Chapter Text
It would've been the same as every day. Would've been,
Yet he couldn't hear the clatter of pans from his brother downstairs. He couldn't hear the chirps of annoying dog as it ran between papyrus’s legs.
12am… pm? Mid-day.
The bustle of the streets was missing too. Maybe the festivals at waterfall? That was supposed to be on soon so the town must be… oh. Right.
As he steps out of his door he's met with that familiar red cape still hung by the door. ‘‘For when he gets home’’ he’d told himself. Over and over, he couldn't make himself believe it though, and the pang of pain shot through his ribs at the sight of that damned colour. That damned silence.
In another step he found himself face first in his bed.
He didn't move for the rest of that day. He couldn't get himself to.
Or the next.
Or the next.
Or the next.
Or the next.
He felt like someone had taken that last piece of hope he had left and chucked it in a haystack.
Then that call came through, it only took one ring before he was clutching the phone desperately trying to read through bleary eyes.
Alyphs.
No way, her? After all this she was the last one he expected alive. It'd been barely a week of the deafening silence but at the speed that… thing, plowed through us all it could be past the lab by now. But that means Undyne is gone, likely the rest of the guard too.
At least enough that Alyphys thought calling him was necessary.
Well shit.
Their conversation was brief and in one smooth swing he slipped the cape round his neck and found himself in that golden cage. He avoided the place and its connotations for years, yet here he stood.
Those harsh footsteps echoed through the hall as the trumpets decreeing the devils domain.
‘‘It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming… on days like these, kids like you… should be burning in hell’’ Sans gives out a rattle of fear that portrays his true reaction, but he pushes it down because if nothing else it should remember what it did.
So he asks ‘‘do you think even the worst person can charge?’’, it's not his own question but maybe it's enough? Even for this thing?
It's not.
Somehow every time he feels his magic glide through that soft wet red that stuffs humans fleshy forms he finds himself back at the beginning. He can't keep this up forever, his energy dwindles and no matter how hard he tries he fails.
A sharp crack sounds through the hall.
What was.. Oh…
‘‘Im goin’ Grlibz… paps, you want any-’’
A sharp pain across his chest wakes him up. He can hear the dog's nonsense and the clatter of pans downstairs. Before long papyrus stomps up the stairs bragging about how today is the day hell find a human and capture them. It was just a dream. Oh thank the stars it was all a dream.
Except hugging his brother far longer than he’d usually allow, the day went as usual.
then it was there… that thing…
It wasn't so dusty- this time but it was definitely the same.
It grinned, no it smiled as it talked to the townsfolk. It was almost childlike, embodying the form it showed others perfectly. Maybe it was all a dream. Hey maybe hes a cursed prophet like those fairytales. Then it did something. No one was hurt but it put its hand across its throat and winked.
Shit.
No please!
Then as he arrived the thing just walked past paps. Paps was grinning and quickly started rambling about a new friend. But it had. No way, is he really that paranoid?
‘‘Sorry paps, im just-’’ he yawns dramatically ‘‘oh, sorry i was going to make a pun about being lazy- i guess im too tired to finish it. Best i get some rest hu?’’
Sans turns and leaves grinning at his brother's angry protests to his punny joke.
Walking through the town he notices just how itchy his chest is. It's probably nothing. He promptly ignores the issue and moves on to the important matters – taking a nap.
The next day continues much less eventfully, paps is off training with Undyne who is loudly nagging the other guards to find this human. As per usual, Sans is switching between running his various stands and taking much-needed naps, though his chest is still so itchy, what's up with that?
The drain of monotony has returned by the third day as he struggles to talk himself out of bed. But outside he can here paps declaring sans ‘‘must shower today!’’ and so he shuffles down the hall to the bathroom. He follows his usual routine, the big purple towel covers the mirror, the smaller blue towel blocks the already dodgy door. It’s always fine. Quickly as he can he soaks himself, feeling the bone begin to soften under the scolding water. Unfortunately as he steps out of the shower he knocks the rugged purple cloth and is met with himself. Before he can think he's met with a jagged scar trailing from his right shoulder to his bottom left rib.
‘‘Oh stars that's new’’ he murmurs, barely able to tear his eyes away. That is until papyrus’s iconic footsteps begin wandering down towards the bathroom. Showers must be the only time he’s quick because it’s not long before he's dried and dressed to step out of the damp bathroom air into the hallway to find his bro had merely gone to his own room.
Damned paranoia.
‘‘Maybe going down to Grilbz will help?’’ he mutters as he pulls on his jacket ‘‘i mean why havent i been in ages anyway’’
Stepping into the bar's warmth he's met with a dozen familiar faces and he greets each one with a playful grin and a quip. Then he reaches the bar ‘‘lookin’ hot grilbz’’ its fine until he actually looks at the flaming monster and feels his face flush with… no no no.
Grilby, really?
Absolutely not.
He's just a pile of flames, there's literally nothing to him except his perfect wispy voice, and the way his hips sway when he walks, and how you can feel he's heard whenever he's near you so…
Oh stars really?
No matter, he can just ignore it like he does everything else right? And so he spends hours talking about the usual nonsense creating the familiar carfree atmosphere he thrives in. It'll be fine if he just ignores it and he does exactly that.
It's late and sans wanderers out, the only sober one in a bar full of drunkards but he's only there to entertain anyway. He's not good for much else anyways.
He falls carelessly into bed and shuts his eyes waiting for his best skill to come into play and drag him into slumber.
It doesn't work.
Pictures of that familiar warmth entangled softly in his ribs, not forcing anything but just being there with him. Of his voice half awake, deep and dreerily breaking away into undertones of elemental as he mutters.when sleep did finally pull him into its realm he found himself turning in fits as he watched his brother turn to dust and saw that things body skewered in front of him, looking like the child it pretends to be.
He woke up panting in a cold sweat,he could feel his magic still swelled up at the surface and could only be thankful that it didn't release in the form of an attack. Paps would've been so worried.
4am
He checks the time and sighs accepting that there's no use sleeping now. And so he sits, something he'd become very used to doing with his sleeping habits, even before all this.
Eventually papyrus came to ‘retrieve the lazybones’ and the cycle of the days continued. It's almost normal aside from the way he felt like he was looking for Grilby at every stop. He never really left the bar yet it was as though sans wanted him to be around every corner just so he could see him more.
He didn't go to Grilby's that day, that night the fantasies and the nightmares both continued.
There was no food left in the house so with a sigh and a slouch he trudged into the comfortable warmth of the bar. It was midday so the dogs were out on duty leaving only a handful of patrons scattered through the bar.
Immediately his act plastered over his misery and he greeted each with his usual pizzaz, all but Grilby… as he reached his usual spot and pulled himself up he felt his words get stuck in his throat. Grilby looked over and leant in swiftly muttering “are you alright?” low enough that only those two could hear. Sans’s face flushed and he just nodded before coughing out “my usual hot stuff, and a drink?”
He pauses for a second looking over sans before he spoke with the flaming equivalent of a furrowed brow “You used that one already, your flaming puns must be simmering away hu?”
Sans just chuckled as Grilby spun on his heel to prepare the food. A burger was brought out before long, with a stout well weighted tumbler that was half filled with a smooth honey-brown liquid.
Sans muttered into his food “Oh stars you even know what i drink” but caught no attention from those around him, to his relief.
So long as he didn't speak to Grilby then his act didn't drop, and even his usual banter with Grilby got easier as he kept drinking. The night blurred on around him and he couldn't even count how many he'd had by the time he found himself alone in the bar. Nearly alone.
A warm hand rested on his shoulder and he jumped blushing at the contact. “Sans, please just talk to me?”
“The’s nuthin’ we gonna talk bout’ [hiccup] aint’ nuthin’ wrong!” he throws his hands in a jazz motion giggling to himself “S-see?”
Grilby just shook his head in response, smoke softly emitting as he sighs. “Sans please…”
Sans giggled again “nu uh! See whah yu want is me to be all soppsy ‘n’ shiz. Not my thing grilbz”
Grilby sighed again and his body tensed as he grabbed Sans's wrist, the one that's been incessantly itching his ribs since the night began. “At least tell me why you've been scratching all day?” his voice was almost pleading yet sans was just blushing at the contact, enthralled by the warmth that gently danced between the bones. He wasn't distracted enough not to notice as Grilby held the bottom hem of his skeleton print shirt, rather he jumped away and apologies fell like a waterfall from his mouth. Grilby just froze. He watched as sans stood shaking and terrified in front of him rambling nonsense that he could barely make out.
“Sans slow down its ok” without thinking Grilby leant down and wrapped sans’s small form in his arms. “Ill call your brother to come get you”
“What if he's not there…”
“Sans, why wouldn't he be?”
Sans’s tears fell onto Grilby's shirt stinging slightly yet he didn't have the heart to pry the skeleton off of him. And so they sat on the old wooden floors together until sans finally quieted down, and his breathing evened into soft snores.
sans awoke again with a dull pain pulsing through his bones. He can hear the dog's nonsense and the clatter of pans downstairs. Before long papyrus stomps up the stairs bragging about how today is the day he'll find a human and capture them.