Chapter Text
Sometimes, you exist.
Sometimes your body and soul anchor to reality and you get to be real. You feel the refreshing misty breeze of Waterfall's swamps, the glowing warmth of the sun, the rhythmic pitter-patter of your heart. It's like a treat when it happens, but it never lasts.
It’s become a fact of life for you, it's been like this for a long time. Sometimes you’re real. And most of the time you aren’t.
A long time ago this upset you. But you’re used to it now! And it’s really not all bad. Watching the other human, Frisk, go through the underground over and over was… fun. Staying with Toriel, hanging with Sans and Papyrus, meeting Undyne and Alphys, performing with Mettaton, fighting Asgore…
It was all invigorating. You felt like you were really there, even when you weren’t.
(You always avoided Frisk when you were real. It hurt less that way.)
This time, Frisk did even more than they ever had before. Asgore survived the encounter, Alphys and Undyne got together, Frisk found a place called ‘the True Lab’, and they fought Asriel. They found the truth about the first fallen human.
And then the entire Underground was freed.
Nothing has repeated, or ‘reset’ as flowey called it, since.
On any other night, you’d be sitting in the Dreemur household. Watching your friends Frisk and their friends go about their lives. It's nice, you can almost forget they can’t see you. That they don’t know you.
But today Frisk had finally convinced Sans to take them to the underground to visit flowey and, like always, you decided to tag along.
Flowey had been as happy to see them as you expected him to be, but after a picnic of peanut butter jelly sandwiches with no crust things settled down.
They’re heading home through Hotland right now, which is your least favorite of the underground’s biomes. Frisk had once again traded their striped sweater for a striped T-Shirt of the same colors and boots for chunky tennis shoes- laces untied. Despite them having tied them again and again during this trip.
Sans didn’t bother changing. You assume skeletons can’t feel temperature. He did however have a ridiculously big backpack, in contrast to Frisk’s smaller one.
Ritualistically you follow Frisk and Sans from a distance. They were walking over another bridge when Frisk tugs on Sans’s sleeve- they shake their water bottle at him.
Sans stops walking, tilting his head to face Frisk with an easy smile. “huh? ‘ water ’s the matter, kid?”
They huff, but fail to hide the quirk of their lips. They shove their water bottle towards his chest.
“hehe, sorry.” Sans winks. “i couldn’t ‘ mist’ that opportunity” You snicker to yourself, not even because of the jokes. Sans just looks so proud of his own antics that it’s hard to not smile back.
Frisk appears just a bit less amused, signing something to Sans that you couldn’t catch.
Then, reaching for his own water bottle in his backpack, Sans hums. “looks like i’m out too kid,” He slides his water bottle back in the bag. “tell ya’ what, i’ll take a shortcut to my sentry station and get us some more water”
Frisk smiles and nods, letting Sans take their purple water bottle from them.
“stay put, okay? magic doesn’t grow on trees and i still gotta get us home.” He ruffles their hair and something you refuse to call jealousy tugs on your heart. “tori will have my head if I come back with a deep fried human”
Frisk giggles and signs something. Then Sans leans backwards, teleporting away in a whirl of cyan and yellow.
It doesn’t take long for Frisk to start to idley swing their arms and bounce on their feet and humming and walking back and forth over and over and over. It reminds you of the first time they tried to wait for Toirel to come back for them in the ruins- they lasted a whopping hree minutes. Frisk really can’t hold still, you muse.
They trip on their shoelace.
A few things happen at once. Frisk yelps silently, losing their balance over the cliff. Some of Hotland’s auburn dirt flies into the air. You run towards them.
You can’t say what possessed you to do so, you’ve seen them die before. Many, many times. And they’ve always been fine, brushing it off like it’s nothing and going back to their mission of getting a ‘good ending’.
Maybe it was the threat of this death in particular. The idea of them falling into the lava, so close to the core- something about it felt so wrong . It feels too cruel to watch happen, like it was somehow a fate far worse than any death.
You jump out towards them, crashing into a slide on your stomach with your hand stretched out towards them. For a single, terrifying second, you phase through them.
Your hand catches their wrist, sliding a little bit from sweat but holding tight.
They stare up at you wide-eyed, mouth agape, and dangling back and forth over the lava. You can feel the heat radiating from the magma. It felt familiar.
“h— Hold on” You choke out.
You don’t have time to think about how terrible and scratchy your voice sounds. Instead you focus on pulling Frisk up, you swing your other hand around and wrap it around their arm. Then, with all the strength you can muster- which apparently isn’t much- you drag Frisk over the edge.
With one final tug you yank them up to the left of you in a heap, flopping onto your back with the force of it. Your lungs burn as you take heaving breaths. It’s so hot.
Wait - burns?
You’re real. Frisk’s seen you.
Something like dread settles on your heart.
Frisk pops up and leans over you, expression shifting through a million emotions at once- they raise their hands to sign something, but you beat them to it.
“Are you okay?” You blurt out then wince. It hurts to speak.
When was the last time you had to speak?
They nod frantically and then sign. ‘ Where did-‘ A pause. ‘Who-‘ Pause. ‘You saved me! Thank you! I’m F-R-I-S-K, Frisk’ They finger spelled their name, then repeated their own made-up sign for it. You couldn’t help but smile. You already knew both, the resets gave you plenty of time to learn things like that. And wanting to understand what Frisk was saying had been a big motivator.
Frisk’s eyebrows furrowed- they look worried. ‘ Do you know ESL?’
You nod. “oh- yeah, yeah I do” You cough a little, trying to clear your throat.
‘ You’re bleeding’
You blink in surprise, then look down at the arm you had reached out to Frisk with. Sliding across the ground had ridden up your striped sweater sleeve and tore up your skin. It stung badly, now that you think about it.
You bring a hand to touch the wound skin, your fingers come back bloody. It burned. Weirdly- it felt nice, you don’t often get to feel.
Frisk jumps up and raises their hands to sign something- they’re looking past you now. ‘ Sans! My friend’s hurt!’
Your heart leaps to your throat. Because oh god Sans is back. You forgot about him. You’ve already been seen by one person! You did not want to be seen by another!
Maybe if you just hold really still you’ll stop being real- and they’ll forget all about this?
Yeah- yeah that should work!
Wait- did frisk just call you… their friend?
“woah, yeah i can see that. thought i was seeing double there for a second-“ Sans approached you quickly, squatting down next to you and Frisk. You start to doubt your plan of just holding still, maybe you should run instead.
“yeash, that’s a nasty cut.” He hands Frisk their water bottle back and they take a few big gulps before offering it to you. You don’t move.
“guess paps was right about bringing first aid” He mutters to himself as he slides off his backpack and pulls out a small box. “frisk, ya know each other?”
‘ They saved me’
You start to calm a little, it’s hard when they’re talking to you. But just watching them talk to each other-? You do that all the time!
“saved you, huh?” Sans pulls out some disinfectant, gauze and little colorful band aids with race cars on them. You smile. You bet Papyrus chose those.
Frisk looked sheepish. ‘ I tripped’
“didn’t I tell you to stay put—?”
Frisk looked to the side with a small frown.‘ Yeah..’
Sans sighs and pats their head, having to reach up a little due to him being crouched. This earned a small smile back from Frisk. “what am i gonna do with ya’, kid?”
He looks back at you with an easy smile. “thanks for looking out for frisk, kiddo. i owe you a million. can i see your arm?”
You stare at him blankly.
“uh… kiddo?”
Oh- he’s talking to you now. You almost forgot they could see you. “Uhm…”
Sans seems to come to some sort of conclusion, because his demeanor shifts into something a bit softer. “right, sorry kiddo. where are my manners?” Sans holds out a hand to you, “i’m sans, sans the skeleton. proud ‘duncle’ of this little squirt” He nods his head to Frisk.
Frisk smiles and discreetly signs to you ‘ it’s okay’ .
Did-
did they think you were scared of them?
Well you are, sort of. You’re scared of getting comfortable with being seen, only to lose it. You’re scared of them finding out that you aren’t really human- not anymore. You’re scared of them finding you that you’ve been following them for years.
But you aren’t scared of them. You trust them, more than anything.
(Maybe you’re scared of that, too.)
You take hold of Sans’ hand. He’s already seen you, letting him fix your arm couldn’t hurt. Right?
Ppppppbbbbbbhhhfffttttfffffftttttt
….
Sans chuckles and gives you a wink. “hehe, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny”
The ghost of a laugh bubbles from your throat. Wow. You can’t believe you just fell for that. You’ve seen him do it so many times and you still fell for it. This is ridiculous.
Frisk bats Sans on the arm lightly with a playful-disproving expression. They wagged a finger at him as if to scold him for pranking you.
You, on the other hand, feel honored.
Sans reaches back for the disinfectant, pouring some onto little cotton balls. “alright kiddo, let’s see that arm?”
Sans looked so genuine . The kindness of these monsters never ceases to amaze you. You love them all so much.
“Alright Sans” You respond just a bit too quietly- it’s hard to get your voice at the right volume.
You hold out your arm and pull up the sleeve, it’s sort of a relief- You can feel the temperature of Hotland now and it’s living up to its name. This is not sweater weather.
“sorry bud, this might sting a little…”
It doesn’t take long for Sans to clean off your wound and wrap it up with gauze. The stinging sensation was foreign, but not too bad.
“so what brings you to the underground, kid?” aren’t you a bit young to be exploring the place on your own?” Sans adds one last red race car bandaid onto your wrist.
Oh right. Crap. You need an excuse, and a good one too- Sans is really hard to lie to. Heck, he might already know you’re about to lie because of how long you’re taking to respond! You need to think fast. Oh geez—
‘ did you fall down?’ Frisk, ever the savior, perks up from beside you. ‘ It happen to me once’
“Yes!” You say, maybe a bit too suddenly. “I mean- yes, I fell. It uh… hurt. A lot. I don’t recommend it.”
“…huh, makes sense.” Sans shrugs and starts to pack the first aid kit back up. “you’re all patched up kid. and tell ya’ what, how about you come with us out of the underground?”
Absolutely not.
He holds up his phone and gives it a little shake. “we don’t get much skell -service ’round here, but we can call your parents once we’re out.”
Clever pun, but no way.
Frisk jumps up with a goofy looking smile. ‘ Yeah! We’re already super close to the MTT Restort! We’ll be your tour guides!”
Oh, you wish.
“Thanks- thanks for patching me up and uh- the offer… but I’m good” You stand up, fiddling with your hands, why would a normal human kid say no to them?
“I uh- don’t like… Mettaton.”
Sans blinks at you. “…you don’t wanna come, ‘cause you don’t like mettaton?”
You sweat a little. “…Yes?”
Sans snorted , full on cackling to himself and wheezing. “ oh- kid, t-that’s hilarious.” He wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye. “don’t worry, we won’t see him there. he’s off doing pop star things” Sans starts to walk forwards.
“uh-“
‘ It’s okay, Mettaton can be lot. He scared me at first, too.’ Frisk gives you a patient smile.
What.
They take your hand and start following Sans, pulling you along.
What!?
You sputter a little. “I’m not scared—“
“so how ya like the underground so far?” Sans interrupts you.
Dumbfounded, you glance at Sans, then at Frisk, then back at Sans.
You don’t think you’re getting out of this.
Letting out a little breath you make yourself relax. This- this is okay. Soon, it’ll be nighttime- then you can leave when they’re sleeping, probably at the hotel. Just, play along for now.
“It’s… pretty.” You answer, perfectly vague. “It’s nothing like the surface. I fell down into the uh, gray place?”
Frisk releases your hand once you reach the same walking pace as them and Sans. ‘ You mean newhome?’ They sign. ‘ I never got to see much of it’
You feel a bit bad for lying, but not anyway.
“‘s a pretty big place, me and paps actually lived there for a bit” Sans chimes in.
Oh wait- you actually didn’t know that! “You did!?”
Frisk looks equally surprised. ‘ You did!?’
“yup, not the most interesting place to be honest. “ Sans mused, seemingly unphased by your shared excitement. “small apartments, small puzzles, small shops… heh, it’s where i got my first job”
Oh, you’re interested . Sans was such a secretive and mysterious monster and this is new information! “What was it?”
“A tele-bone operator” He winks.
“a tele.. oh. Pft-“ A laugh escapes you. “That was bad”
‘ Sans!’ Frisk huffs. ‘ Was that all a bad pun setup?’
“heheh, nah kiddo.” Sans winks. “only part of it” He turns his head upwards, looking at the ceiling almost wistfully. ‘i actually was a telephone operator, cause newer phones were hard to come by we had to use”…….
You smile, losing yourself in Sans’ first job stories.
Maybe this won’t be so bad. Just until they fall asleep.
Just for a little.