife. I needed something as efficient as a mouth, so I painted these on!”

He smiled proudly, closing his ey- two other mouths happily. Somehow, they were still able to convey emotion, even though his eyelids were lined with sharp little teeth and his eyelights were no where to be seen. Every time he blinked the little teeth would mash together.

Error took a moment to steady his pulse, staring at Ink in sheer terror. The Destroyer of the Multiverse was not scared of many things. But this?? Well, he didn’t think he’d be sleeping peacefully for the next month.

He blinked and then got up and walked past Ink without a word, absolutely refusing to make eye contact as he headed into the kitchen. He shakily took a bottle of whiskey out of the fridge, popped the lid off, and started to chug. He drunk so fast that his mouth was overflowing and some of the alcohol spilled on his front.

Ink frowned with all three mouths and tilted his head. “Error? Don’t you like my idea?”

Error didn’t answer, and didn’t stop until the bottle was empty. Upset that the precious liquid was gone, he tossed the container into his mouth and crunched it up into little glass shards.

He turned to Ink with a half-lidded stare and shrugged, talking as he munched.

“I’m too sober to deal with this right now. Come and tell me again in…” He squinted at the clock on the wall. “Twenty minutes when I’m veritably shitfaced. Maybe then I’ll think its cool.” He stumbled off and climbed the stairs to his room, grumbling about “The shit I have to put up with man I SWEAR…”

Ink grinned and grabbed three frozen corn-dogs out of the refrigerator. Time to see what he could do!

Chapter Text

Prompt: "You're bleeding all over my carpet" for Errink

Ink had been busy burning cooking dinner when Error came home. The artist heard the door open and put on a bright smile, hanging up his apron.

“Error! Wel-”

“…”

“…”

Error was covered in bruises, and his left eye was shut and swollen. He came through the door with a limp, and looked at Ink with a murderous gaze. But Ink was good at reading his lover’s expression. He knew Error wasn’t mad at Ink personally. However he sure was pissed with someone else.

Under normal circumstances, Ink would have dropped everything and ran to Error’s side, healing him and whispering reassurances. But the Creator hadn’t anticipated something like this, and therefore wasn’t prepared. In this case, ‘Prepared’ meaning on the right vials.

He was just making pie, dammit! In what circumstance would he need fear and anxiety to cook a pastry???

“…You… You good?” He called out from the kitchen, eyeing Error’s injuries.

“Yeah,” said Error, wiping blood off his nose.

Ink nodded, and they lapsed into silence.

“You uh… you’re bleeding all over my carpet.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

The artist sighed and wiped his hands on a towel. “What happened this time, Error?”

Instantly, the black boned skeleton’s expression turned murderous. “That fucking bitch Seraphim. If he knows what’s good for him - no, for the multiverse he would just let his stupid universe die. Honestly, I would have accepted a no from him. That would have been fine. I could have rescheduled that universe for Tuesday. But nope! He has to pulverize me and turn me into bone meal.”

Ink remained pretty apathetic throughout the speech. He hummed, half-listening, and offered his pie. Error immediately said yes.

Even though Ink was off his vials for concern, he still knew that he couldn’t just let his S.O. bleed to death while eating desert, so he patched up Error’s wounds while he ate.

The glitch smiled as he took a bite of the pie. “Holy shit… it’s so burnt it tastes like charcoal… It’s perfect!! Thanks, Ink!”

“Mhm.” Ink gave a small smile as Error scooped up the treat with his tongues like an octopus and swallowed the rest of the dessert whole.

Chapter Text

Prompt: "Welcome to fatherhood!" for Errink

Error stared at the thing in his hands.

The wiggly little thing with two vibrantly colored eyes, making weird noises and babbling, covering itself in saliva. It wouldn’t stay still either, and it kept trying to grab Error’s face with its tiny little sausage fingers, cooing and spitting.

Error looked at it again, and was tempted to drop it.

“Is… Is this a motherfucking BABY???” The thing stopped cooing when it heard Error’s voice raise.

Huh. That seemed to get it to stop making noise. Error had an idea.

He screeched at the baby, staring it directly in the eyes.

The baby’s eyes got bigger than its head, and tears began to grow in its eyes, confused at why it was being yelled at.

Ink sighed and took the baby out of The Destroyer’s arms to prevent any further screaming.

Error’s eye lights had disappeared, and he breathed in and out heavily, staring at the child with disgust. “Who the fuck even agreed to have sex with you of all people to create a child?”

Ink’s eyes turned to exclamation points, and he suddenly donned a shit-eating grin. “You! Of course. But we didn’t have sex - remember that one fight to the death we had in the multivoid? A child somehow came out of that. So welcome to fatherhood! Oh, I was thinking we could name it Paperjam because-”

Error passed out and glitched so hard he phased slightly through the floor.

Chapter Text

Prompt: "I'm not wearing a dress" for Errink

“Well?”

“No.”

Error scowled at the response. He and Ink were to go to a gala that night, and Error had already had his boyfriend make him a suit: black and traditional with coattails and a refined blue trim, the same color as his strings. He thought he looked rather sharp, and Ink just teased that he was a narcissist. Well maybe he was, it wasn’t Error’s fault he was fucking gorgeous.

The Destroyer wasn’t really popular among the masses, for obvious reasons emphasized in his title. So he really hoped that tonight, if he played his cards right, he could maybe make a better impression of himself. Social skills weren’t really his forte, but Ink was slowly teaching him how to get better with interactions, for which he was grateful.

But to FULLY impress them, Error wanted to stun the room. He had a vision in his head, of he and his Inky walking down the center of the room, arms looped together. Ink would wear a stunning dress, reflecting ever color of the rainbow in a style that was uniquely his. Error did, (and he knew rather vainly), want to show his beautiful partner off to the world, and show them Ink was his everything. Show them that HE was in control of the Protector so all those pitiful “good guys” would-

No, evil thoughts, evil thoughts. Ink said only good thoughts.

But Ink’s attitude was really killing his mood.

“Please?” Error begged. “I’ve only seen you wear a dress ONCE and you looked drop dead gorgeous.”

Ink blushed a little at the compliment but kept his arms crossed in defense. “I said no. I don’t want to. I’d rather wear a suit.”

“But- But- It won’t be the same. You could do all sorts of weird shit with your magic, like make flowers hover around it or make it made out of actual light-refracted rainbows or some garbage like that. Elegant and gorgeous plus suit? It just doesn’t work.”

Ink stood there, tapping his bare foot on the carpeted ground, his eye lights green and orange. He seemed to consider Error’s argument, before sighing and putting a hand on his hip. “Fine. I’ll put a dress on.”

Ink swiftly walked into the bathroom and shut the door, Error silently fist pumping himself in glee, falling backwards onto the bed. He’d have to contain his giddiness at the gala though - he had a cool-mannered and apathetic persona to keep up.

After about seven minutes, the lock on the bathroom door clicked.

Error sat straight up, eyeing the door anxiously. Would this just be a standard dress, or something that awed him so much it would make him automatically cross the floor and scoop up Ink into a kiss?

Well Ink gave him the additional option. He came out in a suit.

The Creator adjusted the blue rose on his lapel. “Sorry it took so long,” Ink said sheepishly.

Even with the suit, Error felt his face heat up. What was he thinking - Ink would look hot in anything he wore! But it still wasn’t ideal.

“But you said-”

“I know what I said.” Ink said, approaching his lover. “And I’m still keeping my word.”

“Wh-”

“I didn’t say I was putting a dress on myself.”

Ink snapped his fingers, and Error’s suit suddenly morphed.

“…”

“…”

“I fucking hate you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Ink and Error finally arrived, the ballroom went silent, and every jaw dropped to the floor.

The Creator was in a beige tuxedo, with polished dress shoes and a matching top hat with a few feathers in it. But beside him was someone they at first didn’t recognize.

Error wore a bright blue dress, with a gradient that got lighter at the edges, the rim of the dress seeming to have no real end. It fit his waist beautifully, and was perfectly puffed to the point where it didn’t look frou-frou, yet it wasn’t static. It waved with every motion and glittered calmly in the light, accompanied by sapphire high heels. On his hands were small white gloves that perfectly contrasted that color of his bones. And his face was adorned with a simple winged eyeliner, shaping his eyes into a more elegant form.

Ink tightened his hold on Error’s hand. “Next time, we’ll both wear dresses. Will that make you feel happier?”

Error didn’t respond at first, but Ink could see the rising blush The Destroyer was trying to conceal.

“…yeah.”

And then under his breath, Error whispered to himself. “…I feel pretty like this.”

A quick kiss to his cheek. “That’s because you are pretty, dork.”

Chapter Text

Prompt: "Does he know about the baby?" for Errink

“Ink, can I see him?”

The Guardian handed the little bundle of fabric over to Dream, who took it with such a gentleness. Peeking out from the fabric was a tiny little child, no bigger than Dream’s forearm. His bones were black, but two splotches of color were dashed onto his cheeks. The baby’s skull seemed a bit deformed as well, but Ink had assured him the misplaced bit was nothing to be worried about. A small mistake in the creation of the child, but one that would be ultimately harmless.

The little thing scrunched his face up and brought out a tiny hand, wrapping it around dreams index finger. The fingers were so small and delicate that Dream was about to start sobbing from monstrous intake of positivity, but he kept himself in check. The fingers were of dual tones, just like…

“Does… Does his… father know about-”

“No,” Ink stated calmly. “He left before I discovered him. I don’t plan on telling him anytime soon.”

“A wise decision. I’d suggest not letting this slip. To anyone, actually.”

Ink blinked. “Why?”

“Do you understand the chaos this would cause? The rumors? If people were under the impression that your arch enemy impregnated you, there would only be one assumption. Even if the baby came into existence from something not even remotely sexual.”

“…yeah. I understand.”

Silence befell the two. The living room was quiet, save for the ticking of a clock on the wall. The baby, blissfully unaware of the tense mood, gurgled and drooled, cracking open its eyes just a hair. They were bright pink, with mismatched pupils. One a circle, one a star, but with smaller shapes inside.

His eyes were a perfect mix of his parents.

Ink looked down at the floor. “I… I don’t know if I can do this Dream.”

“What are you talking about? You’d be wonderful.”

“No, I wouldn’t. I’m incapable of emotion, and I physically possess no love or sympathy. I have no experience with children, and even if I learned, when he grows, I can’t keep him a secret forever. He’s a living breathing being, and I can’t risk messing this up.”

Dream sighed. Ink sure loved to beat himself up. Good thing he was here, or his friend would become a train wreck. “…You won’t, Ink. Come on - it’s not like you can’t ever tell anyone. I’m sure by the time he’s a teenager, maybe things between you and Error might have calmed down?”

“… Perhaps.” Ink gave a slight grin. “It’s funny, though. Honestly, I’m considering breaking the rule of telling Error. I’d love to see the look on his face when he, the person obsessed with destruction and death, had just created life, and had a baby with his enemy.”

Dream laughed. “Not a wise choice, but still funny.”

Something crashed to the floor. Both Ink and Dream’s heads whipped around defensively. Their faces went pale.

Error was standing in the archway of the living room. On the ground, was a shatter vase. Flowers, water and glass littered the floor. In Error’s hands, there was a piece of paper.

The glitch wasn’t looking at Ink. Or at Dream.

His eyes were locked on the child.

The child, with his eyes. His fingers. His bones. His smile.

His child.

Error crumpled to the ground, glitches swarming him, and was so shocked that he didn’t even reboot. He just cried.

He got his piece of paper wet - a handwritten apology to Ink for hurting him so badly and asking if he was okay.

Chapter Text

One day Error was sleeping. But then he wasn't anymore, and so he went to Ink's house.

"Inmk" he says with a voicy voice. "I need help. Destroying and Killing things."

"Okay says Ink.

THey both go kill and destroy things together. BUt then Nightmare suddenly Poofy Woofies out of thin air. He has very big anger.

"No." he whispers. "This is NOT kawaii."

Ink holds up his middle finger and sends Nightmare into a coma for 17 years. Dream also is in a coma because he's stupid lol.

Ink and Error have fun killing everyone, so then they go on a date and kiss and then they are both in love!!!!!!!111111111!! OWO!!!!!!!!!!! (Omg thats so gay loololololololololololol X333)

Suddenly, Core frizzle comes in and looks at everyone with a doomful glare. Frack takes out a gun and shoots Ink point blank and then makes Ink cry and Error runs away like an big tidy anime gorl.

Curry Fitzgerald resets the world. Because they can and also they are the most powerful in the world. My OC RubyWolfDragonRainbow Sr came along and started dating sans. because SANS IS MINE

Chapter Text

Cross stared on in horror as Shattered approached him. This couldn’t be him. It couldn’t. This couldn’t be his little Dreamy.

He fell back against the wall, helpless against the mindless beast his once caring boyfriend had become. Shattered stood still, staring him down with amusement in his eyes. He giggled, what was usually a heartwarming sound to here but now was warped and twisted and sent shivers down Cross’ spine.

“Oh Crossy!” He said. “You’re so overdramatic! It’s just me...”

Shattered suddenly doubled over, and dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. At first, Cross thought he was hurt in some way, but he soon realized that this was not the case. An awful, sickly popping noise started erupting from his back, and Shattered began to howl with laughter.

Cross could do nothing but cower as Shattered voluntarily snapped his own spinal cord into pieces. Tentacles burst from his back and snaked into the floor, lifting him up off the ground while his arms and legs dangled uselessly. His grin only became wider as he used the corruption that had taken over his entire being to stretch out his spinal cord to twice its original Length, giving Shattered a monstrous appearance.

Shattered’s smile split the sides of his face as he opened his mouth and his jaw unhinged, almost as if his head was cutting itself in half. His teeth shifted from their blunt appearance to serrated daggers; needles lining his mouth. Seeing Cross’ tears spurred him on even more, and with one swift motion, he jerked his head to the side, causing every one of his cervical vertebrae to snap and detach, and Cross screamed in terror as Shattered’s head was left dangling upside down. He giggled and slithered closer, and used his tongue to lick the tears off of Cross’s cheeks.

“It’s your adorable little Dreamy~”

Chapter Text

“How has he been responding?”

“... rather poorly…”

Everyone looked to Error, who was busy staring at the wall, using one of his clawed arms to pick at the tile, making dents in it. Ink snapped his fingers and Error turned to him a abruptly. When he saw Ink’s stern expression, he looked to the floor in shame.

“He still acts the same. Aggressive, moody, really attached, and honestly… n-not that bright.”

Everyone looked to Error, who had returned to drilling holes in the tile with his fingers.

“Error!” He jumped and stared at Ink, five eyes wide with fear and arms retracted into his chest. “Stop it!”

Ink turned back to the council. “Forgive him. He doesn’t really know anything beyond the fact that there’s something shiny and he can’t touch it.”

Ink inhaled. “He’s been living with me at my house for two days. I’ve been observing his behavior and asking him to do simple tasks for me. If you have any questions I’ll answer them for you.”

“Is he… conscious??”

“Yes. He knows what’s going on. Like right now he knows we’re talking about him. He is still very much aware of the world around him, the only thing is that his cognitive abilities have been substantially slowed down. He thinks more similarly to a canine than to his normal self.”

“Does he speak?”

“Well, sometimes. He says a word or two occasionally. Most of the time I can’t make them out. He’s said things like “yes” and “no” and the name of objects he wants. Other than that he doesn’t speak. He makes a lot of noise though.”

“Is he aggressive?”

“Very. The only reason he’s not attacking you all is because I’ve specifically instructed him not to. He gets very upset when someone he sees someone he doesn’t recognize. I think in his eyes they pose a threat to my safety. So his first instinct is to attack. He, uh, killed a lizard the other day. It was a small one, but it’s blood made a mess on the floor. He approached me with it, handing its mangled body to me, like he expected me to be proud of him, thinking that violence would please me."

“Has he posed any threat to you?”

“No. He seems to worship me for some reason. I get that we were in a relationship, but something must have affected his view of me. He keeps circling me, and rubbing up against my arms. Demanding my constant attention and praise. He obeys everything I tell him, and doesn’t hesitate at all. I actually experimented to see how far he’d go. I brought out a bucket with water in it and told him to stick an arm inside. And he did. For a whole five minutes. I made him take it out when I saw his arm practically glitching into nonexistence. ”

“Does he remember times when he wasn’t like that?”

“Yeah, I think so. But they’re all jumbled in his head. Like - he knows that eight o’clock is when we always start movies/tv. I found him there, waiting for me patiently. He also knows which side of the bed he sleeps on, he knows his way around the house very well. I went in to brush my teeth one night and he followed me inside, and picked up the toothbrush I reserved for him. He looked at it, then stared at the mirror before shattering the glass and running away. He… didn’t like his reflection…”

“Can he read?”

“Erm, kind of. He can deduce certain words, like my name, his name, and whether or not it’s sending a positive or negative message in general. If you wrote a sentence and handed it to him, with enough time he could probably deduce what you’re trying to tell him. But other than that, no. I see him peering over my shoulder when I’m texting someone and I can tell he has no idea what’s going on. I tried to test his knowledge once. I handed him a pencil and a blank sheet of paper and asked him to write the word “love.” And he did. But it took him a painfully long time, his handwriting took up the whole page, and his “e” was backwards. The only reason he was able to do so was because it was muscle memory, and he had seen the word so many times. So I tried again with the word “camel”, something he wouldn’t know right off the bat, and wouldn’t recognize. And my hypothesis proved to be true, because he started shaking and squinting his eyes. He wrote K-A-N and then started to tear up.”

“How do his eyes work?”

“Not well. They’re independent of each other, actually, so he can move them all in different directions. He’s not blind like he was normally, but he doesn’t know how to steady his eyes or what to look at. So he bumps into stuff a lot. He doesn’t know what to focus on at one time. And you can tell what he’s looking at because his pupil is a slightly lighter color than the rest of his eyes. He’ll be looking up down left and right at the same time, but not in front of him, so he tripped over the coffee table and started crying. He uh… cries a lot.”

“How does his intelligence compare to before?”

“It’s been… substantially lowered. Before he could do complex arithmetic problems in his head, and I’ve seen him work out problems on the blackboard in the science division of the council building. Now? I gave him a simple preschool level addition problem. He couldn’t do it. He… pokes and prods and chews on everyday objects like he’s never seen them before. I caught him holding a fork the other day, and he was utterly fascinated by it, turning it over and over again in his hands for over five minutes. Then promptly snapped it in half and ate it.”

Alchemy nodded. "I... I see. Well then I-"

"By the way all of this is your fault."

The God of Magic sighed and rubbed his temple. "Listen, I'm aware, we've been over this, I don't-"

Ink snapped his fingers, receiving Error's immediate attention. He pointed at Alchemy and spoke a simple command."

"Error, kill."

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful day outside.

Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and absolutely no one Sans loved was dead. Well, at least he thought so. Perhaps Undyne had accidentally blown herself up while cooking instead of just her house, or maybe frisk had gotten one too many snails in their pie just now. Who knew? The world could be a cruel, cruel place.

It had been a year since monsterkind rejoined humanity on the surface to live in harmony. Almost harmony, anyways. Most monsters were welcomed with open arms by the people ready to show off their love, while others had reacted rather… strongly. Change was scary, not just for humans, but for everyone. Sans couldn’t blame them, although he wished he could walk down the street without a million pairs of eyeballs on him, watching him with fascination. He’d even had a small human kid walk up to him and ask him how he could see without eyeballs, or hear without ears. It made him chuckle. Kids were cute, weren’t they? Most kids anyways.

Sans sat underneath the old oak tree right outside his house, watching the sun go down. Technically, it wasn’t his, it belonged to Papyrus, Toriel, Alphys, Undyne, and Frisk. There wasn’t exactly a ton of housing options, so the whole lot decided to share a house. Naturally, none of them objected to the notion, so a large, two story house was bought for all of them to share. With enough space for everyone to have their own bedroom, the group was more than happy. Well, everyone except Sans.

This was - what, the fifth time they bought this house? The repetition was driving him insane. He did a good job of hiding his feelings, though. Even from the kid. Frisk knew that he remembered everything, and would always give him a faint remorseful smile when they saw him. He never gave them the satisfaction of knowing how much those runs had damaged him. And he was never going to. His primary objective was to keep his friends and family out of the bullshit he was living through. The last thing he would want was to drag the ones he cared the most about through the hellhole of timelines that made up his life. As long as they were smiling, he could wear one too.

The sun was a beautiful vermillion, with wispy clouds the color of red wine hovering around it like a ghostly halo. It’s fiery hue seeped through the dome-like sky, up until the diameter, where it began to bleed into the dark blue of night. Sans took a deep breath, adjusting his position against the bark. He had plans to stay out here all night, watching the stars, tracing his favorite constellations, and breathing in the cool night air. After all, he had to savor as much of it as he could; there was no telling when everything could be ripped away from him and he’d be back in the loop. Although a year on the surface was the longest they had ever stayed. Sans never liked to get his hopes up, but could the kid actually keep their promise? Could they keep time going normally, maybe even give Sans a chance to actually live his life?

He was startled out of his thoughts by the creak of rusty metal hinges rubbing against each other, and turned to see a figure step out onto the porch.

Toriel was wearing a white sundress, spotted with purple flowers, with a lacy violet trim on the edge of the dress. Her fluffy, white fur blew softly in the breeze, as she looked at him from across the yard, lantern light cast on her face. He gave her a small wave, and she smiled, shutting the old door behind her. Sans turned his eyes back to the newly emerging stars as he heard her footsteps brush through the tall grass to make her way to him.

The two had grown remarkably close since the barrier broke. Their love of puns and history of conversation behind the old door to the ruins led them to becoming fast friends, and where one would go, the other would follow. They were like peas in a pod. Asgore had grown quite jealous, seeing his ex wife spending all of her time with a short little skeleton, but said nothing of the matter. Seeing Toriel smile after so many years of heartbreak and pain, was enough to make him happy, even though she refused to speak with him.

Toriel took a seat against the tree, and sighed as she settled down, tilting her head up and watching the stars peek through along with Sans. The sun had already disappeared behind the hills in the distance, leaving its trail of orange behind it, like a paintbrush across the sky. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, before Toriel spoke up.

“It’s beautiful, is it not?”

“Hm?” Sans responded. “Oh, yeah. I guess it is.”

Toriel gave a breathy chuckle. “You don’t sound all that thrilled, my friend.”

Sans gave a little laugh in response, and put both hands behind his head. “Naw, it’s absolutely incredible out here. Hey-“ Sans pointed to a growing cluster of stars on the darker portion of the sky. “If you look over there, you can the beginning of the Big Dipper’s handle. The bright spot in the middle is actually two stars, believe it or not. They’re names are Mizar and Alcor, the twin stars. But the one on the very right is-“

He was interrupted by a snicker from Toriel, who had put a paw to her mouth to stop from making too much noise.

He raised a brow at her. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing my friend, I just think your love of space is… remarkable. You don’t seem like the type of monster that would really be invested in anything. I never thought a bonehead like you would be so passionate about the stars!”

“Heh heh, yeah, I don’t care about a lot, do I?” Sans said, with a hint of solemnity in his voice, casting the two into a silence again. The sound of crickets chirping together in harmony had both monsters peacefully closing their eyes, taking in all the natural wonder that they never got to experience below the surface.

“Sans?” Toriel asked.

“Hm?”

“Why are you out here all alone? It’s rather chilly, and your brother is asleep, as is the rest of the house. You should come in as well.”

“In a minute, Tori. I thought that tonight I could sleep under the stars, or at least be alone with my thoughts a little longer. It’s just so gorgeous out.”

Toriel seemed to contemplate his answer before giving her response. “Well, I’ll let you stay out for a couple more minutes, okay? I’m sorry to have intruded.”

Sans sat up abruptly. “No, no! I, uh, really enjoy the company…!” He twiddled his bony thumbs as he trailed off awkwardly. Toriel gave him a gentle smile and nestled back into the grass.

“Thanks, Tori.” He gave a loud obnoxious yawn, which caused Toriel to do the same moments later. The two monsters looked at each other with grins plastered across their faces before giggling to each other. Sans had never realised just how warm her eyes were, and the way her soft fur rippled ever so slightly almost was inviting him to snuggle up onto her, or how wonderful she looked with the new moonlight on -

“My friend, are you okay?” Sans shook himself out of his trance, and he could feel a blue blush come to his cheekbones. She rested her paw on top of his free hand, for his other was busy shielding the blue tint on his face from Toriel. Sans felt a warm feeling spread throughout his whole body at Toriel’s touch. It was so soothing, even just being in her presence.

“Nothing’s wrong Tori. Nothing at all.”

She exhaled heavily and returned her gaze to the sky, keeping her paw on his hand. His soul skipped a beat. Did she want to keep her hand there? Maybe she just forgot to move her arm, he thought to himself. Whatever the case was, their hands were touching, the stars were out, winking at the two monsters under the tree, and Sans felt something stir from deep within him. Something so foreign, he barely knew what it was when it surfaced. For the first time in a while, could he actually be feeling...truly...happy…?

He tore his gaze away from the constellations and looked to the grass in shame. No, he thought to himself, I shouldn’t get my hopes up. The more attached I become to the life I’m leading the more it will hurt once it’s all ripped away from me. So what if it’s been a year? The kid’s just probably toying with me. They know exactly my feelings on the matter and yet I’ve still woken up in my freezing cold Snowdin room. Don’t do this to yourself, don’t do this, don’t get attached because you never had a chance with romance anyways, don’t-

“M-My friend? Please… you’re not okay…”

Having derailed his train of thought, Sans looked up to Toriel to see blatant worry written on every line of her face. He looked down to see that he was squeezing her paw so tightly, it was starting to look pale, holding onto it like a climber on a cliff ledge, afraid that if they let go, they might fall. He let go of her hand as quickly as he could, mumbling what sounded like frantic apologies under his breath. Surprisingly, Toriel hadn’t shown any discomfort at all, more worried about the short skeleton beside her.

Sans chuckled without any humor and wiped his face absentmindedly, becoming surprised when the faded blue of his jacket sleeve returned with darker splotches all across it. He then realised why his vision was looking so fuzzy.

Why now of all times did the facade finally break? He had done such a great job of guarding his emotions to the point where any expression other than lazy glee did not seem to belong on his face. Yet here, under the old oak and beneath the stars with his old knock knock buddy caused something inside of him to crack. And looking into her kind, warm eyes was his breaking point, smashing the dam of emotions to pieces.

All at once, waves of tears spilled from his eye sockets they had never done before, and Sans curled up on himself, drawing his knees to his chest. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He just wanted to live his life. He didn’t want to be a cripplingly lazy nihilist that rest of his life, and he sure as hell didn’t want to sit around on his ass until the day he died, but what could he do? His life was pointless. No matter what he did, he would just go back to square one and start all over again, thanks to either the kid or the former prince of the underground, reduced to a soulless weed. And what had he done to stop them? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even do anything if he wanted to. That’s how weak he was. God, he really was worthless. He couldn’t even stop a toddler with a knife. He let them all die, when he could have stopped it, he alone was the cause of their death, he-

Toriel suddenly drawled him in close to her, pulling him into a tight hug, startling the skeleton. His eyes went wide at her show of affection, and a few more tears spilled before he nuzzled his face into her shoulder, her warm hug making him even sadder. As he continued to silently cry, she adjusted his position, to where he was being cradled like a baby. He began to laugh through his tears.

“T-Tori...is this really necessary?”

The boss monster did not respond, only looking straight into the eyes and sighing deeply. Sans gave another sad chuckle, and squirmed in her hold, slightly embarrassed to be held like a child.

“I’m fine, really. I just had a little moment there, but it’s fine, I swear.” He pleaded, wiping his face dry with the sleeve of his jacket.

Toriel did not seem convinced with his argument, and looked at him sternly. “Sans,” she said simply, “You are not fine, and we both know it. You shouldn’t kid yourself or anyone else. I was a mother to eight other children before Frisk came along. I know when someone is struggling on the inside and doesn’t want to confide in anyone else. I saw it in my son, before he and my other child both...well, you know how the story goes, don’t you?”

Tears were now brimming in her own eyes, behind her big smile.

“I’ve known ever since I met you that something wasn’t right with that smile of yours. There was a sadness in your eyes that no one else seemed to pick up on, and your smile looked strained. I never said anything because I know how it feels to hurt on the inside. Sometimes you aren’t quite ready for the world to know just yet. Please, tell me what is troubling you. You will receive no judgement from me. I have also done things I am not proud of and am in no place to be upset with you if you had done anything bad. Please.”

Toriel looked at him with pleading eyes. “I do not want to see you suffer anymore, my friend. Maybe I can find a way to help you. But if you don’t feel comfortable speaking to me right now, I will understand.”

Sans felt his breath hitch in his imaginary throat. What could he tell her? That he’s lived the same days over and over again? That he’s seen everyone he’s ever cared about slain in front of him? And more importantly it was the hand of Tori’s own kid that killed them all?

Then again, if the world reset, she wouldn’t remember, right?

…

Before he could stop himself, everything was coming out of his mouth all at once. A torrent of words, some completely incoherent in his manic ramblings, came erupting from his soul. He cried more tears than he thought he was capable of.

Once he fell silent, it was Toriel’s turn to cry.

Chapter Text

“You know this doesn’t change anything, right?”

The beast in front of Ink exhaled loudly, narrowing its mismatched eyes. The painter laughed.

“Wow… I never knew you came from one of those timelines… if I had known you could do this, I would have asked for saddle rides a long time ago.”

Despite having no flesh, the mouth of the beast contorted in frustration, snarling. A black, whiplike tail, three times Ink’s length, beat in rising irritation.

Ink was blind to his annoyance taking another step forward, eying the skeletal form with stars in his eyes. The build was fit and lean, with powerful hind legs and razor sharp claws that adorned every digit. The bones were, in Ink’s opinion, a beautiful gradient of black, red and yellow, and he could hardly take his eyes off the symmetrical horns spiraling from the beast’s cranium. His gaze was fixed.

The monster in question, however, looked everywhere except Ink, an electric blue beginning to color his cheeks.

Suddenly, Ink snickered. “Error. You’re naked.”

There was a beat of silence, before Ink was faced with an entire mouthful of fangs, screaming directly at his face and nearly blowing his scarf away. Ink’s chuckles slowly grew into laughter as Error’s entire face became so brightly blue it could have served as a flashlight, and the slender tail began coiling around his legs in embarrassment. He slowly lowered himself onto the ground, pressing his chest to the floor and whining. Ink quickly composed himself.

“I mean it,” said the artist, gently stroking the muzzle. “This doesn’t change anything. You’re still a goober, but now you’re just a bigger one.”

Error looked up to him, like a sad dog. Ink smirked, putting his hands on his hips. “and a naked one, too.”

Error spit at him, and Ink giggled again, gently pressing a kiss in the space between his eyes. “I love you, dork. I’m gonna have to make you bigger clothes now, though…”

Ink absentmindedly brought a hand down to Error’s jawline and began to scratch. The tail began to thump happily.

Chapter Text

“Sans what the fuck are you wearing?”

Sans was not a well put together guy. Most mornings he would roll out of bed with grease stained and smelly t-shirts clinging to his rib cage, and old ripped up sports shorts to go along with it. Undyne had never welcomed his presence when she and Papyrus had been out for training sessions back in the Underground. He would always leave some sort of food stain wherever he sat, and Undyne had wanted to bash her head against a wall when he had once shown up with Papyrus, lacking any pants or undergarments at all. He really had nothing to hide, but it was still embarrassing nonetheless. He had just slept in the corner the whole time, anyways. 

The skeleton was not big on hygiene, Undyne could say that for certain, so when he tried to sneak downstairs wearing a red button-up shirt, a black tie, a smooth, ironed blazer over both, along with dress pants and shining dress shoes, Undyne was more than a little confused.

With his hand on the doorknob, he crouched sweating by the door, caught like a child with his hand in the cookie jar. His eyelights small, sweat rolled down his forehead as he gripped the knob tightly.

Papyrus, who had been in the kitchen, looked at his brother and his jaw dropped. He began to squeal and do a little dance in place, bouncing on his tiptoes, wooden spoon in his gloved hand.

“BROTHER! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU! YOU’RE FINALLY CLEANING UP YOUR ACT! I COULD HARDLY CONVINCE YOU TO WEAR A POLO SHIRT TO THE MONSTER-HUMAN PEACE CONFERENCE. WAIT… WHAT COULD POSSIBLY CONVINCE YOU TO DRESS THIS NICE???”

Sans stood by the door, nervously sweating and fiddling with the Rolex watch on his left wrist (where did he get the money to afford that??) Everyone in the room, Toriel, Alphys, Frisk, Undyne and Papyrus looked at each other strangely.

Toriel approached the nervous little monster and he looked up at her with a wobbly grin. She grinned. He really was cute, wasn’t he? “My friend, what is the occasion? You look very handsome, put together like that.”

Sans’ blush deepened as he hummed under his breath, clearly wanting to be anywhere else but talking to them.

“heh, thanks i guess. i mean, i…uh, wasn’t going to show you all in fear of your...uh reaction. plus, i had a reputation to uphold, as smelliest and laziest of them all.” Toriel giggled at that, and Sans cleared his throat. “guess i’ve blown it now, heheh…”

Frisk beamed towards their dunkle Sans and gave him two thumbs up, making his grin wider. He twisted the door handle, attempting to make an escape, but Undyne grabbed both of his shoulders and spun him around, so they were face to face. 

“You never answered my question, PUNK!! Where ya headed??”

Sans, shrinking into this shirt collar mumbled something under his breath. Undyne unhappy with his answer began to rock him back and forth aggressively to the point where you could hear his bones rattling.

“WELL??” she cried. “Spit it out!!!”

“UNDYNE PLEASE! YOU ARE GOING TO KILL SANS.”

Undyne rolled her eye and stopped shaking him, abruptly dropping him to the floor as well. Sans collapsed on the ground, eyelights crossed and dizzy, rubbing his skull. Alphys scurried over to help him to his feet again.

“S-sorry about that.” Alphys stuttered as Undyne was busy cackling with laughter. “She can get a little...e-eccentric…”

“yeah, i know. thanks al.” Sans stood up, balancing on Alphys’ shoulder, and checked his silver watch, eyelights going small with shock.

“shit im going to be late!” He cried, dusting himself off and stumbling towards the door, where he had been attempting to escape through for the last five minutes.

“Wait! Sans!” Alphys called, as he stood with his hand on the knob. He rolled his eyes in agitation. “what??”

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Everyone in the room called out at the same time. Sans looked between his friends and his brother before giving in to defeat, sighing and looking at the ground.

“alright, alright, you got me…” he said,tugging at his shirt collar. Man, this suit was hot. It reminded him why he didn’t normally put that much effort into his appearance.

He cleared his throat and looked at all the people staring him down, with big eyes, anxious to hear what could possibly make the lazy Sans put so much effort into his appearance.

He sighed. “i...well, ya see i have…i have a…” He sucked in as much air as he could, preparing himself. “...date at eight o’clock?”

He squeezed his eyes shut, shielding himself from their predicted onslaught of questions. However, when he was met with silence, he cracked open one eye.

Everyone in the room had their mouths open, and were staring at him like he had just grown five heads. The wooden spoon Papyrus had held in his gloved hand clattered to the floor, and his jaw bone almost went with it. For a moment everyone looked at him with a stunned silence.

And then the house erupted.

Undyne began wheezing so hard, she splintered the dinner table with her fist. Papyrus squealed like a toddler and rushed over to his big brother, scooping him up in a bone-crushing hug, where Sans’ feet were dangling about twice his height from the ground. Frisk turned around in their chair and offered him two thumbs up. Toriel gasped and began congratulating Sans, who was too preoccupied with his brother to hear, and Alphys swarmed around the two, stars in her eyes and a million questions. (“Are they a monster or human? Boy or girl? Neither? Both? What’s their sexuality? Are they a skeleton? Do you personally know them? Did you match online? Do we know them? Are they into anime?”)

Once Sans was able to breath again, and was set back down onto the floor, everyone had gathered around him in a tight little circle, awaiting answers to the queries that were set for him.

“heheh, you guys are hilarious. thanks a million for the support, but, um, im gonna be late so…”

“Oh right!” Alphys squealed. “Go go go!  You don’t want to keep them waiting now do you!” She practically shoved him out the door, and slammed it in his face, leaving him as confused and startled as everyone else on the other side of the room. Alphys turned around to face a row of unhappy monsters (and little Frisk, who was crossing their arms)

“What?” Alphys said towards the room full of glares. “He’ll tell us all about it when he gets home.”

“BUT WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHO HE’S GOING WITH! THE LITTLE SHIT WAS AVOIDING THE QUESTION ON PURPOSE!! Undyne shrieked, launching a spear into the wall. Little cracks and divots dotted the wall, from instances just like this one. It really was difficult for the fish warrior to keep her emotions in check, sometimes.

“Calm down, please,” begged Toriel. “He was probably a little embarrassed. We’ll ask him about it tonight, okay?”

“YEAH!” Papyrus interjected. “AFTER ALL, HE IS SANS. EVEN IF HE WAS GOING ON A DATE WITH A LOG I WOULD BE PROUD OF HIM. AT LEAST SOME PROGRESS WOULD BE MADE!!”

Frisk giggled and nodded their head. The lot looked at them and smiled. They would get the details tonight. They didn’t want to keep the lazy pushover from his first attempt at anything other than breaking the Guinness world record for longest nap ever taken.

Sans never came home that night.

At ten o’clock they all sat on the couch, watching a movie, thinking it would be a great way to pass the time. Undyne talked about her new business with the police and Alphys fell asleep.

At eleven o’clock Frisk was put to bed and Alphys thought that perhaps Sans and whoever he went out with had gone to see a late playing movie or something.

At twelve o’clock everyone was starting to get sleepy, but Toriel kept them all awake, reminding them that Sans would need someone to take care of him if he went out drinking. Undyne laughed at the thought that Sans would ever drink alcohol and Papyrus began to sweat.

At one o’clock Undyne asked Papyrus if he wanted to go to bed, and he refused. He wanted to make sure his brother was safe, and wouldn’t sleep until he got home. Alphys began to pace by the door

At two o’clock, Toriel went to bed, and Undyne joined Alphys pacing by the door.

Three o’clock, and the scaly couple decided to go to sleep. Undyne thought she had wasted enough time caring about that waste of space and Alphys said she was sure Sans could take care of himself.

Four o’clock. Papyrus has fallen asleep on the couch. All was quiet in household

Five o’clock, everyone was sleeping soundly.

And the one minute past five, the door was abruptly slammed open, with Sans tumbling through the front door like he had never used his legs before. Papyrus had yelped and fallen off the couch as his brother drunkenly stumbled over to it and pressed his face into the cushions, groaning. His once formal outfit now consisted of his button up shirt and his pants, that was it. He had no shoes on, and the garments he was wearing were wrinkled up messes on his body. He also reeked of alcohol and...cigarette smoke?

“SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO??” Papyrus reprimanded as Sans continued to groan into the pillows. The sound of a door a ways through he downstairs hall was heard by Papyrus, who turned to see Undyne peeking her head out through the door, half awake and confused. Papyrus made a frantic motion to her from across the space between them, and the fish monster’s eye widened in realization. She quickly shut the door and rustling and thumping could be heard through the walls.

Papyrus looked over his brother while waiting for Undyne. He was now clutching his skull with both hands, moaning in pain. Was this a hangover?

Undyne kicked open the door from across the room, scaring Papyrus. She was in her casual clothes, blue jeans and a black tank top. The expression she wore was absolutely furious.

“YO ASSHOLE!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, stomping aggressively down the hall. Papyrus shook his hands, trying to ask her to tone it down, but ignored his cues and shoved him to the ground, pointing a spear at the back of Sans’ head. 

“DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE WERE WAITING FOR YOU TO COME HOME? WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! AND THEN YOU COME HOME AT ASS O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING REEKING OF ALCOHOL? WHERE THE ACTUAL FUCK WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?”

Sans had not moved from his position on the couch, or responded to anything Undyne said. Slowly, he tilted his head around to look at Undyne, with a half dead expression on his face. He regarded her furious stance for a few moments before turning back to press his face against the couch.

“i can’t deal right now, man…” he mumbled.

All the commotion downstairs had attracted Toriel, Frisk, and Alphys. Toriel came downstairs in her nightgown with Frisk holding her large paw, a worried look on both the child and mother’s face. Alphys, in a set of Mew Mew pajamas creeped out the room Undyne had burst from.

“Sans! Are you alright?” Toriel called from the stairs. 

Undyne scoffed and rolled her eyes, nudging the lump of bone sprawled on the couch with a spear. When it responded with another groan, Undyne took the courteous liberty to answer for him.

“Oh, he’s just FIIIINNNEE. The shitstorm stumbles in at this ungodly hour and collapses into his brother, obviously out drinking, cuz he reeks and now he’s got a hangover, and is unresponsive to anything anyone says. Oh, and you wanna hear the cherry on top?? He doesn’t even APOLOGIZE  FOR KEEPING US UP ALL FUCKING NIGHT.”

Sans clutched the sides of his skull in pain, and curled up into himself more.

Toriel took a stance. “Undyne, please behave yourself! Sans is in no condition to hear you scold him right now! We will speak to him about his irresponsible actions when he is feeling better, alright?”

Undyne dissipated the spear in her hands and fell into an armchair, grumbling at nothing.

Toriel wordlessly walked to the kitchen and began to prepare some toast. As she waited for the bread to pop up, she peered around the corner of the kitchen doorway to see Alphys bombarding Sans with questions, while he groaned in response to each one. Papyrus was rubbing his brother’s back. If monsters didn’t turn to dust, Toriel would have thought Sans was dead.

Soon the toast popped out of the slots and the boss monster threw them onto a small plate. She returned to the small skeleton and slowly sat him upright. He was a mess. His eyelights were wavering in different directions and he was drooling out of the corner of his mouth. How skeletons could salivate was a mystery in itself, but now wasn’t the time to think of such questions. He had a faraway look in his eyes, like he was staring at something the rest of them couldn’t see. Just one whiff of the air around him gave off the strong smell of alcohol and… she didn’t know that Sans smoked. She would make sure to go out and have a talk with him sometime in the future about smoking around those with lungs.

“Sans? Here, eat some toast. It will help you with you hangover.” Toriel coaxed a piece of bread into his hands before he took it started to nibble on the crust. He was a trainwreck.

“Are you feeling alright?” Silence for a few moments, and then he slowly shook his head.

“no.” He mumbled, biting into the toast and taking way longer than necessary to chew and swallow. “too much vodka.”

Toriel bit her lip anxiously. As much as she wanted him to rest, she was also incredibly impatient to hear the story of how his mystery date went. He was obviously in no condition to speak, but she and presumably everyone else in the room just had to know.

“Hey Sans?” She said, rubbing his back as he sat up, staring into space, elbows propping him up against his knees

“yeah?” 

“Do you...think you can tell us how last night went or are you not up to it right now?”

Sans chuckled and wiped his mouth on his sleeve and shaking his head, an attempt to wake himself up. He tried to put on his best “I’m awake” face, but it ended up looking like more of his “I’m half awake and want to sleep again” face.

“yeah, yeah, im cool. it went really well actually.”

By that point, everyone was listening intently to Sans. Papyrus was sitting criss cross on the floor at the foot of the couch, while Undyne, Alphys and Frisk all sat in assorted armchairs around the room. It was almost like storytime in kindergarten, the way they all sat with sparkling eyes, eager to hear of Sans’ first(?) attempt at dating.

He cleared his throat and smiled at his audience. His words were a little slurred, but they didn’t mind.

“so I took him-“

Undyne immediately stood up so fast she knocked the chair she was sitting on to the ground. She looked at him with wide eyes.

“DID YOU SAY ‘HIM’???”

“uhh...yeah.”

Undyne howled with pride and laughter as she materialized another spear, launching it into the wall right next to where the last one made a mark.

“WELCOME TO THE GAY SIDE, YA LIL SHIT! WHOOHOO!!!!”

“okay.”

“UNDYNE! LET MY BROTHER FINISH SPEAKING! HE WAS HARDLY THREE WORDS IN WHEN YOU SO RUDELY INTERVENED.”

Undyne couldn’t hear him. She was too busy hysterically cackling into her overturned armchair.

“A-Anyways, continue??” Alphys encouraged.

As Undyne began to wind down, Sans resumed speaking.

“anyways i took him to this really nice restaurant down on Garden Street, i forgot what it was called but it was italian or spanish or something. i don’t know the difference between most languages other than english yet. anyhoo, it went well. he’s the kind of guy who’s not used to all this fancy stuff, and neither was i but, y’know, dating protocol states that you gotta take your partner to a fancy restaurant, right?”

Alphys and Undyne looked at each other and nodded, remembering the time they went and were kicked out of a fancy restaurant themselves, for Undyne threw a couple forks across the room upon hearing how small the food would be. (“Why do you need to pay SO MUCH MONEY for practically NO FOOD?? I don’t get people!!”)

“so we sat down and ate, he was surprisingly well behaved. he’s the type of person that can’t sit still unless someone’s doing something entertaining, very short temper, y’know? so the whole dinner thing went pretty well, and actually - he looked really nice. he looked surprised to see me all dressed up, too. we’re both pretty much mega slobs, so there was a lot of elbow grease put into the outfits. heh.”

Toriel giggled. “Both of you are never well dressed?? It already sounds like a match made in heaven!”

Sans cleared his throat, pausing to clutch his skull again before continuing, his hangover acting up again.

“afterwards we, went to a bar nearby. the bouncer didn’t think we were over eighteen because we were so short.” He pauses to snicker at his own words. “when we finally got in, we had a couple drinks and soon we were hammered, and i couldn’t even see straight. the rest is a blurry mess, but still got a general idea of what happened.

“he, uh, kissed me, and then i think we kinda wandered around a little bit, yelling and stuff. at one point i think we both had emotional breakdowns on the park bench, but im not really sure. but what I am sure about is that we passed a motel, and bought a room for one night, and-.”

He stopped talking right there and looked at all the faces in the room awkwardly, especially towards Papyrus, beaming up at his brother in pride. Sans began to sweat.

“And…?” Toriel prompted.

He began to fidget and look down at the couch. He could almost feel realization dawning on his friend’s faces.

“No…” Undyne breathed, putting her hand over her mouth. Sans swallowed hard and continued his sentence.

“i uh - don’t think i want to go into great detail with what happened next.”

Silence.

And then.

Undyne began to scream for the millionth time that day, stomping around, hooting and hollering with glee. While everyone else was busy calculating what was going on, she pranced over to the coffee table, and flipped it on its side in a rush of ecstasy.

“Undyne! Don’t destroy the furniture!!” Toriel angrily yelled. But Undyne couldn't hear her over the sound of her own laughter.

“YOU ACTUALLY DID IT. THAT WAS THE ONE VARIABLE THAT I DIDN’T WANNA TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION LAST NIGHT! BUT YOU… ACTUALLY… GOT-“

She couldn’t even finish her sentence she was wheezing so hard. Sans wanted nothing more than to fall in the crack of the couch and possibly be consumed by the void right then, but he kept his cool. On the outside at least.

Papyrus, of course, being the innocent little sunshine that he is, did not pick up on what happened like the rest of them did.

“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND…” he said, scratching his skull in confusion. “DID SANS AND HIS DATE… HOLD HANDS????”

“Yes, Papyrus. They held hands. That is all. They. Did.” Toriel replied, stony faced and clutching Frisk to her chest, with both massive paws over their ears. Frisk was squirming under their hold, but the boss monster would not be moved. 

Alphys sat in silent wonder at the prospect of Sans doing something with his life, while Papyrus was still curious as to why people were so happy with him holding hands. Undyne approached Sans and began to rather violently noogie his skull.

“Like, congrats dude!” She cried. Sans flailed under her grasp, but damn was she strong.

“thanks, i guess…?” he managed once everyone had somewhat calmed down. “I uh...think i'm gonna go lie down for a while now...my head’s really acting up…”

“Do you, uh, need any help getting upstairs??” Alphys offered, but Sans waved her off.

“naw, i can handle myself. imma just use a shortcut upstairs.”

“But Sans, I don’t know if-“ Alphys was cut off when Sans disappeared from her sight in a flash of blue light, leaving the couch empty. Right when he left, a large crash was heard from upstairs, and several things could be heard tumbling off of shelves. It sounded like an avalanche. A muffled “i’m okay” came from Sans’ room. He did not sound okay.

A couple loud bangs and thuds came from his room as he shuffled around, probably changing out of his wrinkled suit remains. Soon, the noise died down as the last sound that was heard was the creak of a bed, as a body flopped down on top of the covers. He was soon asleep, and Papyrus went to check on him to confirm this. 

After a few minutes, Toriel asked Papyrus to check on Frisk, who she had practically drop kicked out of the room once Undyne began screaming. And Papyrus, even though he was in his early thirties, still thought that the word ‘sex’ meant holding hands in another language. He simply could not be in the room.

The room was left for the adults, all sitting in silence as the three listened to the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway, Sans’ snores upstairs, and the giggles of Papyrus and Frisk in the other room. They all sat with pensive expressions on their faces, thinking hard about what had just transpired.

Undyne was the first to break the silence. “What the fuck?”

“Undyne, you do not have to throw a curse word in every sentence. Please show some restraint. The child is already exposed to more than enough from you.” Toriel sternly shot.

“So? The kid ain’t here, and Sans, the lazy good-for-nothing heap of bonemeal actually went out with a date, and got himself laid? Like, how does he even get a date??? He’s never tried at all! And sex only after one night? That guy must be a slut, how much did he charge?”

“Undyne! This is getting quite out of hand! Reign yourself in, right now.”

The warrior ran a scaly hand down her face. “All I’m trying to say is that this is really unexpected. Only a couple of months after the barriers broken, and he’s already found himself a date. Do any of you think that’s...I don’t know, a little strange?? I mean the underground isn’t that big. Perhaps he knew whoever this guy was before hand. I mean, in all honesty, I didn’t think he wanted us to know he was going out…” 

“Yeah! This could have been his t-tenth date with this person f-for all we know…” Alphys mumbled, deep in thought.

Toriel sighed and stood up, making her way to the kitchen. “Well, whatever he’s doing, I don’t personally want to know. I think the events of his own private life are none of our business, and he will speak about whatever he wishes, and conceal anything that he does not want you all to know. It is not right to pry, Undyne.”

“I know, it’s just...oohhh, that little sauce stain is hiding shit from us. Big, impactful things. I can feel it.”

“Well, in that case, we’ll just have to wait until he decides to tell us about them.” Toriel called back, and Undyne flared at the kitchen doorway, as Toriel was out of her line of sight.

“I’m making French toast for breakfast, since we’re all up anyways, and I was inspired by Sans’ half eaten plate.” She said, giggling. “Tell the others I’m cooking and ask them what they want on theirs.”

Alphys responded with a “yes ma’am!” and quickled scurried into the TV room, leaving Undyne all alone in the living room. She slunk down into the fluff of the large chair.

“Dirty subject changer.” She growled. She would get her answers one day. Either by force or secret, she didn’t know but Undyne - Undyne was a very impatient woman.

CHAPTER 2 THINGS START TO GET SPICY

Later that night, things got even more interesting, where Undyne thought the drama levels couldn’t go any higher.

She had been sleeping peacefully, spooning a sleep-deprived Alphys (who spent way too much time staying up late and watching anime rather than sleeping) when a loud thud came from the upstairs bedroom, startling her out of her sleep. Her immediate thought was an intruder, but soon, her instincts faded away and logic kicked in as the heavy sleep left her mind.

Sans must have accidently rolled out of bed again , she thought to herself, glancing at her girlfriend, who had not been disturbed in the slightest. Undyne, as all the folk in waterfall used to say, would always sleep with one eye open. Of course, it was also served as a joke, seeing she only had one eye in the first place, but the metaphor still stood. She was always cautious, ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but her bounciness kept her constantly paranoid. Whatever. It was a good skill to have as head of the Royal Guard.

She silently groaned, annoyed she had been woken up by that bag of bones again, and prepared to drift off, when she heard noises from upstairs that made her snap right back into reality again.

She was hearing talking from his room. There were two voices. One was obviously Sans’ but the other was not one she was familiar with. It was lower and more gravelly. She could not make out any words they were saying, as the ceiling acted as a muffler, but there was definitely a conversation going on upstairs. Shushing was heard from the voice she knew as Sans, while the lower voice kept ranting on about something. Undyne made up her mind.

Quietly, she slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb her girlfriend, and grabbed her phone, slowly creeping down the hall in her sleep wear: a tanktop and sports shorts. Her many years of training allowed her to creep up the staircase without much sound, walking on the balls of her feet, bouncing her weight and taking slow even breaths. She just couldn’t be seen, she had to gather all the information she could. There was only one person who Undyne suspected was up there. 

The house was really dark, and there was no other source of light at night besides the moonlight, which didn't even hit the living room at this time of night, so she used her phone flashlight to navigate her way around the house. Carefully, she approached Sans’ bedroom door and shut off the light, where the hushed argument on the other side of the door was becoming more clear. She held her breath and pressed an earfin against his door.

“...but you can’t.” said the voice Undyne identified as Sans. “I’d absolutely love it but even with my door locked, I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

“But why not?” complained the unidentified voice. It sounded very upset.

“Keep your voice down! Do you wanna wake up everyone in this household?” Sans hissed. 

“I’m sorry it’s just...I can’t go back there...Boss is gonna kill me if he finds out I ran off to Undertale again…”

Undyne made a face. Where - or rather - what was Undertale? It sounded strangely familiar, yet she decided not to concern herself with it. She kept listening to Sans and this mystery monster talk.

“I thought you said you guys were on a reset?”

“Yeah, well, Ink made some… uh… modifications to the mainframe of the universe with a little help from the rest of the council.”

“Uh huh, get to the point…”

“So I know you’re still kinda new to the AUniverse, so I’ll just explain what I can to the best of my abilities. The big guys had this meeting, right? And they decided that the memories of all the other variables in each universe should be retained as well, not just the S variable. I mean, typically, right? Because sometimes there would be more than one, or none at all or…”

“Yes, yes, I understand that there are a lot of different outcomes and variable combinations...”

At this point Undyne was completely lost. Who were these people, Ink or The Council? Universal code manipulation? The ‘S-variable’. She had no idea what they were talking about and she didn’t care. The voice memo app was up and recording in the period of five seconds. She couldn’t miss a single beat. Going over this with everyone else tomorrow morning at breakfast could prove useful. Perhaps this was a getting closer to understanding the strange world of Sans’ cryptic and seemingly omniscient remarks.

“Wouldja stop cutting me off and let me finish!” The rough voice commanded.

“Sorry bout that. Continue…”

“Anyhoo, the message was passed on to me through Stretch, and honestly I was pretty excited. They’re making it like, where memories of the Multiverse, Ink and Error’s shit, and all the stuff that doesn’t happen in their own universe regularly to be remembered. They are also adding in a thing where all the main variables are aware of resets, but no one knows the details and exact happenings except of us, the S-variables. Ink said resets would be like a dream for everyone else, because  you know when sometimes you have this dream and for the life of them you can’t remember anything about it except for if it was good, or bad, etc.?”

There was a pause, in which she was pretty sure consisted of Sans nodding his head.

“Yeah, so that’s how it's gonna feel for all the others who don’t remember. They’re only keeping the memories of the AUniverse intact, and a general knowledge that resets exist. LIsten, I’m just parroting over here. I have no idea what I’m talking about, just continuing the game of telephone.”

“Will they… be modifying Undertale as well?”

“Sorry, but naw. Listen man, no one was supposed to make contact with your universe in the first place. The only reason you even know if our existence is because PJ fucked up and chased a hate mongrel through 0.0. Said it’s best if they left your universe as untouched as possible. Could seriously fuck up everything.”

Sans sighed heavily before changing the subject. “So...are they going to be making this change for… all of the AU’s??”

“Er, don't think so. I’m talkin’ the weird, lonely ones that haven't made contact, the psychopathic ones, and other pretty distant ones, like Dancetale or Sixbones.”

“God, why hasn’t Error destroyed that one yet?” Sans grumbled. “It gives me nightmares.”

“Yeah, I know. Could you imagine every fight being a dance competition? They’re a bunch of fuckin’ pansies over there!” The unnamed voice in Sans’ room then suddenly raised his voice several pitches higher in mockery. “Hi! We’re a bunch of ballerina losers that love to twirl! La la la la la la~~”

Undyne could hear Sans snort in laughter through the door. “Yeah, it is pretty scary, but I was actually talking about Sixbones.”

“...oh.”

“Yeah...could you imagine me ‘n Paps getting melded together with DT, becoming a brainless amalgamation? God, I hope I never see it.”

The mystery voice was silent at this and Undyne grit her teeth in thought. SixBones? She’d have to make a note to discuss that with Alphys the next morning. She heard the bed creak with weight and a rough sigh.

“Welp, I’m thinking you won’t have to. Ink keeps that place safeguarded as with every other crazy miserable place, so you’re fine.”

“Heh, yeah...I guess you’re right. But why does he defend them from Error? I mean, from what I’ve heard those places are terrible.” Sans said.

“Eh, I wouldn’t question it. Ink knows what he’s doing - probably.” The other voice commented.

“Yeah… Anyways, what time is it?”

“Two in the morn.”

“...Do you really wanna spend the night?”

“FUCK YEAH!!”

“For the fifth time keep it down!! ”

“Um… sorry.. heheh…”

The sheets on Sans’ bed ruffled around a bit; whoever was there was climbing into bed.

“Thanks, sweetheart.” The rough voice grunted.

Sans chortled. “What, is that your new name for me now?”

The other side of door a silent, before the rough voice mumbled , almost too silent for Undyne to catch. “...maybe…”

A massive, malicious grin split across Undyne’s face. So this is Sans’ mystery lover? Undyne thought his voice sounded like a cranky old hunchback who quit smoking a week ago and got really pissed about it. 

Sans laughed. “You’re hilarious. Hey listen, you gotta leave at five okay?”

“Five…? But thats like… only three hours away.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a real downer, but my Papyrus has a set wake up time every morning, and he’ll be parading around the house. He also checks on my room, and if I lock my door he gets real upset.”

“Fine, whatever. Hug me.”

“Heheh okay, babe.”

The room lapsed into silence.

Undyne sat for another ten seconds, with her ear against the door, waiting for that extra sentence, but none came. Soon all that she could hear were the snores of two beings, probably cuddled up in the blankets.

She carefully shut the voice memos app off and slowly began to inch away from the door, making her way down the steps with great care not to let anything squeak. She was not capable of producing any thoughts whatsoever. Her head was absolutely spinning with questions, and right when she crept into her bed and, they all hit her like a tidal wave.

Multiverse? Code manipulation? Timelines? Resets? She felt like the baggage attached to Sans’ mystery date was more than she imagined. Is this why Sans was always so cryptic? Did he really know secrets to the entire universe that no one else knew, interacting with timelines and such? Where was Undertale, the place Sans had so sadly sighed about when he heard it wouldn’t be affected. By… what was it again? Undyne became lost while they were talking. Something about reseting memories or dreams? Has Sans been places they could never imagine? And who were...Ink or Error? Those names had been thrown around a couple of times, yet held no meaning to Undyne. She had never heard of those people in her life. And she didn’t know if Sans wanted her too. They had been safeguarding… what was it again, psychopathic universes? Something about dancing and an amalgamation of Sans and Pap? And what the heck were those variables they kept mentioning? And why was Sans calling Papyrus his?

Undyne threw a pillow over her face and groaned into it, causing Alphys to furrow her brows and turn over in her sleep. Undyne was close to something, she knew it. Sans had always been the kind of guy to hide secrets, but shit like this? Universally scaled? She couldn’t deal with this. She would have to sit with Alphys tomorrow morning and go over the recording she managed to get. Maybe she would be able to make sense of all the crazy stuff Undyne heard. No matter. They had finally caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. 

“ ...He also checks on my room, and if I lock my door he gets real upset.”

“Fine, whatever. Hug me.”

“Heheh, okay, babe.”

The recording lasted another ten seconds, all of which consisted purley of silence before shutting off. And Undyne looked to Alphys and Toriel sternly, waiting for their reactions.

Alphys was sweaty, to say the least. As soon as the part about the amalgamates came on, she began shaking and darting her eyes around the room, obviously really uncomfortable. Toriel was confused, and she looked at Undyne’s smartphone, thinking deep about something, although Undyne could not tell what.

It was seven thirty in the morning. Papyrus and Sans were out with Frisk, taking a walk around the neighborhood, on the suggestion of Toriel, who knew that they had to have the house alone to themselves. Undyne had come to her at six in the morning, demanding the most urgent of meetings, where Sans was not allowed to be in the house. Papyrus and Frisk were just kicked out for good measure. They both knew that neither one would be very useful to keep around for this.

“Do you want me to play the tape again?” Undyne asked. 

“No, no, I think I understand. Well, I wouldn’t say ‘understand’ but…” Toriel trailed off, thoughtfully.

“So, who exactly are I-Ink and Error? Their names are mentioned several times throughout this tape, and I’m still no closer to understanding their place…”

“They’re probably the ones who are large and in charge, if you know what I’m saying. After all, the two spoke about them like they had great authority in...the mulituniverse, I don’t fuckin know, any thoughts Alphys?” said Undyne

Alphys clicked her claws together anxiously and began avoiding eye contact. “W-Well I think it’s interesting that an a-amalgamation would be mentioned. Alternate universes do mathematically exist, so, I guess, h-hypothetically, it could be possible for a  universe to exist in which Sans and Papyrus become an a-a-a-” She didn’t want to finish the rest of her sentence.

“Wh-What was it called again? S-Sixbones? I-I don’t really like the sound of that…” she said, rocking back and forth on her chair. She hoped the subject of the amalgamations would never come up in conversation ever again, yet now she was stuck with the guilt of a nonexistent deed. She couldn’t even imagine reducing Sans and Papyrus to goopy brainless abominations. God, how their lives would be so much different.

Alphys cleared her throat. All the others were looking to her for answers, and though not many conclusions had been made from this tape, she still felt like some educated guesses had to be taken before confronting Sans about this later.

“Alright, So what I’m gathering is the existence of multiple timelines, and for some reason, Sans is aware of these… alternate timelines...but seemed to get the information from...the other voice.”

Undyne growled. “I always knew he was hiding big things from us. But on a universal scale? Maybe they’re just talking about some story he wrote, or something.”

Toriel shook her head. “Definitely not. Undyne, Alphys?” She said, looking at both. “I think whatever this is might be beyond our comprehension. Perhaps we should ask Sans about-“

“NO!” Undyne shouted, slamming both hands on the table. “There’s a reason he hasn’t told us anything. All this code stuff? This timeline stuff? He doesn’t want us to know. He’s purposely hiding a massive part of his own life from us, like we aren’t his closest friends and family!”

“Well, what if there’s a reason? What if he doesn’t want us getting hurt - or maybe he just-“

“Alphys, listen, stop trying to defend him. Now that I know the weight of his little secrets I can’t just not figure out what he means.”

Toriel took her turn to contribute to the conversation “Well, I thought the part where he said ‘The only reason you knew about us was because PJ...um ah, messed up.’ I wonder what that means? Perhaps Sans only knows about these people on accident?”

“I mean, that sounds right.” said Alphys, scratching her chin in thought. “But maybe Sans’ “friend” is keeping him updated on the going-ons of the...um….multiverse? Gosh, that sounds stupid to say out loud.” Alphys added air quotes with her claws on the word ‘friend’.

Undyne hummed in agreement. “If his boyfriend’s a message man for him, and knows all about the universe and stuff, do you think he might be from another dimension?”

“I mean it’s a-a possibility?” Alphys offered. 

Undyne put her hands in her hands and Alphys kept clicking her claws in thought, obviously as confused as everyone else, and no closer to an answer. Toriel took this opportunity to put in her two cents.

“My friends, I do not think we should keep stressing about this. I think we should leave Sans’ own life to himself. Even if he is hiding rather large secrets from us, it's rude for us to intervene.”  

Alphys gave an uncertain nod at Toriel’s comment and Undyne remained silent before suddenly grabbing her phone.

“Wait! Wh-Where are you going?” Alphys called after her.

Undyne did not respond as she marched down the hallway, and slammed the door to her room. Toriel and Alphys were left alone with each other, looking at each other with blank stares. The uncomfortable silence was ended when Alphys broke out in a nervous sweat. 

“Welp! I think I better check on Undyne! I’ll see you later Ms. Toriel okay bye.” She said hurriedly, leaping out of her seat and scurrying down the hall after her girlfriend. 

Toriel sighed heavily and left the table as well, heading over to the kitchen to start on the dishes. She didn’t want to make her life harder than it had to be by thinking about all these hypotheticals. If it didn’t concern her, she didn’t want to worry over it. In time, she believed, all these secrets would come out, it would just take time, possibly  even several years.

Even if those secrets would come out the next morning.

CHAPTER 3 IM IMPATIENT I NEED TO WRITE THIS PART FUCK

Toriel ascended the staircase, deep in thought. Yesterday had… not gone well, being honest. Undyne had managed to hold her tongue about the recording throughout the day, thank god, but she still gave Sans a glare every time she saw him, and had refused to talk to him the whole day. Sans, of course didn’t know they were aware of his conversation the other night and was confused, and Toriel was left to explain why Undyne was so cold towards him all of a sudden. It was because you never told her you were into boys earlier, Toriel had said, and Sans bought it without hesitation. It was a good thing Undyne always got so angry about trivial things. If you had told someone that Undyne got mad because the sky was an improper shade of blue, they would probably believe it. She was an unpredictable wildcard.

Even though Undyne had been mostly silent throughout the day, Toriel had still heard her grumble underneath her breath occasionally, and at one point she thought she could hear Undyne and Alphys frantically whispering to each other about the contents of the recording and their own theories. 

Whatever. She wouldn’t concern herself with such thoughts right now.

She reached the door to his room and turned the handle. “Sans? Are you awake? Everyone’s downstairs having breakfast and-”

She froze mid sentence when she looked up. She took in the sight before her, and her brain tried to make rational sense of what was going on but was failing, almost going into overdrive it was thinking so hard. She opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find something to say, but nothing came out except a long “Uhhhhhh…”

There were two of them.

There were two Sans’. Her brain did a loop-de-loop trying to sort both of them apart, but they  had the exact same facial structure so at first she didn’t see the difference. But soon, enough of the instinctual shock faded away and she was able to see the elephant in the room. He looked just like Sans, except for a mouthful of serrated teeth and a single shining gold tooth fitting evenly among the rest. Along with that, there was also the fact that his eyelights seemed to be more reddish in color compared to Sans. Both of them were sitting up in bed, wearing greasy T-shirts and the exact same expression: they both looked painfully shell shocked.

The three of them stared for an uncomfortably long time, and the Sans look-alike had already began to furiously sweat and breathe heavily. Comotion from downstairs was still present as Undyne and Papyrus were busy setting the table. But all of that noise was filtered out through Toriel’s ears as she stared at the two beings.

The stranger was the first to break the longer than necessary silence. “Well fuck.”

That was another distinct difference between the two. Sans’ voice was low, but this guy had a real gravelly voice, much more threatening.

Sans turned to him angrily. “Well what did you expect, bonehead? I told you to leave at five! That’s what we’ve done literally every morning! You can’t just take the fact that I’m asleep for granted!”

“Well, I’m sorry!” pouted the other Sans, who had now completely disregarded Toriel to cross his arms at the original. “I was freezing and your shoulder is surprisingly warm. It’s cold as fucking balls back in Snowdin and your place has a heater! Plus, I don’t wanna face Boss like this…”

“Could you watch your language?”

“Watch my language?” said the other Sans, clearly taken aback. “From what I’ve heard your Undyne swears left right and backwards and I can’t cuss over the appearance of myself in the original timeline?? Oh god Ink’s gonna kill me! The world’s gonna end!” 

Sans patted his hyperventilating other on the back. “There there, I’m sure the timeline won’t rip itself in half or anything-”

“HEY! WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG, TORI??? I’M STARVING!!!” called a loud voice from downstairs. Undyne. Of course.

Both skeletons then seemed to notice again the presence of the goat monster, looking at her with anxious grimaces. Still keeping her eyes locked on the two monsters, she tilted her head slightly to the right to answer Undyne.

“Um…”

Both made a frantic waving motion with their hands, trying to get her to be quiet.

“I’ll be...right down…” she called uncertainly to the impatient fish monster. She straightened her glasses and took  another look at them. Was this who she thought it was?

Both skeletons exhaled in grateful relief. Toriel still didn’t know what to say to these two. They spoke for her.

“So um...hey Tori!” Sans said with a fake nonchalant attitude. “Howzit… howzit going???”

Toriel glanced at the other skeleton fidgeting with the sheets and avoiding all eye contact with her. She knew she was the only one who could save this conversation.

“Who is your, um, friend here? Could you maybe introduce me?” She suggested. No matter what, she had to keep her confused surprise hidden as well as she could. The scratchy voice of the other seemed to match the tape recording, so if he really meant that much to Sans, she couldn’t make a lousy first impression.

“Oh um, yeah sure this is… uh… Red. And, well, I know he looks just like me and that could possibly be because… he… is me??” Sans said, shrinking back into the covers.

So Alphys and Undyne were correct in one aspect. He was indeed from another dimension. But the fact that they literally are the same person was something she didn’t think anyone would suspect.

Pushing all instinctive judgement aside, she smiled warmly and advanced on “Red”, who was busy twiddling his thumbs under the covers and sweating up a river.

“Hello there, you go by Red, yes? Well, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Toriel.”

Red swallowed hard, still averting his eyes. “I...I know that - uh no I mean nice to meet you, I mean, uh...um…fuck-”

Sans put a hand on his back. “Seriously dude calm down. It’s fine, Tori’s really nice. She’s not like yours, alright?”

Toriel raises an eyebrow. “His…?”

Sans dragged his free hand down his face. “Look, he comes from a parallel universe, where basically everyone’s an asshole.”

Red immediately stopped fidgeting and glared at Sans. “Hey! We are not assholes, thank you very much! Okay, we have different backgrounds! We had to be tough! If you wanna call someone an asshole, talk to Asgore, he’s-

“HEY! WHAT’S GOING ON UP THERE?”

Red froze and then gripped onto Sans’ arm like a child, while Sans tried to shake him off.

“You’re a dumbass, y’know?” Sans hissed at him, while Undyne began to march up the stairs, footsteps loud and angry. Toriel ran outside to meet her.

“Undyne! I’m so sorry I’ve taken so long! Sans will not get out of bed, you know how lazy he is!”

The lie slipped out effortlessly. After all, he never got out of bed until at least ten o’clock anyways.

“What’s going on?” Undyne repeated. “I heard talking.”

Toriel faked aggravated exhaustion. “You know that lazybones! Always grumbling.” She sincerely hoped that Undyne could not see how nervous she was. She assumed that this was not the best time to introduce the newcomer.

Undyne sighed and stormed her way into Sans’ room, pushing her way past Toriel, despite the goat monsters cries of protest. Toriel flinched as Undyne got to the doorway, readying herself for the warriors reaction. If she was surprised, then Undyne would lose her marbles.

The goat monster held her breath and…

Undyne growled from inside his room. “Get up you lazy sack of ass.”

“Ow.” Sans groaned as Undyne presumably kicked him.

The warrior scoffed. “You’re honestly pathetic. C’mon, we’re waiting for you to eat breakfast. Toriel can’t roll you around all day.”

“Kay then.” Sans said, yawning  like he just rolled out of bed

Undyne made her way out of the room, passing a frozen Toriel. She raised her eye at the former queen in confusion before making her  way down the steps, grunting under her breath.

Did she not notice Sans’ edgy carbon copy sitting in bed with him? She couldn’t have been that blind with only one eye, could she?

Slowly, Toriel inched her way into Sans’ room and peered around the doorframe. There was only one Sans on the bed, looking relieved. He smiled wide as he slid off the side of his bed and made his way towards Toriel.

“I’d keep this on the down low if I were you,” he said, patting her on the paw and making a ‘zipped lips’ motion.

Toriel turned to him in wonder as he began to make his way down the stairs, opening and closing her mouth, thinking of something, anything , to say. Alas nothing came to mind.

Toriel had followed her friend’s advice. Not a word about morning was spoken throughout the whole day, although she was still nervous. Without a doubt, this had to be one of the most difficult things she had to come to terms with. Sans had a boyfriend. From another dimension. Who was an alternate version of himself. And not only that, but there was an entire multiverse out there, that others were aware of. People making decisions on the fate of timelines. She wasn’t sure how comfortable she was with this fact. Looking at the stars made her feel small, but thinking of the prospect of alternate universes made her feel microscopic.

Undyne had caught onto the boss monster’s suspicious behavior. Toriel had been confronted by her twice throughout the day, because she “just wasn’t acting like herself.” Toriel had tried to insist that she was fine, but Undyne wouldn’t buy it. Eventually Toriel falsely admitted that she was a bit light headed, which allowed her some leeway from the fish monster’s constant attention. She was simply surprised at how well Sans was taking it.

Not a single hint of worry shone through him. He was as calm and punny as ever, as if he almost didn’t get caught with his inter-dimensional boyfriend. Well, technically he did, but Toriel wouldn’t spill the beans that quickly. While she didn’t completely understand his motives for keeping it a secret, she did honor the fact that he wished her to keep silent. Sans’ behavior was so calm an lenient, she wondered how much he had been able to fool them in the past, saying that he’s fine when he may have had a lot more on his mind.

But why would he hide the fact that he’s dating someone? Toriel wondered. Red seemed very nice, albeit rather defensive. If Sans loves him, then he is obviously a good person. And even with initial judgement, she still realized that he was still really nervous. A first impression always puts a lot of pressure on someone. She wanted to get to know him better, she really did. The monster that made her friend so happy couldn’t live his whole life hiding from everyone else, could he?

Toriel picked up her smartphone from her bedside table, and took her reading glasses as well. It was eleven at night, and these troubled thoughts were keeping her tossing and turning. How could  she sleep after everything that happened today? She still had so many questions.

Fluffing up her pillows, she sat up in bed, opening Undernet , which had now become a popular social networking app for both humans and monsters alike. She opened Sans’ contact and typed a quick message, half surprised to find that his status said that he was online. Her large puffy fingers made it somewhat difficult to type quickly, but thanks to modifications made by Alphys, it was somewhat easier.

@goattohavealaugh: Hello Sans! I see that you are still awake. Could I talk to you about a few things?

She was still trying to break her habit of signing off every message with her name. After observing how the rest of her friends typed, she concluded that it simply wasn’t necessary. A little bubble with an animated ellipses popped up in the corner: he was typing back.

@behienz_the_times: sure. wassup tori?

@ goattohavealaugh: I was wondering if we could talk about what happened this morning? I hope I didn’t frighten off your friend.

He didn’t respond for about thirty seconds, causing Toriel to worry that she may have been too brash. But eventually…

@ beheinz_the_times: yeah. no, he’s fine. you weren’t exactly supposed to see that

@ goattohavealaugh: I understand, and I am very sorry to have intruded upon your privacy like that. However, why must you hide your friend that way?

@ beheinz_the_times: look, i know that it’s a lil weird, but trust me. this is pretty serious stuff. i don’t exactly know what will happen if i get you guys too comfortable with people like him.

Toriel assumed, from what she heard on the tape, that he was talking about different universes, but she didn’t exactly want to say so. She had to play dumb, just in case she was wrong.

@goattohavealaugh: Like him?

@ beheinz_the_times: remember when i said he’s from another universe? yeah, i don’t really know what will happen if you guys start to learn about all these things. like, the timeline could explode or smthing. idek. 

@ beheinz_the_times: i think it would be best if you just pretended this morn didn’t happen, k?

@ goattohavealaugh : Sans…

@ behienz_the_times: what? seriously tori don’t worry bout it

@goattohavealaugh: I care about you very deeply Sans. You are one of my closest friends, and I think the bond that we had created together over our years of talking through the door is very special. Please do not push me away. I want to meet your friend, and introduce myself properly.

@ beheinz_the_times: …

@ beheinz_the_times: fine

@ beheinz_the_times: i’ll see if i can get him to come over again. he’s pretty shook rn lol. i don’t think he’ll sleep over again 4 a while

@ goattohavealaugh: How many nights has he stayed over?

@ beheinz_the_times: every night for the past two weeks. lol he says he doesn’t like huggin but then he spoons me like a koala haha

Toriel was about to type a response when her text was interrupted by Sans.

@ beheinz_the_times: did u know that he purrs when he’s happy? he’s like a little cranky kitten. i love him so goddamn much he’s so adorable. 

@beheinz_the_times: and the other night he started chewing on my sweatshirt in his sleep. like just gently gnawing on my sleeve. i gave him a little nudge and he just mumbled and then squeezed me tighter

@beheinz_the_times: ugh and his shiny gold tooth makes him look so edgy and hot like u kno he literally stands in the mirror and polishes it. like tryna be all tough n shit. he makes me so happy honestly he’s so cute

@behienz_the_times: oops

@ behienz_the_times: sorry. i kinda ramble if no one stops me

Toriel knew what had to be done. It was clear how much he deeply cared about this… other him. Even if the offer would be a definite no, she still had to put it on the table

@ goattohavealaugh: It sounds like the type of connection you two have is very loving, and I wish to get involved. Not with your personal life, but please, let me meet him formally, and perhaps the others as well.

@ goattohavealaugh: So that’s why I would like to offer a family dinner to him.

@ beheinz_the_times: what

@ goattohavealaugh: I wish to have him over for dinner one night. It can be in three months from now if you wish. But I want him to feel comfortable with us, if he will be spending time with you.

@ beheinz_the_times: listen tori, i don’t think that’s a good idea. 1: all the timeline stuff. 2: he’s seriously anxious. like super insecure. i don’t think he’d even be able to hold eye contact. 3: well, he’s literally me. I’m not sure how well that fact is going to settle in with everyone

@ goattohavealaugh: Yes, it is a bit unusual, but I am in no place whatsoever to judge.He seems to make you very happy, and that is all I need to be happy myself ]:)

@ beheinz_the_times: aw. thx tori. ur really sweet. u know what? screw ink. nothing’s happened so far. that old paintbrush bristle is getting himself overworked again. im gonna ask red to come over and meet u guys. brb

Sans’ status changed to offline and Toriel was left thinking about how the conversation just went, scrolling up and re-reading some of their messages. She didn’t know who Ink was, but by what Undyne and Alphys had said earlier, he must be the one large and in charge. Did she really make the right choice here? Whoever this Ink was clearly laid down warnings… could she have doomed them all?

No. She was sure that inviting him over wouldn’t cause the world to collapse. Besides, he had already met her and nothing had happened. What would the harm in the others meeting him be?

Her meddling thoughts continued to whirl as she shifted to her side and her eyelids began to droop…

And snapped open with the ding of her smartphone. She put a paw to her chest as she breathed heavily for a few moments, letting the ringtone sink into her brain and spark the neural pathway that allowed her to remember it’s just her phone. And who would text her at this hour. 

She fumbled around for her glasses that had slid off her muzzle as she had drifted off groped in the dark for her smartphone. When she turned it on, she was vaguely surprised to see the large numbers read 4:46 AM. A recent notification was displayed on her lock screen, stating that Sans had just sent her a message. She logged in, curious on what he had to say this early in the morning.

@ beheinz_the_times : TORI HE SAID YES!! HE CAN COME OVER!! U CAN MEET RED!!

Toriel closed her eyes and gently smiled. She didn’t think Sans had even known caps lock existed until this point in time. Sleepy but joyful, she replied:

@ goattohavealaugh: That’s wonderful! Although, may I ask you: Were you up all night chatting with Red? It is quite early.

@ beheinz_the_times: maybe. but that’s not important. okay so he said that thursday works so he’ll come over then. also don’t put him on the spot okay? he’s a reeeaaal insecure guy and will probably either retreat into his jacket or get p aggressive if someone even looks at him the wrong way.

@ goattohavealaugh: Got it!

@ beheinz_the_times: also make something that would taste good with mustard because red freakin loves mustard. like, he’s like me with ketchup. and don’t ask him about his home life. his brother’s a pretty big asshole. he may seem really rude sometimes but it’s just a defense mechanism because he comes from a real rough place. if he snaps at u or curses don’t take it personally - he’s like that to everyone and he’s just nervous

@ goattohavealaugh: I promise that not I or any of the others will retaliate. I will need to speak to Undyne about that.

@ beheinz_the_times: also

@ behienz_the_times: …

@ beheinz_the_times: nah, whatever. i’m getting myself overworked again. it’s too early 4 this anyways. talk to u in person in the mornin?

@ goattohavealaugh: I would love that!

@ behienz_the_times: alrighty. night tori

@ goattohavealaugh: Goodnight Sans! ]:)

Toriel shut off her smartphone and stared at the ceiling. Now, how was she supposed to sleep after all of this? What she needed to do, was prepare.

“Everyone I have some exciting news.”

The breakfast table went quiet, as Toriel made the announcement. Undyne, with a mouth of French toast looked expectantly at the goat monster and Alphys, right next to her paused halfway through chewing.

Toriel was standing up, disregarding the plate of food she had only taken a few bites of. She had a paw on Sans’ shoulder, and surprisingly, Sans looked incredibly embarrassed. His face was bright blue, and he had a anxious smile on his face, making eye contact with none of them.

“What’s going on?” Undyne asked.

Toriel gave his shoulder a small squeeze and Sans retreated farther into his hoodie.

“I’m sure you are all aware that Sans has a… special someone in his life right now…”

Undyne’s head snapped up. She was now ten times more interested in the topic of conversation than she previously had been. Sans gave something between a chuckle and an embarrassed whine and put his head in his hands, his face glowing cyan.

“Well, it turns out, this “special someone” has agreed to come to dinner on Thursday!” Toriel said, clapping her hands together in excitement.

Sans had officially sunken into his jacket, only the top of his head visible through the shirt collar as the table roared. Undyne stood up and slammed her hands on the table

“WHAT?” She shrieked. “HOW DO YOU… WHAT THE…?!?!? TORIEL!!”

Toriel blushed. “Undyne, please, you’re making a very big deal out of-“

“AUGH!! IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS EASY!”

She slouched in her seat, defeated, as everyone else cheered.

Papyrus hardly knew what to do with himself. “Oh my gosh… I’m going to meet… YOUR BOYFRIEND!!”

Sans laughs. Things were going better than expected.

Chapter Text

“Geno.”

The skeleton in question paused, seizing up. All his blasters came to a halt. His movements became frozen like he was stuck in time.

Reaper took a step forward. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

The smaller skeleton continued to shake and Reaper approached him quickly, deftly dodging a few weak attacks.

“You’re the same height as he was.”

“Sh-Shut up-p.”

“You appeared the same time he went missing.”

“I-I said be QUIET!!!”

“Geno... or, sorry, ‘Error’... Look me in my eyes, and tell me you don’t know me.”

Defiant, the outcode stomped his foot, dissipating his attacks. He straightened up to look at Death confidently, but soon found the Reaper mere inches away. Error yelped in fear. He tried to back away but suddenly was aware of the wickedly sharp scythe behind him, the blade keeping him close to the Reaper.

Death’s face was soft, loving. “You know, I never stopped searching. My love had disappeared completely, and I knew he wasn’t dead. Was he lost? Trapped? Or did he really just want to walk out on his husband, because his love for his family was so little?”

Error was shaking, but Reaper got impossibly closer, pulling the scythe into his chest. “My Geno meant everything to me. He was my pride and joy, my darling. One of the few beings in this entire multiverse to be able to touch me, and out of those select few, the only one willing to love me. And who could love something as terrible as Death?”

“Go. away!!! I can’t-”

“Geno...” Death whispered, putting a hand on Error’s cheek. Error screamed.

...

But nothing happened.

“Come back home,” the God whispered, gripping the front of Error’s coat and pulling him close. Out of ancient habit, Error’s hands went to rest on Reaper’s chest. When he realized what he was doing, he tried to take his hands back but Death wouldn’t let him.

His phobia wasn’t acting up.

“Come back with me, said Reaper, running a hand down Error’s cheek. “Forget this pointless game of cat and mouse you have going with that other outcode. Don’t you want to remember what it’s like to love again? To be loved, every second of every day, my star? Gothy misses you so much.”

Error was incapable of a response, and Reaper didn’t wait for one either, tilting Error’s head up to meet his eyes, using only his index finger. “Let me give you a reminder of what you once lost. Let me show you how amazing it feels to be taken care of, and cherished.”

Even weeks later, Error didn’t know what had driven the force that had led him to eagerly lean into that kiss.

Chapter Text

By the time Error had intervened, Ink had already demolished most of his own house. Tables were overturned, glass was shattered, and splinters of wood littered the floor. The kids were nowhere to be seen, most likely cowering in fear from the fit of rage their “mom” was in.

Ink was on his knees, in the center of the destruction, letting his blue and red vials funnel out into the worst guilt-driven anger he had ever experienced. Tears slipped in between the fingers covering his eyes as he cried. Every time he tried to pull himself together, he would just break down harder. But he didn’t want to get rid of the vials. He deserved this.

He stopped crying when he heard the tap of bare-bones on the tile floor. He quickly wiped his eyes and sniffed.

“PJ, I’m sorry-”

But it wasn’t PJ. Or Gradient. Or that other random kid Gradient had dragged home with him for a week-long sleepover.

No, it as...

“Error... Error I told you to stay in bed...”

The glitched terror didn’t give any response to that question, continuing to stare at Ink as if the artist had grown two heads. Error was slightly hunched over, clearly trying to make an effort to stand upright on legs designed for an animal that walked on its hands as well. All five eyes stared at Ink, as wide as they could go. His breathing was remarkably loud.

Ink started getting to his feet, dusting himself off. “I don’t want you down here, love. There’s broken glass all over the floor, and you aren’t wearing any shoes.”

Again, Error ignored him. The only movements coming from the four-armed skeleton were the occasional crinkles of his nose. Other than that he was still as a statue, gazing at Ink with an unreadable emotion.

Ink’s face softened. “Ruru... what did I tell you. I want you back in bed. I know you like spinning your little webs around the house, but I’d like to know where you are so I can-”

As if someone had flicked a switch inside Error’s mind, he suddenly scampered forward and dove himself into Ink’s chest. The artist shrieked in fright but soon came to realize he was in no danger.

All four arms were wrapped tight around Ink’s torso, pulling him in close to Error chest. Error closed all of his eyes and gently started headbutting himself into the scarf, trying to make himself comfortable in the embrace. He slowly rubbed his cheek into Ink’s neck, and a deep rumbling noise came from his chest. A growl?

Wait no - that was a purr.

Ink laughed - he couldn’t help himself. He brought his hands around to hug him from the back, and gently scratched at Error’s spinal column.

“You were never this clingy before you... before...”

A hiccup, and the tears threatened to spill again. Two of the arms tightened around him, and Error whimpered in fear, feeling the smaller body he had wrapped in arms begin to shake. Ink leaned as far forward as he could into the embrace, throwing his hands around Error’s neck, still extremely damaged from the collar, and began to sob.

“Stars I can’t... I can’t just keep looking at you and seeing this... this thing in the place of where Error once was... they warped you into a mindless animal, and I’m never going to forgive them for it. I just got a letter from the council about needing to make it mandatory to have you on a l-leash at all times, and they wanted to do obedience testing on you and-”

Ink couldn’t go on. He just hugged Error tighter. “I can’t keep doing this! I’m losing more and more of you every day. My vials are draining by the second. I don’t know how much longer I can handle this, Error. I don’t want to feel anything anymore.”

Error absorbed practically 1% of Ink’s speech - his own name. That was about all that registered.

Huffing, he started to lick the top of Ink’s head. Maybe that would help make Ink less sad?

To his delight, it did. Ink started to laugh through his tears. He stayed with the artist for a little while longer, before scampering upstairs again and trying to drag the tiny human boy into his string nest to pet him.

Chapter Text

Nightmare’s scowl was one of the worst Error had ever seen. And that was an accomplishment, for the Lord of Negativity himself. Error told him so, only furthering the other’s intense anger.

“Again? Really?”

Error shrugged and pulled out a seat. Nightmare’s castle was never really his style. Too much try-hard Transylvanian flair to the furnishings. It’s like he wanted everything in the fortress to scream 'LOOK AT ME IM EVIL’, even though Nightmare hardly killed anyone, and hadn’t taken any advances towards any universes in several months. Error believed that actions spoke louder than words. Or in this case, flashy decor.

“It’s not like you’ve really been active lately. Word around town is that that was the first time you left your stupid castle in like, what? 35 days?”

Nightmare rolled his one eye. “What does it matter. I obviously had my sights set on that timeline and you had to suddenly swoop and kill ever denizen before my subordinates barely had time to step through the portal. It was a strategic advance, and you clearly care nothing of intellectual planning.”

“Nope.”

Nightmare, expecting Error to fight back, became frustrated when the other curled his fingers and began examining his fingertips, despite having no nails. Error was one of the beings that gave off the most amount of negativity in the multiverse, but unfortunately for Nightmare, a lot of that negativity came from Nightmare’s own annoyance, and he couldn’t consume his own aura (he’d tried, it just made him sick).

“...Anything else to say?” Nightmare managed to spit through his gritted teeth.

“Not really,” Error yawned. “This place smells like a rotting corpse.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The Destroyer and the Lord of Negativity sat staring each other down from the opposite sides of the table. Nightmare had always been somewhat resentful of Error, seeing as the glitch only listened to himself and never took orders or advice from anyone other than his own crazy conscious.

Error kept staring at his fingers and picking at his joints. “Okay, I’m gonna take it as you only wanted me over so you could have someone to complain to because I’m sure you’ve talked all your other little friend’s lives away. See ya.”

Nightmare only intervened when Error’s foot was halfway through the portal.

“Actually yes. I did want you for one other reason.”

-------------------------------------------

Purple Ink coalesced on the ground before jumping upwards to form a figure, shaking the residual droplets of liquid off.

“Error?”

Ink didn’t visit Nightmare’s castle all that often. But Error had been gone for several hours - Ink knew there was nothing Error hated more than being at Nightmare’s place, so the artist knew that naturally, something had to be wrong for him to have stayed this long.

He let the sound of muffled voices carry him down the hall

“Okay so, the stitching pattern goes like this-”

“Like this?”

“No! You moron- like this. You have to tie the ends twice or else it will just come undone-”

“I should have never asked for your help-”

The voice of Error scoffed. “I’d like to see you TRY and find someone better with a needle and thread than me. I’m only helping you with your dumb coat because I pity whatever fool you would have run to and asked to make it. Only I can achieve craftsmanship of this sort of level.”

“Whatever, you egotistical fuck.”

“Bitch. Hand me my glasses.”

Ink smiled. Error was making better friends - how cute!

Chapter Text

“There, there...”

Ink had overdosed himself on his pink paints.

Not the kind that made him... interested in people’s physical features. Or the kind that made him empathetic, for when people were telling him their woes. Or the kind that helped him establish that close familial bond with some of his greatest friends, practically family at this point.

Nope.

This kind of “love” was possessive. He was sickeningly sweet and gentle, with the softest touches and gentlest kisses, with a startlingly stern expression. No one dare tested him when he was like this. This certain combo of emotions was one of his favorites because of the reactions it would draw out from all the others.

Such a fun thing to watch.

The thing on his lap was... well it looked like an ice cream bar. Half vanilla, half chocolate; Half of its bones were pearly white - the other half as black as the void. With its socket completely melted into something ugly, it quivered like a little leaf in Ink lap, whining and crying and clutching its own head, muttering to itself.

Ink smiled. He had never got to experience an Error’s corruption this close before! He was glad his plan was paying off.

Ink had seen the way Reaper had been able to influence Geno. With literally no one else in the multiverse able to find you and keep you company, one could get unnaturally clingy. So the Protector of the AU’s took a leaf out of Reaper’s book and decided to become this Geno’s One and Only. It was a slow process, but Ink knew exactly how people worked. He’s been studying the way people interact for eons at this point

And who cared that what he was doing was manipulative?

No one was around to stop him. Reaper and Geno ceased to exist a long, long time ago.

The Half Geno, Half Error thing kept clinging to Ink’s sash, annoying him greatly, but he didn’t show it.

“Daww, it’s okay, sweetie,” he whispered. “I know it's uncomfortable, but the pain will be there for only a while, okay?”

“i-IT hUrt s...” the thing sniveled, shaking. It blinked a few tears out of its eyes. The blue stains rolled down its cheeks, leaving permanent scarring to the pigment.

Ink only grinned.

“Once it’s all over, you’re going to be my special helper, okay? You’ll be better than ever. Stronger too. You won’t have to worry about dusting, anymore!”

“...voiCEs...” the abomination cried. Ink grimaced. Sheesh, it was super ugly with all those glitches and chipped bones. Looked kinda like a dented up circuit board

“Don’t worry about them, Error... just focus on me.”

“J-juSt...”

“Yeah, just me. You’re going to be so perfect, trust me.”

‘Error’ clung tighter, seeking all the affection and gentle pets it could get, continuing to sob, and sob, and sob.

It was going to be perfect when it was done.

Chapter Text

The Error enthusiastically jumped into Ink’s grasp, only the faintest bit of white remaining on its- his, Creators, it’d be difficult to get used to that- body. Many of the cracks and holes had been repaired while he was asleep, paint can be quite useful when dealing with beings like this.

Ink disdainfully shoved the abomination off, taking notice of the betrayed expression before gently scratching his cheek and curving to under his chin, putting on a mask of happiness to see the more-or-less experiment of his.

He knew well that this could be a dangerous creature if he played his cards wrong, but he doubted that was possible at the point he was at with his training and domestication of the glitch.

The jobs he used him for? Removing universes that were taking up valuable space in the Multiverse, though only the truly forgotten ones. It truly was like a sketchbook, too many little doodles will prevent a masterpiece.

Though of course, he had his ways of keeping this… sub-monster creature under control. The most effective way tended to be scraping the inside of the beast’s skull with a knife to get rid of those strings. They would heal and come back in about 2-3 months, but it prevented him from destroying and would give him agony if he tried. He kept the strings if he was good, he lost them if he was disobedient. That was the rule.

He didn’t think it was cruel or manipulative, he would have lived a worse life if he was to have been free, likely having an ultimately painful existence and an even worse disposal.

Plus, he was happier now! He’d jump up to greet Ink with a hug each time he saw him, much like a puppy. He’d never observed Geno do that to Reaper, so his plan had to be working well.

…such an optimistic creature from such a horrible origin. Truly a masterpiece of his powers.

His self-congratulating inner monologue was interrupted when the Error in his arms abruptly seemed distressed, looking around wildly. Ah yes, the “voices”. One of the many annoying features of this ugly mistake, but they could be quite entertaining when they switched from kindness to intent to harm.

“Hey, hey… shh, quiet now.” He hushed, sitting down abruptly and dragging Error down with him, awkwardly throwing him into his lap before taking a firm grip on the hood of his jacket and neck of his shirt to get control over him, pulling him so he was laying back in Ink’s arms. “Here, I’ll help.” He cooed, taking a thin paint brush from his sash and beginning to paint fractals of swirls on the strings along the creature’s face, trying to make it look less like the abomination it- ugh, he was.

He blinked up at him with wide, innocent-looking mismatched eyes. An eyelight had started to form in the melted socket, making him look a bit more normal.

Despite this being annoying him, he had to admit, it was one of his favorite playthings.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Everything was gone.

Empty.

Blank.

Creativity was dead.

No one cared anymore.

And everything was gone.

Everything was gone.

The white landscape stretched out to infinity. There was nothing beyond it. It’s all there was, and all there ever would be.

There were two creatures left. One was on the floor, heaving and sobbing and screaming pleas into the nothingness. The other stood calmly, his back turned on the first.

“So this is it,” Error said. “It’s all gone.”

Ink didn’t respond. He moaned and wailed, vomiting up another bout of ink his clothes were already drenched in. Both hands went to clutch his stomach as he shivered and rocked, unable to sit still. “It… It hurts so much, I-I don’t want to stop! I don’t want to die! It’s too soon!”

“It was inevitable,” Error said flatly. He never once looked back at Ink. “If something is born, than it can die. Nothing is everlasting. Nothing.”

“Well… now it’s true. Nothing is everlasting. As in like… it’s going to be n-nothingness… f-forever…” Ink gave a weak chuckle, which slowly became louder and louder, to the point where he was practically convulsing with laughter, coughing up more and more Ink as he screamed into the void, tears cascading down his cheeks.

Error still didn’t move.

“Error…” Ink wheezed, coming down from his high. “Error, why won’t you look at me? Did I do something wrong? Is it because I failed? Is it because I’m a failure? Is it because I’m spewing more blood than I am words?”

“Why are you laughing?”

Ink giggled again, unfurling himself from the tight ball he had pressed his form into. His vials were draining, and they were draining fast. He looked at them and smiled. “I only have so long left before I’m gone for good. I should savor my emotions while they last.”

He turned his head in Error’s direction. Oh good, the glitchface was finally looking at him. Ink grinned again. “Why so sad? At least we have each other now. I-I’m not alone. We have hope. I may not have that much hope left but… I know you do and… and you could carry me?” A shudder wracked through Ink’s body. “Maybe help me walk? Mayb-”

“No.”

Silence.

“N-No? B-but Error… Ruru… Glitchy… this is it. There’s no one else but us. There’s nowhere else to go. It’s just you and me. C-C-Could we like, snuggle or something?”

“…”

“…Error…?”

“I’ve done what I’ve had to do.”

Ink blinked, and a mixture of blood and Ink bubbled between his teeth. “What…?”

“I made a promise to eliminate all glitches in the multiverse.”

Ink considered what he said before smiling and trying to scoot himself closer, dragging himself along the ground. “That was so long ago Error, you - you told me you didn’t think like that anymore, right Error?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Error why did all the universes disappear.”

“Because I did what I had to do.”

“Wait but-” Ink didn’t get to finish, cutting himself off with a yelp and squirming, unable to get off the ground. “It burns, everything burns, it’s not right, I’m coming apart Error help-!”

“You’d die without me, right?”

Ink didn’t have to answer that question for them to know the answer. He could barely twitch his fingers, and his eyelights had stopped changing shape. Pained wheezes left with every breath.

“Well, then I know what I have to do.”

“What…t?”

Ink feebly looked upwards at his companion. The error looked down at him, with a mixture of longing and sorrow. But he made no moves to help Ink. He gave a gentle smile, one of the most peaceful expressions Ink had ever seen him wear.

“I love you Ink. I know you may not believe it at the moment, but I do.”

Over his head was a sharp-tipped bone.

It all clicked.

“Wait… Error wait no…” Ink began to heave, spluttering up more black goo. “Wait no stop please, it can’t end like this you don’t have to- I can’t lose-”

“Shh Ink, it’s okay. The time has come. This is how it’s supposed to be, Ink. We have no purpose anymore.”

“PLEASE.” Ink was screaming his voice hoarse. “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE. WE DON’T HAVE TO GO OUT LIKE THIS, ERROR PLEASE-”

“Ink, it’s all gone. I-”

“PLEASE, YOU’RE ALL I HAVE LEFT! YOU’RE MY ONLY TETHER TO REALITY ONCE I’M DRAINED OF FEELING. I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE!!!”

…

Error snapped his fingers and the bone dropped.

He was pushed out of the way and fell onto the ground, with a chest full of a sobbing, frail little skeleton, crying his heart and soul out into Error’s shirt.

Literally.

After 4 hours of holding each other in their arms, Error scooped up the shell of what used to be his Ink and together, they roamed the empty expanse.

Chapter Text

Cross hated his emotions.

This wasn’t due to the trauma of losing your world repeatedly, and this wasn’t a result of Nightmare’s rule. It wasn’t due to the pain of having seen your friends and family be betrayed by someone close, nor was it due to the fact that showing your emotions when confronted with the enemy was considered to be weak.

No, there was only one reason he truly hated his emotions.

Because he couldn’t get his stupid crush on Error to go away

Ever since Error had first joined their ranks, Cross would catch himself staring. There was something so… strong, and POWERFUL about the other that had his attention glued. And soon what turned from a general interest became a full blown crush. Everytime they’d pass in the halls, his soul would start to beat rapidly like a timid schoolgirl, and he’d have to stop and lean against the wall for a breather.

Thankfully, Error hadn’t seemed to pick up on it. Cross hoped that he never would, but there was only so much he could do to reign himself in. Everytime Error sent a smirk his way it would take every bone in his body not to just scream “KISS ME RIGHT NOW PLEASE.” So instead he’d just sit there and furiously blush, blaming it on allergies to something he ate earlier.

He never expected Error to love him back. Who would love an apathetic, stale, and boring skeleton as himself?

That’s what he was trying to tell himself as he had a lapful of a sleeping Error, worn out and tired from a battle with Ink. The artist had scuffed him up pretty badly, and to Cross’ amazement, Error sought the guard’s comfort over anyone else’s.

Cross had tended to his wounds, (becoming short of breath and having to excuse himself for a second to scream when Error took off his shirt) and now Error slept against him, his head pressed into Cross’ chest.

Before he had fallen asleep, he had mumbled something along the lines of. “Thanks Cross. Love ya. And I know you feel the same - you stutter all the time when you’re around me. ‘S cute…”

So that’s where the black and white clad skeleton was now. Who could love someone like me?

… Well, Error apparently.

Chapter Text

The anti-void is an empty place. Save for a bean-bag Error had sewn himself and the souls of his victims strung in the air, it was completely barren. And frankly, he liked it that way.

There were also no beds in the anti-void.

Sure, you could say he didn’t have need of one, which was true. He could make little hammocks with his strings, after all.

However, sometimes he didn’t have the energy to weave a new resting place. After a long day of fighting with Ink, fighting with the Dream, fighting with the inhabitants of the universe he was rightly trying to destroy, fighting with the square-headed fell sans over the contents of his fridge-

It got ridiculously exhausting. So sometimes he didn’t bother with the hammock.

He just fell asleep on the floor.

And that’s exactly where Ink found him.

“Oh Ru...”

Error’s arms were pressed to his sides as he snored face-down into the floor of the anti-void. Even in his sleep, he seemed tense. It must have been a bad day.

Trying to hold in his laughter, Ink approached the sleeping Destroyer. Both of his eyelights had shifted to hearts, but he wasn’t aware of that.

Summoning a small blanket into existence, he draped it over Error’s form. The glitch snorted in his sleep at the contact, but otherwise didn’t move.

Ever so slowly, Ink knelt down, lying right beside the currently dormant volcano that was his boyfriend. He wrapped his arms around the other’s waist, and pulled him close into his chest. Error was shifted onto his side while Ink continued to snuggle him, wrapping his legs around the other.

Slowly, Ink felt all the tension in his partner’s body melt away as he subconsciously squirmed to press himself even closer. The artist’s skull made itself at home in the folds of Error’s scarf, and he sighed.

“Long day, glitchy?”

Error proceeded to snore so loud it sounded like a trunk engine was lodged in his throat. Ink couldn’t help but giggle as he slowly closed his eyes.

When they awoke, their limbs were entangled like a pretzel, but neither found that they wanted to move.

Chapter Text

“I can’t, I changed my mind.”

“Error-”

“I can’t do it!”

“Error please, liste-”

“NO! Do you not get it? I-I-”

Error paced back and forth, clutching his skull in his hands and grinding his teeth. His suit was getting crinkled from the constant balling of the fabric in his hands, something Outer was gently trying to get him to stop doing.

At this point, Error was crying. “N-No I can’t do it. Listen, they all hate me. Everyone hates me for what I did, they won’t-”

“Error.”

The name was spoken so softly and with so much endearment it forced Error to look up from his hands, startled. Outer gently put a hand on Error’s cheek, and the glitch suddenly felt all his worries melt away.

“Don’t speak so badly about yourself, love. They won’t hate you, I promise. If you really were a bad person, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you.”

The hand trailed down from his cheek, to his shoulder, down his arm, and rested in the palm of his hand.

“You’re stunningly beautiful. The little freckles on your cheeks that glow when you laugh remind me of little galaxies. You can light up a room just by walking in it, and I could get lost in your starry eyes for hours. You’re a gorgeous nebula or red and blue and black, how could anyone hate you? And your smile, stars, when you genuinely smile I feel my heart shatter. I knew from the second I told that space joke and you laughed, I was in love with you, the mysterious visitor to our world.”

Error intertwined their fingers and hugged Outer tight, trying his damned best not to start crying again. “T-Thank you... I love you...”

“Of course, my star. Let’s go - they’re all excited to meet you.”

Chapter Text

“No…”

One hit.

“N-N…”

One hit and the battle was over.

“D-”

Golden blood dripped between blackened teeth as Dream swayed where he was.

The sky was a charred shade of crimson. Not even the smallest birdsong could be heard.

The whole world was dead quiet, interrupted by the soft thud of a bloodied weapon hitting the grass.

All Cross had wanted to do was stop him. He wanted to keep Dream from eating that last blackened apple. He couldn’t lose the only sunshine to corruption. He couldn’t stand by and let his Dreamy become the vile demon his brother was.

He just couldn’t.

So he tried to intervene with the inevitable.

“Dream…”

He hadn’t expected Dream to try and attack him.

“C...Cross?”

And Dream hadn’t expected Cross to defend.

“N-No… No I didn’t-” Excuses came bubbling up his throat but were lost in the wet choking of his tears.

Dream just softened his expression. “Yes you did,” he whispered gently. His smile was so joyful. It made Cross want to vomit. The beautiful soft golden of his eyelights was growing blurrier by the second, fizzing like TV static. Any lingering corruption from the fruit had left Dream - it knew its host wouldn’t make it much longer.

The guardian of positivity turned his gaze downward, smiling again. As if he wasn’t rapidly bleeding to death. As if his front wasn’t soaked in shimmering gold.

Cross didn’t remember falling onto his knees, yet there he was. His jacket still had flecks of golden blood on it.

“Dream I-”

“Hush Crossy, it’s okay.”

“I don’t-”

“Cross, listen to me.”

“Dre-”

“I don’t love you.”

And Dream’s eyes went black.

Chapter Text

Okay so this work is not going to be continued. I'm not stopping writing drabbles, and I'm not going to delete these ones I have.

I just think my drabbles are very messy being lumped into one hodgepodge thing like this, so I'm going to start organizing them better.

Tumblr drabbles/requests will go in one work, and one shots that I write individually will be part of a series

aaaaaaaaaaa

sorry for anyone who liked the way I did it like this. I need an actual system rather than just throwing crap in this work ajkljkLLDSFKJFDKSLJFKLSJFKLDSJFKLSDJKFLDJFKLSD\

beans beans