Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She sat outside in the snowy woods sobbing loudly, her small body freezing in the snow, the wind that occasionally rolled by helping her none. It was only a matter of time before she froze to death, having nothing but a baggy shirt and shorts on, not even shoes. She had tried to find shelter, but all she found were naked trees that did nothing for any form of help.

So she did what any toddler would do. She gave up and cried, mostly from the pain of the cold. She hoped that someone would hear her and rescue her from her suffering, before it was too late.

Sans grumbled under his breath as he trudged down the snowy path. Papyrus had chewed him out when he found him taking a little snooze in his sentry outpost, telling him how worthless he was, that he couldn't even keep watch properly. Before it was time for work earlier, the Boss practically threw him out of the house an hour too early, telling him to get to work and for some reason no matter what he did, Sans could not get on his brother's good side today.

So Papyrus ordered him to get off his lazy ass and patrol. That will keep him awake and it did. All Sans could do about it was grumble and do what his brother told him to do.

What was that noise? Crying? Who could be crying all the way out here? Sans made his way through the trees, following the noise until he stood in front of a pale, tiny human. He stared, dumbfounded.

"how th' hell did you get here?!" he picked up the toddler and she immediately clung to him, looking for some kind of warmth. "hey, hey! w-what do ya think yer doin'?!"

ah, hell...

She was so small! A baby, he concluded. A human baby! Boss would definitely praise him for this! But...

"fuckin' hell, yer freezin'. how long were ya out here fer?" Finally, her crying was getting to him and he cringed as she seemed to get louder. "alright, already, i get it! i'm only doin' this to shut yer ass up, ya hear me?!"

Quickly, he unzipped his fluffy sweater enough so he can stick her in, then zipped it up the rest of the way. He put an arm under her to support her and put a hand on her back to push her closer to his body and he shivered. Her tiny body felt like an over-sized ice cube. How long was she truly out here for?

He felt bad for her. She was out here for God knows how long, only to warm up enough to get handed over to Papyrus. Then she'll be shipped off to the King.

Maybe...he can convince his brother to give her a break. He let that other kid with that coward of a flower through. Maybe he'll let this one go, too. It's just a baby. It's not like he's going to get very far holding her anyway.

Coming to a decision, he finally noticed that she quieted down significantly.

"hey." he called. "yer not dead, are ya?"

He didn't go through the trouble of holding her freezing cold body just to have her die in his sweater. No way. When he didn't get any sort of answer, he jostled her a bit.

"i'm talkin' to ya!" that earned him a whine that sounded like she was about to start crying again, but stopped short. "good."

Now then, the only way he can get passed here without running into Papyrus would be to teleport. He didn't want to, but that might be the only—

"SANS!"

Shit! There's no way he's going to get away with not answering him! OK, this kid's small enough, he might be able to pull it off. Before heading toward him, Sans stuck his hands in the pockets of his sweater and supported her that way instead, it'll look more natural.

"alright, kid, listen up. i need ya to stay still and don't make a peep. if th' boss finds ya, you'll really be iced." he patted her back and he felt her snuggle into him, before stilling once more.

Taking that as her answer and double checking that she's fully hidden, he continued toward his brother right as he heard him calling for a second time. He hurried his steps, knowing that the third call isn't going to be pleasant.

"yeah, boss?" Sans called out to him as soon as his brother came into view.

"GIVE ME YOUR REPORT." Papyrus commanded with his usual scowl. "SINCE YOU TOOK THIS LONG, I EXPECT YOU FOUND SOMETHING."

Red magical sweat started to bead on Sans' forehead as his permanent smile disappeared. Papyrus isn't going to believe him if he lies to him, will he? There are only two monsters that can see through him and Papyrus is one of them.

Pun intended.

Dammit, he felt so bad for the kid, but he knows he's not going to get away with this. Not unscathed anyway.

"yeah, i found somethin'..." Sans all but muttered, but he hesitated.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" In Sans' hesitation, Papyrus grew impatient.

Slowly, he unzipped his sweater until a tiny head was visible. Chancing a regretful glance at Papyrus' face, he saw a smirk cross his features.

"ASGORE'S BEARD, IS THAT A HUMAN?" Sans slowly nodded. "WONDERFUL! YOU MAY NOT BE WORTHLESS AFTER ALL!"

The praise felt great, but he felt like it wasn't worth it.

"HAND IT OVER. I MUST DELIVER IT QUICKLY BEFORE UNDYNE CATCHES WIND. I WILL BECOME CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD YET!"

"actually, boss, i was thinkin' that maybe we can let this one live? i-i mean, th' kid's so small—

"STOP BEING RIDICULOUS, SANS."

Papyrus held his hand out in a hand-it-over gesture, but again his brother hesitated.

"c-c'mon, this kid's just a baby." Sans tried to reason with him one last time. "can't even try to defend itself, y'know...?"

"SO WHAT? THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. IT'S WEAKLINGS LIKE IT THAT ARE RID OF FIRST."

"but, boss—"

"ENOUGH! GIVE IT HERE BEFORE I TAKE IT FROM YOU!"

With that threat, Sans inched back, putting a hand on the baby's back, the other still supporting her up. This baby didn't even get a real chance to live. It reminded Sans of their younger days, back when he had to do everything in his power to keep him and his younger brother alive. So when Papyrus was finally able to take care of himself, it was a weight off his shoulders, but in a good way.

He doesn't know why he thought that reasoning with this guy could maybe change his mind. He doesn't think or care about anyone but himself.

"I AM SORELY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU." Papyrus growled. "I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID, YOU ARE NOTHING BUT USELESS!"

Sans put more distance between him and his brother when Papyrus took a step forward, also zipping his sweater back up to hide the baby from view. His words were starting to sting.

"HONESTLY. YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO SENTRIES, BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT." Papyrus glowered. "I AM JUST ABOUT ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY BROTHER."

he did not just...!

"y'know what?!" Sans snapped. "i don't know what i was thinkin' tryin'a talk to ya! ya ain't capable of any mercy! kill or be killed my ass, we can fuckin' make choices!" Sans turned his back on his brother. "an' i ain't about to let this baby go through what we had to!"

With those last words, Sans promptly disappeared. He wasn't interested in what Papyrus had to say. He'll raise the kid himself if he has to! It couldn't be as hard as raising Papyrus, right?

Sans teleported right above the living room couch and let himself fall on top of it, holding the small bundle of warmth close to him so she wouldn't get hurt. She did exactly as he told her, not one peep, not one wiggle. He could already tell she's a well behaved child. He quickly got up from the couch and went straight upstairs to his room, so he can finally put her down. Once in his room, he locked the door behind him, unzipped his sweater and carefully placed her on his bed. He noticed her eyes were closed. Well, of course she went to sleep, her body warmed up considerably, although he doesn't know how she can sleep through all that yelling...

Something's not right.

He barely lifted his hands from setting her down when he noticed her breathing was labored.

stars, she's not...He gently placed the back of his skeletal hand on her forehead to check her temperature, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

Fuck. Sans didn't think this day could get any worse, but he was wrong.

Sans forced himself to calm down. It's just a fever and he's pretty sure he's got medicine. He made sure the baby was safely settled in his bed, then hurried for the bathroom and checked in the storage behind the mirror. Bingo! There they are. Pills for...fevers...

shit.

Sans slid a hand down his face. OK, first things first, he's got to get that fever down somehow, so he teleported to get two clean face cloths, then reappeared in the kitchen and ran the cold water. He also got a bowl, filled it with cold water and even added ice for extra measure. He couldn't teleport back with his supplies, knowing he might spill it, so instead he carefully walked up the stairs, hurrying to his room the best he could without spilling the water.

Sans found the baby still asleep, her breathing a bit quick, like as if she had to catch her breath. He felt pity for her. Jerk or not, his brother is right. It is kill or be killed, there's no way she could survive by herself. If anyone else found her, she would either be dead or be brought before the king...and die. Neither option was pleasant.

Sans let one face cloth rest in the ice water, before wringing it out, folding it to fit her forehead and placed it on her.

She reminded him too much of Papyrus when he got sick as a little kid.

MERCY

"don't ya worry." Sans whispered to her as he wiped her neck with the dry face cloth. "i'll take care of ya."

Sans was jolted awake to the sound of crying. When did he fall asleep? He didn't remember.

Immediately, he wrung out the cold face cloth he found resting in the ice water, wiped her face with it—which made her cry more—then promptly picked her up. He supported her butt with one hand and the other he rested gently on the back of her head, which was resting on his shoulder.

Sans remembered dealing with this with Papyrus when he was her age. He learned the hard way that bouncing a baby with a fever just makes the whole situation worse.

So he took what he learned and began swaying his body, occasionally moving around the room. Eventually, she quieted down, sniffling every so often. Thinking what he should do next, he realized she was going to need something soft to eat. Does she even have teeth? Sans checked and discovered she has a couple...and he also discovered that she didn't appreciate the sudden check-up and started to cry again. Now he has to start all over again! He's going to need help and there's only one monster he can rely on right now. When she settled down again, he carefully put her back into his sweater just like he had the first time he found her, keeping a hand in his pocket and gave her the same rules as before.

"'s ok." he cooed, when she started to fuss. "we're gonna meet an old friend, but i'm gonna need ya to stay quiet."

It seems like she understood again. She shuffled around a bit to get comfortable, then he felt her snuggle against him before stilling.

smart kid.

He took no time and teleported in front of Grillby's. Walking in, he made a bee-line straight to Grillby himself, placing a hand on the bar.

"i need ta talk to ya once ya closed shop."

It's a good thing it's close to closing time. Sans' seemed uncharacteristically serious and Grillby took immediate notice.

"...You know where to find me."

With a nod, Sans disappeared as quickly and as quietly as he arrived.

'Strange.' Grillby thought. Sans is not usually that short with words.

Again, Sans reappeared in front of the town's only store. All the teleporting he's doing is getting him tired, but he's getting anxious. He could feel the heat coming off the baby's little body. She felt like a tiny furnace and he's pretty sure she's getting worse, but he couldn't leave her alone in his room like that, she's a baby. Something could have happened to her or worse yet, the Boss could have gotten home. He also can't have her out in the open. 1. It's cold, she'll get worse and 2. Monsters are aggressive toward humans, baby or not.

"hang in there, kiddo. 'm almost done."

As he entered the store, he gave her a quick, one-stroke back rub while no one was looking. Even then she didn't utter a single peep which he was thankful for, because as soon as he finished with that one smooth motion, the rabbit woman who ran the store turned to him, giving him a look between a blank expression and a slight happy one.

"Yes?"

"got any liquid medicine fer colds? preferably one that brings down fevers... And don't taste like shit."

The rabbit nodded, wordlessly, then turned to fetch the desired item.

"Is Papyrus sick again?" she chanced conversation. Sans wasn't in the mood for any conversation, but he also didn't want to scare the hidden bundle, who was currently huddled against him. "It's been a while."

It's true. It's been so long since Papyrus was sick. Sans remembers he got sick every so often when he was young, but as he grew older, he became less and less susceptible to illnesses to the point that he rarely ever gets sick anymore and Sans himself doesn't get sick either. Because of that, they don't have much need for medicine.

"somethin' like that."

Once the shop keeper handed over the medicine, he dropped the G required and disappeared once again only to land comfortably on his bed, holding the huddled bundle closer against him for maximum smooth landing. Quickly, he got to getting her out of his sweater and onto the bed without tousling her too much, then let her borrow his sweater for warmth in favor of not unraveling his ball of blankets. His sweater is warmer anyway.

OK, now to give her medicine. Then, he'll let her rest and visit Grillby—Sans interrupted his own thoughts to wonder when the last time she ate was. He shook his head thinking he should worry about that after the medicine. Once again he teleported to the kitchen, hoping Papyrus hasn't gotten home yet. Thankfully, he hasn't and Sans hurried to find that medicine syringe he used years ago for when Papyrus was too ill to drink medicine properly.

Perfect. Exactly where he left it. Quickly, he rinsed it out and teleported back, just in time too, she started fussing, it wouldn't have taken much longer for her to start crying.

"Shh..." Sans cooed as he quickly opened the medicine bottle and filled up the medicine syringe. He noticed the bottle said something about sleep. That lady gave him the right kind. "Got ya somethin' that'll make ya feel better. Open up."

He poked her mouth with the plastic syringe and she whined.

"c'mon, open yer mouth." Really? Now? "don't start gettin' difficult on me..."

Fuck. If she doesn't want to take it, he's going to have to force her and that won't sit well with either of the two.

"don't make me do this. i know ya don't wanna be bothered. if ya take this, i won't bother ya no more."

Again, she whined as an answer, but he poked her mouth again and this time she opened it.

"good—" He stopped himself short in wonder. This baby has a lot of hair, so a girl, right? He checked to make extra sure and...huh. No diaper. Definitely a girl though. "...girl. Probably potty trained..." he muttered as he rubbed her tummy to help her relax.

It worked with Papyrus, hopefully it'll work with her...and she fell asleep, this is working out a lot better than he expected. She might be easier to take care of than he initially thought. He put his pillow at her side, in case she rolls over and falls off the bed. Now for the last step.

"...What is it, Sans?" Grillby said when he heard the sound of air being forced into a space it didn't belong, a faint pop.

"i need to talk to ya about a tiny problem 'm havin'."

"I'm listening."

"i found a human." Sans said in a hushed voice, as if the walls had ears.

"Good."

"no! not good! it's a human baby!" He immediately forgot about being quiet. "she was already half dead by the time I found her, but i fuckin' felt bad for her." he banged his fist on the bar top, using his other hand to rest his forehead on.

"Sans, you didn't..."

"she's in my room, dead asleep. she caught a cold, so i gave her medicine, but i'm gonna need baby food without anyone else findin' out about her."

"You're an idiot."

"look, will ya help me or not?" he ignored Grillby's retort.

Grillby sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his supposed nose while he thought about it. Sans stared at him with an expression that somewhat resembled pleading.

"...Fine." Grillby muttered after a long pause. "For every food I make, I'm adding to your tab."

"fan-fuckin'-tastic." Sans rolled his eyelights to further exaggerate his sarcasm. "i need some now fer when she wakes up."

Without a word, Grillby retreated to his kitchen and as he stepped through the doorway, he heard another faint pop behind him. He knows Sans will be back by the time he's finished.

Sans doesn't know how much more teleporting he can do, but he doesn't want to run into Papyrus until the baby is fed, at the very least. Plus, if he went running around, someone would start asking questions, even if he started now. He appeared in his room to find her still sleeping and now up against his pillow. Her breathing was still a little labored, but now he's confident she'll be fine.

By how quiet the house was, Papyrus still isn't home. Now that Sans had cooled down and thought about it, he started feeling dread creep up his spine. The way he blew up on him and just disappeared is going to come back and haunt him, he just knows it. If he's lucky, Papyrus is blowing off steam somewhere. Maybe he won't be punished too badly...

He recalled Papyrus saying something about how he learned just how dangerous humans can be from Undyne. Good, but what can this little human do?! The other brat might be capable of doing something, sure, but this baby? She couldn't hurt a Whimsun even if she tried.

Speaking of the kid, that one had Determination. What does this one have?

Very carefully, Sans hovered his hand over the baby's chest and slowly pulled out her SOUL. The last thing he wants is to wake her up. It's green.

That's Kindness.

This poor kid was most definitely going to be eaten alive with a trait like that! Seriously, how did she get down here?!

The more Sans stared at it, the more something wasn't quite right. That's not really green is it? Upon closer inspection, it has kind of a blue to it...Patience.

Patience and Kindness...

She's Understanding!

Well, that makes more sense. It's no wonder she's well behaved with a trait like that. Sans let go of her SOUL and watched it slip back into her chest. Y/n...Well, the name certainly matches her. He felt like he was forgetting something as he watched her stir—

the fuckin' food!

Sans once again reappeared at the bar, holding onto said bar for support. After one more shortcut, he's done. He's at his limit. He knows this time is his actual limit, but he's not chancing running into Papyrus. Plus, he won't be able to walk straight on his way home anyway.

"About time you got back." he heard Grillby's smooth voice as the fire elemental disappeared into the kitchen once again.

"gotta make this quick." Sans called after him.

In no time at all, Grillby reappeared holding a medium sized container with a top.

"This is enough for three baby meals. Now go home, feed the human. I don't want you passing out on my bar."

"aw, don't sweet talk me like that. you'll get my hopes up." Sans gave him a shit-eating smirk and disappeared before Grillby can roll his eyes.

Y/n was already fussing when he got back. Her hunger must have woken her up. God dammit, he forgot to get—Oh. Grillby put a small spoon in the container. He seriously has to thank him later.

"alright, alright. i know yer hungry."

As soon as he opened the container, Y/n stopped fussing, but started to whine when Sans was taking too long.

"hold yer horses, it's hot. ya wanna burn yer tongue off?"

Sans helped sit her up enough to eat comfortably, then began to feed her, blowing(?) on the spoonfuls between every bite. Sometime during feeding, he heard a door slam downstairs, startling him enough that he almost dropped the spoon when he jumped.

Shit. Well, at least the baby's fed and safe in his room. By this time, Y/n started falling asleep in her position, so Sans decided feeding time was over and laid her down so she can sleep comfortably.

thank the stars, 'm fuckin' exhausted...

He laid down next to Y/n, putting her on the inside side of the bed. He faced her, laying on his side and noticed some sweat on her forehead. Good. Her fever's broken. He pulled his sweater up to cover her more and smiled. If it weren't for him, this poor child would be dead.

"SANS!!" he woke up with a start, hearing Papyrus' voice from just outside his room. "GET UP, YOU WORTHLESS WASTE OF SPACE!"

He never gets tired of insulting him...

From right in front of him, he heard tiny whimpers. It seems he wasn't the only one startled awake. Sans knows that if he doesn't hurry, his brother will shout again, but if he does hurry away, he won't get the chance to stop the baby from crying. His only choice right now is to take the babe with him, so he scooped her up gently, placing a hand on her head to gently ease her head on his shoulder. He swayed a bit to calm her down as he walked to the door and opened it just in time to see Papyrus' jaw already open. He was literally about to shout again. Papyrus shut his mouth quickly, earning an audible click, then he took a deep breath.

"I WISH TO TALK ABOUT..." he glared at the small bundle resting her head on his brother's shoulder. "THAT."

Papyrus wanted to talk? THE Terrible Papyrus wants to talk?

"funny." Sans drawled, leaning on his bedroom door frame and holding the baby up with one arm. "that's what i wanted to do, but you weren't havin' any of that."

"DON'T GIVE ME LIP, LEST I CHANGE MY MIND." Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets at him.

Sans rose his free hand, agreeing to have this talk.

"WHAT IS IT THAT YOU INTEND TO DO WITH THAT?"

"i intend to raise her."

"RAISE?" Papyrus scoffed. "HOW CAN YOU RAISE ANYTHING?"

"i donno." Sans glared at him. "seems you came out peachy."

Papyrus didn't have a comeback for that. Instead, he glared at Sans, who was glaring right back.

"FINE!" Papyrus finally concluded after a moment of silence as he threw his hands in the air. Sans had to start swaying for moment after he felt the babe jump from the sudden shout. "YOU MAY DO WHAT YOU WANT, BUT I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH... THAT." he glared one last time at the small bundle before turning, going into his room in his naturally fast pace and slammed the door behind him.

Sans sighed. This is not a good start, but at least Papyrus gave his approval on Y/n staying with them. For now, she must be hungry again, after that, he'll take her to the bathroom, where she can do her business and then he'll give her a bath.

After a week, Y/n was well enough to walk. She still had a small case of the sniffles, but other than that, she happily walked around the house like she owned the place.

Sans was sitting on the living room couch, slightly slouched, and watched Mettaton on TV. It seems the other brat with the flower is starring in the robot's latest bloodbath quiz show. That kid's going to die.

While watching TV, he checked on Y/n every once in a while. If she wandered away from his peripherals, he would use his magic to bring her closer to him and she had a blast every time he did. She had wandered away just moments before and he brought her back one last time, the baby giggling as he had her floating toward him.

"yer havin' way too much fun." he stated with a smirk and made her land right into his arms, transferring her to a spot beside him, but kept his arm around her. "that's enough wanderin' around. how about watchin' mettaton with me." It wasn't a question.

They watched the kid answer a question correctly and Dr. Alphys' face turned scarlet, hiding her face in her claws. Sans knew he just missed a little something while he talked to Y/n, but this was still funny.

"Mm." Y/n grunted as she tried to get Sans' attention, but he didn't want to miss what was happening next.

"hold on." Sans said as he snickered at Alphys' misfortune.

"Mmaah!" Y/n bounced in place, holding a handful of his hoodie's fur and tugged.

"kid, just hold on fer a sec."

Oh shit, the brat actually survived the quiz show. Whatever Mettaton has in store for them next, it's not going to be pretty. They're probably going to die.

Y/n whined. Sans knew that whine very well. He heard it from Papyrus when he was young. The kind of whine that said, 'you're out of time and if you don't pay attention to me right this second I'm going to start crying.' So he turned his head to look at her, trying to hide his irritation, but he was sure he was failing.

"what'dya want?"

She climbed into his lap for better access to his teeth, using a tiny hand to touch them, feeling the smooth of them despite being pointy. She lingered over the gold fang as she cooed, like as if giving it special attention. Sans kept his hands on her sides, to make sure she doesn't fall.

"really?" he said as a statement. "this was the so important thing you interrupted my show fer?"

"Dah."

"yer a little shit." he said with a smirk and a ghost of a laugh in his voice.

"...sit?"

"hey, 'ey,' ey! don't ya repeat that! yer that age, huh? fuck, now i gotta watch what i say."

"Fug."

"what did i just finish tellin' ya? huh?!" he shook her sides gently and she immediately started giggling. He gave a short chuckle along with her. "ya can't repeat everythin' ya hear."

Suddenly, she looked over him and stared as he heard a set of footsteps behind him heading towards the kitchen.

"WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT, HUMAN?" Papyrus glared.

"thought ya wanted nothin' to do with her, boss?" Sans piped up.

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?"

"i-i was just sayin'..."

"SHUT UP." Papyrus disappeared into the kitchen.

"tch." Sans scoffed under his breath. "don't pay attention to 'im. he's just an asshole."

"Ah?" she pointed at the kitchen.

"yeah." Sans smirked mischievously. "that's asshole."

"Ashole?"

"yeah, that's right." Sans chuckled.

This is going to be good.

About a moment later, Papyrus emerged from the kitchen and immediately, just as Sans suspected, Y/n greeted him as if she hadn't seen him all day just because she learned his 'name'.

"Ashole!"

Sans snickered, trying to hold in his laughter as Papyrus stopped in his tracks.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME, HUMAN?" Papyrus glowered, but that didn't seem to have an effect on Y/n.

"Ashole!" the baby answered him, then proceeded to giggle while reaching out to him.

Y/n's answer broke Sans' damn and he couldn't hold in his laughter any longer. Papyrus stared at the back of his brother's head in disapproval.

"REALLY, SANS?" he said that as a statement, making Sans roar harder. "UNBELIEVABLE, HOW CHILDISH YOU ARE ACTING." With one last half glare at the smiling child, Papyrus continued on his way. "I'M GOING TO MY ROOM. DO NOT BOTHER ME."

"ah!" Sans took in a gulp of air he supposedly needed from laughing so hard. "that was fuckin' priceless!"

"Ashole."

A month now that the human toddler shared the skelebros' home and for a month now, the human toddler tried to befriend the Great and Terrible Papyrus.

Said skeleton currently sat on the couch, trying his hardest to ignore the toddler by watching some TV. Sans had left to Grillby's, doing something that Papyrus doesn't care to know about. It seems Sans had caught on that Papyrus isn't really going to harm Y/n.

Despite being threatened countless times, Y/n isn't intimidated by Papyrus. No matter how loud he got, how hard he glared, how much he growled and glowered at her, the most frightened he got from her was when he accidentally startled her and she started crying. Although the satisfaction he got from making her cry felt amazing, it was an accident. Does that really count?

And to make matters worse, Sans taught her to call him 'asshole'! Someone's going to have to fix this, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he's going to be the one.

"Ashole!" Y/n called, trying to get Papyrus' attention who was currently ignoring her.

There's only so many 'ashole's' he can take and he was at his limit!

"MY NAME IS NOT ASSHOLE!" he finally exploded at her.

"No Ashole?"

Y/n has been picking up some words on her own by listening to the two skeletons.

"NO! I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS! YOU HAD BEST REMEMBER IT!"

"Pa..."

Papyrus sighed in exasperation. He really has to teach her?

"LISTEN WELL, FOR I AM ONLY GOING TO DO THIS ONCE." Y/n stared at him, her attention undivided. "SAY TERRIBLE." he spoke slowly as not to lose her on the first word.

"Teble..."

"PAPYRUS."

"Parus?"

"I SAID, PAPYRUS, YOU FOOL!"

"Parus!"

"BAH! YOU HAVE NOT EVEN MASTERED SPEECH. I DON'T KNOW WHY I AM EVEN WASTING MY TIME ON YOU. BEGONE!" he waved his hand in a go-away motion. "YOU ARE DISTRACTING ME FROM THE SHOW."

"Mm!" Y/n shook her head. "Parus!"

When he ignored her again, she tried calling him again. This time, the scowl on his face deepened and he growled at her persistence.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?!"

Y/n reached up to him. "Up?"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT. I AM NOT HOLDING A VILE CREATURE SUCH AS YOURSELF!"

At first, she stared at him with her arms still reaching out to him, but he went back to ignoring her and she realized he wasn't going to hold her, she whined, slowly lowering her arms. When Papyrus heard the pained whine, he glanced in her direction and immediately regretted it. Standing at his feet was a teary-eyed baby, her face contouring more as she readied herself to cry.

"DO NOT EVEN DARE." Papyrus threatened, but she instead worsened. "I SWEAR I WILL THROW YOU TO THE SNOW!"

By now, she was softly crying and though he loved making her miserable, right now he only wanted to relax and she was making that impossible.

He could just leave. He could go to his room, but he knew if he did, Sans wouldn't listen to him if he wanted him for anything later on. The more time he spent thinking about how to make her stop without touching her, the more her crying worsened, so finally he'd had it and scooped her up in an uncomfortable fashion, holding her away from his body. She looked at him with watery eyes, her lip still quivering. He stared back with a deep scowl and narrowed eyes, then she smiled at him, wiggling and cooing happily. Papyrus' big hands easily held her securely.

"YOU CONNIVING THING. YOU PLANNED THIS, DID YOU?!"

"Parus!" was the one worded response she gave, giggling at him.

"YOU HAVE FOOLED SANS—NOT THAT THAT IS WORTHY OF ANY KIND OF PRAISE—BUT YOU WILL NOT FOOL ME! I KNOW OF YOUR TRICKS!"

Y/n stared at his face before a look of recollection flashed in her eyes as she remembered what Sans always calls Papyrus when addressing him.

"Bos."

Papyrus stopped momentarily, a small look of surprise crossing his features for a second before a deep crimson dusted his cheekbones.

"I-I SEE YOU ARE NOT AS MUCH OF A FOOL AS I FIRST THOUGHT..."

"Bos!" Y/n giggled again, trying to reach for him.

For the first time since Papyrus has known this child, he saw the charm she carries and for the first time he felt the tiniest want to hug her. He changed the way he was carrying her, instead cradling her in his enormous palms. In one, Y/n's head and upper body lay and in the other lay her lower body.

"VERY WELL, PET. YOU HAVE PROVEN THAT YOU INDEED KNOW YOUR PLACE."

Just then, Sans teleported in the living room, right by the door, holding another container of Grillby's homemade baby food.

"hey, boss, i'm—"

Sans stopped himself mid-sentence, as he witnessed Papyrus smiling at the small bundle he gently held in his palms. For once in years, Sans was witnessing not a smirk, but a genuine smile on his brother's face as Y/n reached up towards him while giggling happily.

Not wanting to ruin the moment, Sans' perma-smile relaxed and he entered the kitchen quietly, deciding to wait for their bonding to reach a conclusion so he can feed Y/n.

"YOU ARE CUTE, I ADMIT THAT MUCH. NOW, AWAY WITH YOU." he set her down and urged her away with a small push on her butt.

So she did her little waddle of a walk toward the kitchen where she could have sworn she saw Sans enter a moment ago.

"hey there, kiddo." Sans noticed her without so much as looking, as soon as she entered the kitchen. He's always had a watchful eyelight for her ever since she started walking around. Sans then picked her up, the same relaxed smile on his skull. "i don't know how ya did it, but ya befriended th' boss, huh?" he hugged her and she giggled.

"Dada~"

"huh?!" Sans startled, his eyelights shrinking to pinpricks and he pulled away enough to look at her face. "what'dya call me?"

"Dada!"

"h-hold on...'m not—i can't—"

Y/n put her tiny hands on either sides of Sans' skull and nuzzled her face against his cheekbone in affection.

"heh. ya made up yer mind, huh?" his eyelights grew in glee. "don't worry, kid, if ya want me as yer pops, i'ma be dad-sational at it."

"SANS! I HEARD YOU FROM HERE! STOP WITH YOUR ATROCIOUS PUNS!"

"oops." Sans said with a genuine grin, as Y/n babbled cheerfully.

"I AM WATCHING YOU!"

"no need to get ticked off." he winked at Y/n, who giggled.

"SANS!" Papyrus growled.

"just makin' sure ya won't clock me, boss."

"I WILL END YOU!"

"alright, alright! grumpy bones..." Y/n nuzzled Sans' face again at his mumble, who then smiled at her. "let's get some food in yer belly."

Y/n hummed cutely in agreement.

It's been a couple days since Y/n had befriended Papyrus and things had become more peaceful around the house. She was playing in the living room near the horizontal heater under the window, which ran across the floor and stretched almost the whole length of that side of the room, keeping her pleasantly warm. She noticed a shadow of something pass by the window. Intrigued, she pushed herself off the floor and made her way to the window, going under the curtain for a proper look. She noticed some snow falling from the sky and decided that she wanted a better look, so she used the metallic top of the heater to give her a boost and held onto the window pane for added support.

Y/n cooed softly at the sight of the beautiful shine of freshly fallen snow on the ground, her eyes twinkling in awe. She vaguely wondered if maybe her adoptive father would let her play in it if she asked later, when a red ball flew up and over across her vision. She let out a soft cry of joyous surprise, straining to see if she could see it again. Instead, she saw yellow spikes on top of someone's head peak out from under the window. Curiously, she leaned further to gently press her palms against the window, trying to get a better look when the monster's head popped the rest of the way up.

Spotting movement, the monster turned to look at the window, instantly spotting the human child. They stared at each other for a moment, until Y/n gave the monster a wide smile.

The yellow monster was young. He seemed to be a sort of lizard monster, spikes that started on top of his head trailed down his spine and down an impressive tail. He sported a deep red shirt with a black stripe across the middle. He had no arms and strong looking legs.

Instead of smiling back, he scrunched up his face in the most intimidating way he could muster and hissed at the human, but instead of jumping away in a scared fashion, Y/n's smile widened further, now giggling at Monster Kid's antics. Slightly confused, he tried again, upping his intimidation and hissed more viciously, but once again it had the opposite effect on the toddler.

What's going on? Why isn't she scared? Monster Kid's confusion shown on his face as he leaned closer toward the toddler, who was now gently patting the window. Now that he's had a better look, she's actually kind of cute. Will she laugh again if he made another face?

Y/n has been giggling uncontrollably in the corner for...Well, Sans wasn't exactly sure. He had dozed off in the living room while watching the other kid on T.V, who once again encountered Mettaton, this time on his cooking show. Last he checked, his daughter was playing off to the side with a new toy Grillby was able to obtain for her. However, her sudden loud joyous laughter pulled him from his dreamless nap.

Sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eye sockets, Sans looked over, curious as to what was giving her so much glee.

"sweet pea, what are ya laughin' 'bout—"

Sans gasped as his SOUL plummeted, seeing his little girl standing on the metallic heater to look out of the window. There, Y/n was having a grand old time, babbling nonsense as if talking to someone. Sans, with empty eye sockets, feared for the worst and immediately pulled her away from the window via magic, which made the baby giggle even more.

"get away from there!" he shouted through a strained voice as he pulled her into him. "what if someone saw you?!" His raised voice coupled with his expression startled her into silence. "don't ever go near that window again, do you understand me?!"

Scared, Y/n started crying, not bothering to cling to her adoptive father. Sans sighed, hugging her protectively and making her bury her face into his shoulder, a gentle hand on the back of her head.

"stars, you scared th' livin' hell outta me..." 'someone obviously saw her. she wasn't gigglin' for nothin'.' he thought.

"There was a report of a human in this household." Doggo stood outside of the skelebro's house a couple days after the incident, and had knocked on their door. Accompanying him was Dogamy and Dogaressa, Greater Dog and Lesser Dog.

Sans was home taking care of his daughter, when he had heard knocking on the door. He immediately hid Y/n, telling her to be quiet until he said so.

"you honestly think i could hide somethin' like that here? you ain't really met my bro then, have ya?"

"Yeah, just like how he did somethin' about the kid what's been all over T.V with Mettaton?"

Sans' grin fell, his eyelights shrinking.

"Somethin' smells off about you." Dogaressa sniffed in his direction, leaning towards him. Sans leaned away with a face of irritation.

"You smell like a human." Dogamy growled at him, having caught a whiff himself.

"yer pro'bly smellin' th' kid. i, uh...encountered 'em a lil while back." Sans' grin was back.

"Then you won't mind if we sniff around?" Doggo asked as the rest of the dogs tried pushing through.

"be my guest." Sans opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out of their path.

If they find something they shouldn't, he's going to make them wish they hadn't.

They sniffed all around the house, even covering the upstairs as well. Besides the whole house smelling like Sans, which is to be expected—who's smelling pretty suspicious—there were no other smells out of the ordinary. Finally, Dogamy called the rest of the dogs downstairs where he stood with Sans, who was wearing a shit-eating smirk.

"There's nothin' out of the ordinary here. Let's go." he eyed Sans as he spoke, who's smirk only grew as they piled out the door.

Just before he closed the door, he told them a simple phrase that chilled them to their very core.

"d o n ' t   c o m e   b a c k ."

And he slammed the door behind them. That's an experience they were sure to remember and one they had a feeling was going to happen. The skeleton brothers really aren't ones who should be reckoned with.

As soon as they were out of sight, Sans teleported to Grillby's back room, effectively startling the elemental, who almost burnt him to a crisp. He must have found her while coming to fetch something.

"You owe me." Grillby sizzled, as he held a stuffed teddy just out of Y/n's reach, who was trying desperately to reach it.

It seems he literally popped in on Grillby playing with the babe. Sans grinned at the sight. and he likes to pretend he doesn't care.

"don't i always?"

"I'm running a business, Sans, and babysitting is not part of the job."

"yeah, yeah. i came back quickly enough, didn't i?"

"Never again."

"fine. be that way."

"Take that food with you." Grillby muttered, then promptly left the room.

Next to Y/n, he found another container of food Grillby prepared for her.
~*~
"WHY WERE THOSE MUTTS IN OUR HOUSE?!"

About an hour later, Papyrus came home and stopped dead center in the living room as Sans lounged on the couch, watching Y/n play with her new teddy next to him. Papyrus' face scrunched up more than usual and looked Sans in the eyelights before asking him that question.

"how'd ya know they were here?"

"I KNOW THE HORRID STENCH OF THOSE MANGY MUTTS ANYWHERE. AND YOU HAVE YET TO ANSWER THE QUESTION."

"why do ya think?"

"I KNEW SHE WOULD BRING TROUBLE. I SHOULD HAVE KILLED HER."

Sans gave Papyrus a hard stare. He saw his expression when he uttered those words and he was ready to protect the baby human if he needed to. As soon as Papyrus noticed his expression, he scoffed, giving him a quick smirk, then continued his way towards the stairs.

"MAKE SURE SHE DOESN'T ATTRACT ANYMORE UNNECESSARY ATTENTION." Papyrus turned his head to give his brother a quick glance before he disappeared upstairs. "OR I'LL TAKE CARE OF HER MYSELF."

welp...

At least he's not referring to her as 'it' anymore.

She was gone in an instant.

Sans had wondered where his daughter went. He looked everywhere around the house and when he didn't find her, he panicked and headed outside to search. Monsters stayed out of the panicked skeleton's way, fearing his expression. He looked as if someone killed his loved ones, and that's exactly what he was fearing.

She was gone in an instant.

Up and down Snowdin he searched. He left not one rock unturned, not one door unopened. He was going to find his daughter, if it was the last thing he did and if anyone got in his way, they were going to pay the price! He only took his eyelights off of her for a moment!

And she was gone in an instant.

Finally, he decided to search the outskirts of town, surely she couldn't have gotten too far, right? With that little waddle she had, he doubted it. First, he decided to search towards the way to Waterfall. There! Waddling her way down, he saw her.

"y/n!" Instantly he called to her and she immediately responded.

She turned around and gave him a wide smile, happy to see him and even before he could tell her to hurry over to him, she did just that. He met her halfway and knelt down to hug her, to make sure she was really in his arms. Her breath tickled his cheekbone as she giggled. He's never letting her go again! When he gets home, he's going to give her a good talking to.

Just as he was about to scoop her up and shortcut back home, a magical spear shot through her back, the head peaking out of her chest. She gave out a strangled gasp, not even having the chance to let out a sound of surprise. Sans froze in place momentarily as he felt her tiny body slump in his arms.

"no. no, no, no, no!" as he pulled away enough to set her body on the snowy ground, the magical spear dispersed into the air, leaving only a gaping wound through Y/n's chest.

Y/n gaped at him, struggling to breathe, her small, tense body convulsed as her blood pooled beneath her. Sans tried to heal her, a trembling, glowing red hand hovering over her wound. His healing magic isn't the best, but maybe, just maybe—

"c'mon, y/n! don't—"

Her body stilled, going limp. Sans' tears streamed down his face and he let out a loud, strangled cry. He felt a small piece of his SOUL go empty. She was so young. Too young.

But she was gone in an instant. Just like that.

Raged grief. Sans stood, looking in the direction that the spear came from, his right eye socket flaring with red magic. By now the culprit was long gone, but he'll find them. He will never let them get away with murdering his child!

Suddenly, Y/n started crying. With a shocked expression, Sans whirled around to look at her—

And he found himself sitting up in bed in a cold sweat, out of breath and eye sockets dark. Beside him, Y/n was crying softly but in the dead silence, it seemed like the loudest noise he's ever heard.

But it was like music to his nonexistent ears.

He quickly scooped her into his arms, shushing her gently. Her crying was surely going to wake Papyrus. With a still pounding SOUL and fresh tear streaks staining his cheekbones, he watched her slowly go back to sleep and listened to her rhythmic breathing.

a nightmare... Come to think of it, it's been a while since he's had one. Slowly, he let her down on the bed once more and she stirred ever-so-slightly. Before settling back himself, he glanced at the digital clock on his night stand. 7:19 am.

How the fuck was he going back to sleep after that?!

Instead, he opted to laying next to Y/n in silence. It was just a nightmare, he told himself. There was no way he was going to let anyone harm Y/n. They'll have to get through him first.

Again, the kid with the flower was on T.V. This time, they were on MTT News. They were going to die for sure this time.

"Dada?" he heard from right in front of him.

Y/n was playing with both of her toys near the middle of the living room. He noticed she had a sort of thoughtful expression since a while ago, but the news was too interesting to pass up.

"what is it, sweet pea?" Sans replied without looking away from the T.V.

He doesn't think he's going to get used to Y/n calling him 'Dad', but he learned to respond to it at least.

"Bos?"

That's a good question. Papyrus has been out for most of the day. Sans saw him home earlier, but other than that he's pretty much been MIA. He's probably working.

"eh. he lives here. he'll be home later." Sans waved away her concern.

"Mm!" Y/n shook her head in an exaggerated fashion and decided to insist. "Bos!"

Dammit, he's going to miss the best part of the news!

"what do ya want me to do? huh?! ya wanna hire a freakin' search party for 'im?!" Sans was getting irritated, but it had little effect on his daughter.

"Uh! Luk!" she nodded.

"we ain't goin' out lookin' fer 'im, he can take care of his own damn self!" Y/n crawled up onto his lap for a proper face to face. "so stop worryin'."

"Dada! Luk!"

"heyeyey! who's th' parent here?! it sure as hell ain't you!"

"Dada~"

"i said, no." he said sternly. "now sit yer ass down, i can't see the tv."

Y/n whined in a tone that Sans knew meant she was going to start her waterworks.

"listen. the boss' pro'bly at undyne's, so he's fine. he'll be back b'fore it gets too late."

"Undin?"

"she's boss' friend who you ain't ever gonna meet."

Y/n finally sat on his lap, silently playing with the fluff of his jacket, allowing him to watch T.V. He watched the kid doubled over, panting with beads of sweat on their brow and the flower on their shoulder as usual, looking at them with concern. Dammit, he missed what happened, but it seems like they once again survived the killer robot. This kid is really something else.

They might die next time.

Suddenly, the front door opened forcefully, revealing Papyrus with a deeper scowl than usual.

"sup boss." Sans greeted with his usual grin.

"Up bos." Y/n tried to imitate her father with a smile that matched his grin. Sans ruffled her hair in praise at the attempt.

"YOU NEED TO LEAVE. NOW. GET UP." he eyed him down with an intense stare.

Sans' smile fell. "w-what's goin' on?" he got up nonetheless, taking Y/n with him.

"UNDYNE HEARD ABOUT Y/N," he pointed at the toddler. "AND IS COMING TO SNOWDIN TO SEARCH."

Of all the rotten luck!

"SHE'S ORDERED THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL GUARD TO SEARCH AS WELL, SO YOU NEED TO LEAVE. RIGHT NOW."

"how the hell did she find out about y/n?!"

"ALPHYS THOUGHT SHE SAW HER THROUGH ONE OF HER CAMERAS. APPARENTLY, SHE JUST NOW NOTICED WHEN SHE WAS LOOKING OVER THE FOOTAGE."

As Papyrus explained, Sans hurried to grab a couple of essentials and stuffed them into a small book bag he had laying around. He didn't think he would find a use for it, but he's glad he didn't decide to throw it out.

"ALPHYS FIGURED THE SECOND HUMAN MUST HAVE STUMBLED THROUGH SNOWDIN BY NOW." he eyed Sans as he put down the babe to put the straps of the bag over his shoulders. "I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY YOU ANYMORE TIME THAN THIS, SANS."

"this's all i need." he replied, zipping down his sweater, picking up his daughter again and sticking her in.

"Dada?" Y/n piped up before he fully zipped up his sweater.

"i need you to listen to me very carefully." he looked her straight in the eyes. "you need to stay quiet and i need you to stay still. understand?"

"Mm." she nodded.

"that's my girl." he zipped his sweater the rest of the way, as he held her up with one hand by her backside. He felt Y/n's little hands bunch up his shirt in her fists. Papyrus was a step away from stepping outside when he muttered,

"DON'T GET HER KILLED." and he was out the door, closing it behind him.

"...RESET..."

"S-Sans...?"

Sans trembled as he stood in front of the child with the flower, while carrying a SOULess Y/n in his arms. He looked up from Y/n's limp and pale form to look Frisk in the eyes. Flowey stared at the toddler, wearing a mixed expression of knowing and sadness.

"i said, RESET."

"...She's already died twice. Even if I did RESET, she'll just die again." Sans' gaze darkened, his eyelights disappearing. "H-Her death is set, there's nothing—"

In a flash, he was holding Frisk by the front of their shirt, their feet above the ground to meet Sans at eye level. Y/n was laying by his feet.

"R E S E T."

"W-What do you think you're doing?!" Flowey cried, fearful for Frisk's life.

"S-Sans..." Frisk choked out, their naturally soft voice reduced to a rasped whisper.

"if you don't, i'll make you!" he said, making Frisk's SOUL pop out of their chest.

Frisk realized in terror that Sans is not taking 'no' for an answer and he will not stop until he gets what he wants. Before he can take hold of their SOUL, Flowey bit his hand, but instead of dropping the human like the flower thought he would, he instead grabbed Flowey by his stem with his free hand, threatening to break it on the spot. There was a pause pregnant with dangerous tension, leaving everyone as stiff as a rock.

But after a moment he suddenly let go, letting Frisk land on their rump. They were so stunned, they simply stared at Sans. Flowey curved around Frisk's shoulders protectively, hissing at the skeleton.

"...again." Sans muttered after an awkward moment of silence.

"H-Huh?"

"let me try again. one last time. i'll save her."

Frisk felt bad, but they knew that if Y/n had already died twice, then it's most likely written into the timeline. It doesn't matter how many times they reset; the outcome will always be the same and with the way Sans is acting, they know he won't stop until he gets to the point where the timeline gets corrupted and he goes insane.

They can't do that to him, but it doesn't look like Sans is giving them a choice. They know that if they refuse, he's going to kill them and that will trigger a RESET even if Frisk doesn't want it.

Because Frisk doesn't want to die.

Slowly, the human stood up, keeping Sans' gaze the whole way up, then took a deep breath.

"One last time." Frisk spoke clearly.

Sans' eyelights returned, although dim. Frisk reached out and a floating red box with the word 'LOAD' appeared in front of them.

"This will be your last chance. I won't RESET to that point again." Frisk explained further.

Sans nodded, feeling DETERMINED. He will make sure his Y/n doesn't die.

As Frisk placed their hand on LOAD, Sans closed his eyes. He didn't feel the world shift. It was sudden—almost instantaneous—there was nothing but darkness and he was back in Waterfall, in the company of the Echo flowers.

But most importantly, he was holding a bundle of warmth, tucked safely under his fluffy sweater. For the third time.

This was his last chance. He sure as hell is not going to fuck this up.

This time, he won't let her out until he absolutely needs to.

She wiggled a bit and he knew exactly what was happening, but he kept walking. Despite already having gone through this, Sans still doesn't know where he's going. In a little while, she's going to shift again, poke her head out and—

"Dada~" Right on time. "Wee!"

He stopped walking.

His first slip up was letting her walk to a corner to relieve herself by her lonesome. He was sure she was going to come back on her own, and she would have, if she hadn't been distracted by Onionsan.

The sea monster had heard about the second human in the Underground and already knew the recent news about how it needed to be captured. She knew the first human to go by here—who was accompanied by a wary golden flower monster—was nice, offering friendly chit chat and promising to come back for a visit, but this one?

Oh...

She's so tiny! And so cute! How was she a danger?

"y/n?"

D'aww, that's a cute name. Y/n giggled and playfully reached for a yellow tentacle that came up and wiggled in front of her. Onionsan distracted her, trapping her with another tentacle and slowly lifted her to her face. The sea monster's smile was wicked, knowing she would get rewarded for this. However, she also felt bad. Such a small human...She had to be a baby, right? But, no matter the age, humans don't belong in the underground.

"y/n?!"

Sans found her laying on the ground near the edge of the water and rushed over to her side. He knelt down, picking her head off the ground, tears already gathering at the corner of his eye sockets. He noticed her clothes felt damp, which would have confused him, but he was too focused on the fact that although she seemed unharmed, she was missing her soul.

And then, the world went black and he was holding his daughter in his sweater again. Quickly, he left, clearly shaken and found a much safer place for her to pee, watching their surroundings closely, just in case, until she finished.

Thinking back on it now, it must have been that idiot octopus! No, this time she will pee in the water! Quickly, he set her down and took out her towel from the back pack.

Y/n whined, wiggling in discomfort. She has to go!

"hold on a lil bit longer fer me, sweet pea." Sans told her as he took off her pants, then promptly held the bottom half of her body in the water. "alright, go."

She shivered and protested, the water being a tad too cold to her liking, but the feeling of the water itself made her release nonetheless. He waited until she wiggled again, the green light for when she finished.

good. hope that bitch octopus chokes on it.

After taking her out of the water, he wiped her down with the towel, stuck it back in his bag, then stuck Y/n back in his sweater after dressing her back up, but left it open enough for her head to poke out. He doesn't need to worry about hiding her again until Hotland.

Sans knew Hotland well enough to know where he can take shortcuts so Y/n will remain unseen. Hotland is especially dangerous, mostly because he can't hide her away in his sweater. It's too hot, she's likely to get heat stroke. Hell, that's likely now, and she's not even in his sweater anymore! So he tried his best to keep prying eyes away from her, keeping her behind his legs at the very least. Somehow, he managed it and when he felt close enough to MTT hotel, he teleported to a room he's seen too much of.

The room's walls were plainly colored, much to anyone's surprise if you're thinking about the idol that owns the hotel. There was a large bed against the wall parallel to the front door. To the left and right of the bed stood nightstands with small, overly fancy Metteton-shaped lamps perched on top. Against the wall to the left of the room stood a good sized dresser with a large mirror and to the right of the room stood a large mini fridge, which was next to the bathroom door.

Everything he could ever need is in this room. He should be safe here for a while, but he won't be staying here for long. Just one night should be all right, enough to get some rest and a good night's sleep. Also, the walls were thick for several reasons, so if Y/n decided to be noisy, this room is the ideal place.

Sans completely unzipped his sweater, setting her down as soon as he landed inside the room and then sat himself on the plushy large bed. He watched Y/n look around at her new surroundings, even walked around, exploring the large room. Eventually, he noticed she walked up to where he was resting with a slight confused expression. Is the trip over?

"we stay here fer a lil bit." he vaguely explained when he noticed her expression, then he let the rest of himself fall onto the bed.

The one thing he was always grateful for in this room was how soft and comfortable the bed was. His bed back home felt like it was made of hay in comparison.

"Bos?"

"we'll pro'bly see 'im later." He honestly hoped not.

"Luk?"

"no." he firmly stated. "we're goin' on without 'im this time."

What comes next? Asgore. Sans was such a fool, he led Y/n right to him last time. While Frisk managed to melt Asgore's frozen heart, Y/n never got the chance.

Frisk had just finished gaining Asgore's MERCY and decided against doing anything with the barrier momentarily, deciding to visit their friends and tell them the good news, when Sans and Y/n reached the castle. What Sans hoped to gain from visiting the King with the second fallen human, he wasn't sure. Maybe he thought, with how Frisk was changing the Underground with their MERCY, that Asgore's heart was changed enough that maybe he can call off the hunt for the babe, if only he gave Y/n a chance. Surely a defenseless baby can convince him.

But Asgore instead saw another opportunity, a second SOUL he can use to finally, finally rid the Underground of that cursed barrier once and for all!

Sans walked the castle halls, having Y/n walk along side him. He honestly doesn't remember what distracted him long enough for Y/n to get away from him, it couldn't have been for more than a second that he looked away, but by the time he noticed and rushed after Y/n, the King had already ripped the SOUL from her and was breaking the barrier.

Frisk came back to a broken barrier, a SOULess toddler and a numb skeleton that had already grieved and had stared at the human with an idea. Frisk could reset, so Sans proceeded to ask them.

But this was his last chance. He could at least rest. He has until tomorrow for Frisk to fight Asgore and win his heart with their pacifism.

Y/n whined feeling hungry, giving Sans a pained, "Dada..."

Knowing her cues, Sans groaned as he sat up once more to open his bag and dig out the container of food he brought for her. He helped her up on the bed and she waited patiently to be fed, he also had some water in case she got thirsty. After this, it's her bath time and then bed.

This is perfect. He can breathe easy in this room, knowing that no one will come to look for her here. He let her play in the water as he bathed her and when it was time for bed, he laid down with her, hugging her to his chest and purring lowly; he knew the sound and vibrations puts her right to sleep.

"Sans..."

He managed to catch up to Frisk, who was on their way to the castle. Y/n was once again hidden in his sweater, but was peeking out slightly.

"kid." he greeted flatly.

"When I MERCY Asgore, this will all be over." Frisk said, filled with Determination. "By the way, I can't return to that time again."

"i got it." Sans replied, a bit too rough than he meant. "I've been meanin' to ask yer lil friend there..." Flowey and Frisk gave each other a glance before giving Sans their full attention again. "how'dya know y/n? i remember that look you gave her that time and i sure as hell didn't introduce her to ya."

His face darkened, trying to intimidate the flower to say nothing but the truth or else. It seemed to work as Flowey flinched away from his gaze before answering.

"O-One of the times I separated from Frisk, I decided to check the ruins just in case." Flowey paused to gauge Sans' expression, but it was hard to read. "The caretaker of the ruins had found her by then, but I felt bad leaving her with her, s-so I helped her escape when she was unattended." Flowey's words turned rushed when Sans' gaze turned angry. "I-I was separated from Frisk for too long by then, I-I grew worried! When I came back to her, I couldn't find her anywhere!"

That was probably after Sans found her. The story adds up so he went back to his neutral grinning face and shrugged.

"makes sense."

Flowey let out a silent sigh of relief. Without another word, Frisk turned and continued onward, Sans following behind them. Eventually, Y/n started feeling hot and smothered, so she started to fidget. Sans got the hint, stopping long enough to let her out and took her tiny hand with his thumb and index finger, her hand wrapped around his index.

"don't let go of my hand." he instructed as he eyed the stray pacified monsters scattered about. His eyelights burned into them, letting every monster know that if they neared Y/n, they'll be sorry.

"Ya." she replied, curious about the monsters that scurried away from Sans' gaze.

Finally, the small group got to the throne room's door way. Sans didn't dare enter, the one person he's trying to avoid is in there. Instead he waited for the human child to enter, staying away from the doorway in case Asgore so happens to glance that way. His plan was to wait for Asgore to be pacified, for the barrier to be broken. Only then will Y/n be safe enough to roam around freely.

By then, Asgore won't touch Y/n. He wouldn't have a reason to, the barrier would already be broken, then they can meet up with Papyrus and they can all be free once again.

Sans heard Frisk's soft voice, then Asgore's. After a while of speaking to each other, it grew silent until the sounds of fighting erupted, almost startling Sans.

And so it begins.

He decided to sit by the door, pulling Y/n onto his lap. He was afraid that if he let her go, even for a fraction of a second, she would wander off somewhere she shouldn't and she would—

nope, don't think about that.

His cellphone rang in his pocket, startling him enough to make him jump. When he glanced at the caller ID, he noted it was Papyrus.

"bro?" Sans answered.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"...that a trick question?" Sans rose a bone brow.

"NO! I WANTED TO CHECK ON YOU AND I WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. FOR NO REASON!"

OK, yup, that's not suspicious at all.

"Parus?" Y/n tried speaking to him, hearing his boisterous voice through the receiver.

"sorry, boss, but i can't disclose that info. gotta go."

"SANS, DON'T YOU—" that was all he heard before he hung up on him and for further security, he took out the battery from his cell too.

That was a warning. There's no way Papyrus would be that clumsy. He may be a softy at his core, but he's not clumsy.

That means the Guard knows he has Y/n.

And it also means they were on his trail until just recently, so it's only a matter of time before they search the castle. He stood, deciding he should keep moving after all or at least hide somewhere until Frisk breaks the barrier. He could go back to his hotel room, but just like anywhere else he could think of, it would only be a matter of time. He paced around the side of the door frame, not once passing in front of the opening.

Where can he go? The dogs would split up and search Snowdin forest and Snowdin, Undyne would be searching Waterfall, Royal Guards 01 and 02 would be searching Hotland and Papyrus would search literally anywhere else that Sans would likely visit. There is virtually nowhere Sans could hide and he just about forgot the hotel room is a place Papyrus knows he uses! Sans started to sweat.

Where can he go?!

There was a quick flash of darkness, he blinked and suddenly he was sitting down again with Y/n on his lap.

wait, wha—

His cellphone rang in his pocket, startling him enough to make him jump. When he glanced at the caller ID, he noted it was Papyrus.

shit, kid, seriously?!

"bro." Sans answered, standing up and taking Y/n with him.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"...boss, ya really wanna do this?"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION, SANS." his voice became firm.

Sans sighed. "sorry." he hung up on him, using his magic to pull the battery out and stuff his phone and the battery in his pocket. He has a feeling this is going to take a while. It hasn't even been an hour and already the kid died once.

Frisk died several times, judging by the amount of RESETS. Each time sending Sans back to sitting on the floor with Y/n in his lap and Papyrus calling his cell. Each time, Sans answered and each time he tried some form of pleading, to try and convince his brother to stop going after him and Y/n. He failed each time. This time, he simply gave one firm, dead serious statement.

"stop comin' after us, papyrus."

Papyrus was silent on the other line, most likely stunned.

"UNDYNE WILL BE VISITING THE KING TO GIVE HIM OUR REPORTS." Papyrus finally answered, his words strained. "WHERE ARE YOU, SANS?!"

That's the moment Sans understood the true reason why Papyrus was asking. He must have found a place to safely call him. Y/n had managed to dig herself deep into Papyrus' SOUL and he was now feeling the effects of hunting down his niece.

Sans slowly uttered, "the king's castle." before it was RESET once more.

He didn't know how many more RESETS he could take. Did Frisk RESET this many times last time they fought the king? Yes, they did. Thinking about it, he recalls the idiot octopus and having to chase away the same monster who was trying to get to Y/n four times before it finally settled down enough for him to move on to another monster who was trying to do the exact same thing.

He stood up one last time, his phone ringing in his pocket. If it RESETS again, screw it, he won't stand up again and he won't answer his cell.

Upon answering, Papyrus didn't start with the usual, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"UNDYNE IS ON HER WAY TO THE CASTLE, TELL ME YOU ARE NOT STILL THERE!" a small confused sound escaped him, followed by a confused Sans.

somethin' changed.

"So you were here the whole time, huh?!"

Fuck.

"thanks fer the heads up, pap, but uh, she found us."

Sans heard him start to say something before he hung up on him. That should be enough of a clue for him to figure out where he was. He stood in front of Y/n protectively and focused his magic on Y/n's favorite teddy bear in his bag.

"I'll admit you have some guts, traitor." Undyne was scowling at him. "Who would have thought you'd be hidin' in the castle? Shouldn't you be runnin' in the opposite direction? Or maybe it's not guts you have, but stupidity."

"and here i thought papyrus liked to talk."

"Hand over the small human, Sans."

"yeah, no." Sans quickly replied.

Undyne darkly chuckled. "S'definitely stupidity."

She got into her signature fighting stance that Sans knew well, while he simply stood there, hands in his pockets. He closed his eye sockets, taking a deep breath before opening his eyes again. Red magic overflowed one of his eye sockets, the other an empty void.

"y/n." the little girl looked up at her father's big back. "mr. ted's playin' hide 'n seek." Sans gestured behind her. "find 'im quick!"

A fun little game he enjoyed playing with her. He would hide her favorite stuffed teddy bear and she would go look for it. He would follow her around the house, telling her whether she was getting colder or warmer. Also enjoying this game, the toddler cheered while clapping her hands, then turned and started running to look for the teddy.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

Undyne lunged toward her, but Sans quickly blocked her way, spiked, red bones springing up in front of her. If she had taken an extra step forward, he would have impaled her, so she instead stumbled backward, glaring at the skeleton.

'we're gonna have a g o o d  t i m e.' he thought, his perma-grin turned into a smirk as the hallway's air became so heavy with magic, you can choke on it.

"yer gettin' warmer!" Sans spoke to Y/n as she turned the corner behind him, summoning a red, spiked bone to his hand. He short-cutted directly in front of Undyne to be in her face. "keep yer eye on yer opponent!"

He swung his weapon as he spoke and Undyne barely dodged it. She felt the hot sting of concentrated magic as it grazed her cheek.

"You little—" Sans didn't let her finish her sentence, sending flying spiked bones at her.

To dodge, she back flipped and slashed the rest away with her magical spear, his magic dispersing into the air. Sans sent another flying bone attack her way and she easily dodged it, quickly moving away and rounding the corner.

Excellent. Now Undyne is at a perfect distance away from Y/n. He just has to keep her away.

Spotting an opening, she dashed for it, trying to get back to the toddler, but Sans had another wall of bones spring up from under her feet. This time the wall reached the ceiling and once again made her stagger backwards. Sans quickly filled in the space between her and the wall of bones by short-cutting in between and once again swinging at her, but she won't fall for the same trick twice. She instead blocked it with her spear and made to brute force him back, but he disappeared, reappearing beside her as she stumbled forward with a wide eye and he kicked her into the wall.

Undyne growled viciously at him, frustrated. Why can't she get passed him?!

"SANS!" Just then, Papyrus appeared behind her, his eyelights searching the area around him.

It was obvious who he was looking for.

"Papyrus!" Undyne called out to him. "Take the small human's SOUL—AH!"

Sans interrupted her yet again, this time turning her SOUL blue, slamming her into the wall, then making her fly to the other end of the hall passed Papyrus.

"SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"protectin' my daughter." Sans looked at his surprised brother—who quickly recovered—straight in the eyelights. "no one's layin' a finger on a strand of her hair s'long i'm around."

The brothers watched Undyne as she shakily stood up on the other side of the hall. Her eye locked with Sans, her expression livid.

"Where Is She?" Papyrus' voice was lower than his usual volume.

"mr. ted's playin' hide 'n seek with her." Sans smirked.

"GOOD. KEEPS HER OUT OF THE WAY." Papyrus said, conjuring a long spiked bone weapon into his hand.

"Papyrus!" Undyne spoke up, noticing he wasn't exactly going against his brother. "Don't tell me yer goin' against the King, too?!"

Papyrus hesitated, slowly turning to face her.

"I CAN'T LET YOU HURT HER, UNDYNE."

Sans was surprised to hear his brother of all monsters say that. His perma-grin turned genuine as he smiled at him.

and he acts like he doesn't care.

"Don't make me take you down, too." Undyne lowly said, a small plea in her eye.

Papyrus was still her friend. She didn't want to go against him if she didn't have to, but she could see that she might have to for the King.

"WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT," he gave her a hardened stare and spoke slowly. "THAT...HUMAN IS MY NIECE. I WILL NOT LET YOU HURT MY NIECE."

"I'm sorry it has to go this way, Pap," Undyne truly was sorry, her SOUL feeling heavy. She once again got into her fighting stance, conjuring a magical spear. "But you leave me no choice." She flew at the brothers. "En garde!"

Undyne truly was a skilled fighter. She fought as if her life depended on it and took on both brothers with such skill, it was clear why she was the captain of the Royal Guard. But everyone has their limits, even she was starting to get overwhelmed—especially with how well the brothers fought together. They pushed her back enough that they eventually re-entered the Judgment Hall.

'well, isn't this perfect.' Sans thought with a smirk.
~*~
Y/n had wandered to the basement of the castle, finally finding her favorite teddy resting against a strange box. She gave the box no mind, completely proud of herself at winning one of her favorite games. She quickly went over, picked up the teddy and hugged the lights out of it, giggling happily. She was sure she saw it in the bag her father was carrying around, but it doesn't matter. She won!

Usually Sans would congratulate her in some way and she found it strange that he wasn't behind her, cheering her on or telling her whether she was close or not.

"Dada?" she looked around the room, but started getting sad when she couldn't find him.

He has to be around here somewhere, there's no way he would just leave her. Hugging her teddy tighter for confidence, she made her way back up the stairs, to look for her adoptive father.

Coming to the hallway they started in, she saw the bag Sans all but abandoned and went for it, thinking about what direction Sans could have possibly went. There's the door next to her. She remembered that big kid with the pretty flower went in there. Before she went to go find her teddy, Sans' back was facing her and when he called out that she was getting warmer, she glanced back and his back was still facing her. Come to think of it, he looked kind of tense? Doesn't matter, have to find him. She continued down the hallway, around the corner and down another hallway. Just as she was about to give up and start crying, she thought she heard her father's voice and followed it, finding herself back in the pretty room from before. There he was! Happily, she walked towards him and called out to let him know she was there. She saw his head turn toward her voice with a mix of confusion and surprise on his skeletal features. Without his eyelights, he looked intimidating, but Y/n shook it off as Sans reached a hand toward her.

"don't come over here!" the urgency in his voice made her stop in her tracks and also got the attention of Papyrus as well as Undyne. "go hide!"

Before she lost it, Undyne seized the opportunity. She got a running start toward the toddler and jumped over Sans, who tried to block her way. Undyne outstretched her arm with an open hand toward Y/n, the babe's SOUL flickering into view. Sans took hold of Undyne's SOUL just before she reached her, slamming her down—startling Y/n—and making her fly away once more to Papyrus who used his bone weapon as a bat and hit her in the side as if she were a baseball. Undyne was pushed back slightly from the force and she doubled over with a pained face, placing a hand where Papyrus hit her. The tall skeleton then stood in front of her to obscure her view of his niece as Sans tried to usher a now crying Y/n back into the next room.

Papyrus' frown deepened. He didn't want this. He didn't want to fight his friend, didn't want to see her in this state because of him, but she left him no choice.

"UNDYNE ." Papyrus called her attention. "STOP TRYING. WE CAN END THIS NOW, IF YOU STOP PURSUING Y/N."

"The King needs just one more SOUL." she growled out.

"THE KING CANNOT HAVE THIS ONE."

This is a problem. Y/n has decided that she will not leave Sans' side now that she's crying. She wants him to pick her up and console her as he always does when she's upset, but this isn't the best time for this! He shot Papyrus a glance to make sure he's got Undyne and Papyrus caught his gaze.

'm takin' y/n into the next room. Sans communicated with his eyes.

Papyrus nodded, understanding him and Sans picked up Y/n and hurried on his way to the next room.

In a fit of anger, Undyne launched a magical spear up from behind Papyrus and struck his back, startling him immobile for a moment and Undyne launched herself at Sans who was still rushing toward the next room. Hearing Papyrus cry out in pain, Sans turned to look and found himself face to face with Undyne. She reached out as quick as she could, the toddler's SOUL once again flickered into view in front of her and she took a tight hold of it, her smile growing wicked in victory. It was almost too fast for Sans to react. In a panic, Sans summoned a Gaster Blaster and fired at her, launching her away from him and his baby back toward Papyrus. However, instead of letting go of her SOUL in surprise, the fish captain held on tighter and protected it from the blaster's attack, effectively ripping the SOUL right out of Y/n. The babe jerked forward in response and her wide eyes instantly grew vacant. Sans held her protectively as she slumped in his arms.

no...no, no, no, no! stars!

"y/n!!"

It felt like the fish lady took his SOUL instead and was squeezing every drop of life out of it. Sans let tears freely stream down his cheekbones.

As he recovered, Papyrus saw the teal colored SOUL gripped in Undyne's fist and saw her in a red light as his magic flared up in anger. He flew at her at a speed she's never seen him move before and he caught her by surprise, injuring her hand with the sharp end of his large spiked bone weapon. He caused her to drop the poor SOUL with a mixed cry of pain and surprise. Papyrus caught the SOUL before it touched the ground and pulled up a large wall of blue bones on all sides around Undyne, when he saw her start to lunge toward it.

"SANS!" Papyrus called as he attacked Undyne. His tone was sharp and stern, snapping Sans out of his grief. "STOP YOUR SLOBBERING AND CATCH!"

Without another warning, he threw the SOUL his way and Sans easily caught it with his magic before it had a chance to collide into anything. With Y/n still in his arms, he sent one last furious glare at Undyne and promptly disappeared out of the Judgment Hall.

Sans reappeared somewhere in Waterfall, the glow of the crystals around them lit them up in an almost eerie way.

He quickly set Y/n down and pressed her SOUL against her chest.

"c'mon, c'mon!" he urged quietly through a strained voice when her SOUL stayed put instead of slipping into her body like it should. "why isn't it—just get into her body, ya little shit!"

For some reason, Y/n's SOUL just wasn't responding to her body and it was starting to scare him. A sudden little crack! noise petrified him. For a moment, he stayed as still and stiff as a rod, until he heard it again, the noise coming from just beneath his hand. Holding the SOUL gently, he turned it over to see it had a small section on the top right missing and a small fissure in the middle. Fresh tears rolled down his cheekbones as he let the SOUL slip from his hand and onto her chest.

"stars...y/n—"

He choked, his voice stopping in his throat.

She's dying.

She's dying and there's nothing he could do about it. Not even the kid is going to help him. that nightmare from before...a magical spear.

It's happening again. For the third time.

He lifted her body and hugged her to his chest, doing the only thing he could: he sobbed for her, his tears soaking the ground beneath him.

He realized all he did for her was in vain.

He realized he wouldn't get to see her go to school.

Wouldn't get to see her grow.

Crack!

Wouldn't get to chase boys away when she came of age.

Wouldn't get to eat with her anymore.

Crack!

Watch TV with her anymore.

Nap and sleep with her.

Laugh with her!

Crack!

STARS!

She was so young. Too young!

'my baby! my little girl!'

His SOUL reached out to hers without his knowledge and connected to hers—which was between their bodies—instantly filling in the blanks of her SOUL with his. It was an intense feeling, one he couldn't compare to anything else he's ever felt and with a startled gasp, he felt weak and his vision blurred, growing dark, darker and darker still until he collapsed into a dreamless slumber, still holding his child in his arms.

"Sans...Wake up..."

The voice was pleading, distant, but he felt so, so tired. Just five more minutes he thought and he rolled over.

"SANS!"

A smack to the skull startled him awake, enough to make him sit up.

"YOU—" He found Papyrus glowering down at him, but knowing his brother like the back of his hand, he found worry in his angry expression. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Hold on? He's laying in bed? How did he get here?

"what'd i do?" his voice sounded more gruff than usual.

"YOU WERE ASLEEP FOR THE REST OF YESTERDAY AND MOST OF TODAY! IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME COMING TO WAKE YOU UP, YOU WOULD HAVE SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH ALL OF TODAY, AS WELL AND DON'T YOU TRY TO DENY IT!"

"wouldn't dream of it—" a sudden realization came to him, his eyelights vanishing. His baby! "where is she?!"

"UGH! WILL YOU STOP WITH YOUR HIDEOUS PUNS, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. NOW, GET UP! WE HAVE MUCH TO—"

"papyrus, where is she?!"

"THAT'S BOSS TO YOU, ESPECIALLY AFTER THIS STUNT YOU PULLED!"

"b-boss..."

"SPARE ME YOUR THEATRICS. THE PET IS OUTSIDE."

"she's what?!"

Sans rushed out of bed, almost stumbling on his way downstairs. His brother called out to him, but he was much too focused on locating Y/n. His SOUL pulled him toward the front door, which he found too strange to not question, but Y/n comes first. He tore open the door and the scene in front of him stunned him speechless, his eyelights dimly reappearing.

He found a laughing Y/n—who was clad in winter wear, where she got that, he has no idea—running away from a hissing Monster Kid, who was clearly not trying to frighten her. In fact, he was smiling and Sans was one hundred percent positive that he could run so much faster than that slow trot he was doing after her. Another little surprise he found was Frisk jogging beside Monster Kid with a goofy grin on their face and Papyrus' scarf? They were under-dressed for the weather, but he noticed they wore gloves, a hat and Papyrus' scarf, weirdly enough.

Papyrus willingly gave them his scarf?

"IF YOU INSIST ON STANDING BY THE OPEN DOOR WAY, YOU COULD AT LEAST WEAR YOUR SWEATER!" Papyrus' voice behind him almost startled him and he suddenly felt his sweater drop onto his head.

Sans continued to stare while also slowly putting on his sweater.

"...what happened?"

"WHAT HAPPENED, BROTHER, IS THAT I BROUGHT YOU AND Y/N BACK HOME WHEN I FOUND YOU TWO AFTER HOURS OF LOOKING FOR YOU AFTER YOU DISAPPEARED. BE GRATEFUL!"

"thanks, bro." Sans looked at him with a genuine smile and wide sockets.

Papyrus grunted for a response. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID, BUT I WAS SURE SHE DIED."

"i don't know..."

"HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DID?!"

A smiling Frisk suddenly appeared in front of them, the brothers not noticing when they walked over.

"How are you feeling, Sans?" Frisk asked.

"what's goin' on, kid?"

"The barrier's broken."

"no shit...?"

"IT IS TRUE, SANS." Papyrus piped up.

"w-what about undyne?"

"DESPITE YOU HAVING LEFT WITH THE PET, I WAS STILL BATTLING HER WHEN HUMAN FRISK TOLD US THE NEWS. THERE WAS REASON TO FIGHT NO LONGER."

"I wanted all of us to go up to the surface together. The King's waiting for me to return to go up."

waitin'? "who's all of us?"

"Just meet up in the room after the throne room in the castle. There's something I need to do before I go." Frisk answered briskly and left to finish their business, waving at Monster Kid as he passed him.

"Dada!"

Y/n, finally noticing that Sans was up, ran up to him and Sans immediately welcomed her with open arms. He picked her up as soon as she landed in his arms and hugged her as tightly as her small body could handle. He suddenly felt a sense of being complete, his SOUL thrumming loudly in his nonexistent ears.

She's alive! Stars, she's alive! He wasn't sure how, but he did it! This is the happiest he's ever felt in his entire life.

Y/n put her tiny hands on the sides of his face and nuzzled her face against his skull.

"heya, sweet pea." he muttered against her.

"Heya, seepee." she repeated after him.

Sans chuckled, his eyelights growing in happiness.

"GET INSIDE OR STEP OUTSIDE, BUT STOP STANDING AT THE DOOR WAY AND CLOSE THE DOOR!" He heard Papyrus yell out from somewhere inside the house, effectively ruining their short moment.

Suddenly, he became aware that Monster Kid was standing some feet away, shuffling a bit nervously on his feet and staring.

"I-Is she done playing?" he piped up when Sans' eyelights landed on him.

Sans stared at him for a moment then turned his attention to the toddler in his arms.

"wanna play some more?"

"Ya!"

"go get 'im." Sans said playfully as he set her down. He then turned his attention back on M.K, his expression suddenly turning serious and his eyelights going out. "don't hurt 'er."

M.K shivered slightly as a chill from Sans' intimidating stare ran down his spine.

"I won't." he quickly replied, then turned to join her.

Sans exhaled through his nose cavity, watching the two continue their play from earlier before stepping inside the house and closing the door. He failed to see Papyrus in the kitchen or the living room, so he guessed he was in his room. Sans felt a small, strange twinge of disconnection, like as if a piece of the puzzle he called his SOUL was missing. He's been feeling strange since he woke up, this is something he needs to investigate. Once in his room again, he sat down on his bed and placed a hand over his SOUL. He paused for a second, thinking that there shouldn't be anything different about his SOUL.

Right?

He pulled it out carefully and immediately noticed a change. It's smaller? Not only does that not make sense, he also has no idea what it means. Alright, think, what makes a SOUL change size?

One example would be if you want to disappear. If you're so scared shitless that you want to disappear off the face of the Underground, your SOUL shrinks itself so small that it's almost impossible to detect, effectively making you virtually invisible to monsters as long as you stay hidden.

But he's not shitting himself in fear, in fact he's not scared in the slightest, just confused and maybe even a little concerned. Plus, his SOUL didn't shrink that much, just a little, but that's never-the-less noticeable to him.

Another example of SOULs changing size would be involving a SOUL bond. It happens to monsters and in theory, humans as well if they're getting involved with a monster. Both SOULs would grow a bit to accommodate for the other. A SOUL bond has two SOULs touch, entwining with one another so they're both quite literally joined and both parties would become one. It's a lovely, consensual bond and only happens with those who have a significant other. It is impossible to SOUL bond with someone who don't share mutual feelings.

Therefore, it is impossible for that to be a possibility for Sans' situation. Apart from the previous examples, SOULs do not change sizes.

He has absolutely no idea what was going on. The only thing that would give him some kind of clue would be Y/n's SOUL. She was the last one with him before he knocked out and woke up in his bed.

He'll check it later. She always sleeps with him anyway.

Since it was already afternoon, the rest of the day went by quickly. Frisk came by a second time to make sure that Sans, Papyrus and even Y/n will make it to the King's castle to break the surface together, then went on their way once they were given the OK.

Sans called Y/n back into the house and stripped her of the winter clothes, before they left for the castle. She shivered, even while in the house that was well heated, but before he could think to once again stick her in his sweater, she did it herself, taking both sides of the open sweater and trying to close it around her. Sans chuckled at her antics and helped her out by zipping up his sweater halfway and scooping her up. She giggled in joy and snuggled into him once she was wrapped in warmth.

"ready to go, boss?" Sans asked when his brother came down the stairs and stood beside him.

"JUST HURRY IT UP."

Without another moment's hesitation, he touched Papyrus' arm and shortcutted to the King's castle, in the hallway right before the throne room. Sans was honestly done with this hallway and he wouldn't mind not coming back here for a good long while. Sans let Y/n out, confident she won't be harmed.

As they walked into the throne room, they heard some voices in the next room. Walking into that room, they found Undyne—who Sans greeted with a soft glare, and she sent it right back—Alphys, Frisk and Flowey, Asgore, of course, but there was also another goat monster who Sans didn't recognize. As soon as Sans stopped walking he felt two tiny hands grab fistfuls of the back of one of his pant legs. He glanced down and found Y/n cutely hiding her face in the fabric of his basketball shorts. She was scared of someone in here, his SOUL was telling him so and it took some of his will to not start pointing accusing phalanges.

"—Dreemer."

The female goat monster seems to have been scolding the King and he seemed to be shrinking away from her. Never in Sans' life has he seen the Monster King in such a state.

It was incredibly satisfying!

"Good, you're here." Frisk smiled and everyone else's attention landed on the brothers.

"YES, YES, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?? ARE WE GOING TO THE SURFACE OR NOT?!" Papyrus impatiently asked.

"Sans." Alphys called, her gaze trained on something behind his leg. "You seem to have something attached to your leg there."

good eye there, einstein... Sans rolled his eyelights, but before he could tell her to mind her own business, the female goat monster gasped after catching a glimpse of Y/n's shy and slightly frightened face. She quickly went over and lifted the toddler, all eyes now on her.

"My child! I have looked for you everywhere!"

Y/n squealed in surprised, immediately following up with a short cry. Sans, suddenly feeling a sense of panic and fear, curled his hands into fists, his eyelights gone.

"Oh, dear...It is I, Toriel! Do not be frightened."

"That child..." Asgore piped up from where Toriel had left him, but she glared at him, daring him to continue. She became protective. There was no way he will hurt this child.

"hey!" Sans immediately caught Toriel's attention. "give me back my daughter." he growled out.

"Daughter??!!" Alphys screeched in surprise. She definitely missed something and now she wants to know!

Toriel narrowed her eyes at the short skeleton, sizing him up.

"You must be Sans." she spoke slowly; calculating.

Y/n had started to remember Toriel, feeling the soft of her white fur on her paws. There was a soft, calming feeling that was starting to settle in Sans' SOUL, but he was too on edge to notice.

"T-This is who I was talking about..." Frisk spoke to Toriel.

Frisk was growing nervous at the sense of heavy magic starting to rise and the smell of ozone coming from Sans that slightly grew stronger and stronger as the seconds passed. Toriel nuzzled her soft cheek against Y/n, who giggled, before setting her down to let her go back to her father. Sans instantly picked her up as soon as Y/n was close enough.

"Sans, this is Toriel. She was caretaker of the Ruins." Frisk spoke up again.

"so yer the famous caretaker i keep hearin' about." Sans started to calm down now that his daughter was in his arms and now that he knew who Toriel was.

"Thank you for showing this young child MERCY."

Sans doesn't know what that flower was so worried about. He can read people pretty well and Toriel doesn't seem like the kind of monster you have to run away from. She seemed quite motherly, in fact.

"If I had found out you had killed this child instead, you would not be standing." Toriel then added, her demeanor taking a quick one-eighty with a gaze, stone hard and chilling to the bone.

Pun intended.

ah, there it is! She managed to actually give Sans a small chill up his spine.

"Mam." Y/n pointed a chubby finger at Toriel.

Sans made an incredulous face at his daughter. "Yer kiddin', right?"

"U-Uh...Did she just call me 'Mother'?" Toriel's face completely lit up, a soft rosy color rising to her cheeks, her previous chilling demeanor gone without a trace.

"unfortunately."

Toriel opted for ignoring Sans for a moment and knelt down in front of him to speak to Y/n.

"You want to call me your mother, do you not?" she cooed at Y/n.

The toddler reached a hand out, wanting to touch one of the small horns poking out of the fur on Toriel's head, responding with another "Mam." so quietly that Toriel would have missed it had she not been looking at her.

"She is well-behaved." Toriel said, more to herself than anything else.

"yup." Sans replied, keeping a watchful eye on her.

"If that is your wish, little one. There are no barriers, you are free to do as you'd like."

Sans stared at her in pleasant surprise, not bothering to stop her from plucking Y/n from him for a second time. Y/n babbled in happiness in Toriel's arms.

"OH MY STARS!!!" Papyrus suddenly exclaimed, having heard Toriel's pun.

Sans started howling with laughter as his brother shouted out. Toriel stared at Sans' sudden outburst, a smile playing on her face.

Nevermind what he thought before, anyone who appreciates bad puns are good in his book! Plus, Y/n doesn't seem to mind her anymore. As Y/n settled comfortably in Toriel's arms, a sense of calm joy started settling in Sans' SOUL. Right, now he knows for a fact this has to do with Y/n's SOUL.

"HURRY, HUMAN! BEFORE SANS DECIDES TO ADD TO HER OFFENDING PUNS!!" Papyrus exclaimed as he hurried past them toward the broken barrier.

With a smile, Frisk followed behind him and everyone else followed their example. As they exited the mouth of the opening, the sun's blinding sunset rendered the group speechless.

"It is beautiful." Toriel breathed out, and Frisk nodded, tears gathering in the corners of their eyes.

"Breathtaking..." Alphys muttered.

"BROTHER. WHAT IS THAT?" Papyrus called Sans' attention.

"that, bro, is what's called the sun." Sans wore a genuine smile.

"We made it." Undyne breathlessly commented, a proud tone in her voice.

"It is more beautiful than I remember..." Asgore said.

Toriel set Y/n down so she could go to her father and took Frisk's hand instead.

"I, THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WILL BLESS THE HUMANS WITH MY PRESENCE! NYAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!"

"W-Wait, Papyrus!" Frisk tried to stop him, but their voice fell on deaf ears.

"don't worry, kid. i got 'im." Sans winked and with Y/n in his arms, he short-cutted away.

Papyrus didn't get too far before Sans appeared and stopped him, convincing him that the humans were simply not ready for his magnificence just yet. He needs to finish packing anyway.

By the time they got back home, Papyrus was buzzing with the excitement of meeting new humans, Sans was beaming, happy that his brother was happy and Y/n had fallen asleep, her head resting on his shoulder, the fluff of his sweater making good for extra cushion. Sans bid Papyrus a good night, who was also heading to bed, and closed his bedroom door behind him. Setting Y/n down on the inside side of the bed, he crawled in after and got comfortable.

Before he goes to sleep, Y/n's SOUL must have something different about it. He carefully took it out to continue his previous investigations and froze upon seeing pure white filling in for missing pieces and cracks.

This is where the rest of his SOUL went? He brought his SOUL out to compare and it immediately gravitated toward hers. It stopped just short of touching and they happily floated beside each other. Sans again felt complete, both SOULs visibly pulsed silently. This is more than a SOUL bond. It's like he skipped the SOUL bond completely and went straight to two steps above it. His SOUL is literally attached to hers now! He wanted to save her so badly, his SOUL revived her by filling itself in. So all those extra senses of random emotions he felt were actually hers.

This SOUL thing is going to take some getting used to.

But he saved her yet again. If it weren't for him, Y/n would have died ten times over.

Tomorrow, he and the others will continue their exploration of the surface. They're going to have to play this right. Humans are fragile beings and even with Frisk as the new Monster ambassador, the rest of the humans will first see Monsters with fear. This will definitely be tricky, but at least Monsters are free.

Satisfied, Sans hugged Y/n to his chest and happily let her rhythmic breathing lull him to sleep.

Chapter Text

Watching her father get hurt by the hands of her uncle filled Y/n with anger.

"You outta pick on someone yer own size!"

Y/n stood in front of her adopted father—eyes red due to her magic flaring—glaring daggers at Papyrus the culprit, arms stretched out.

A heated argument paired with Sans' snarky comebacks, Papyrus had deemed that Sans was due for a proper punishment. Sans had told Y/n to stay out of his way when their argument started getting serious, code for "go hide" just in case things between him and his brother got a little out of hand.

So she ran under the table near the door, the one with a pet rock that was covered in glitter, courtesy of Y/n herself. She hid there, covered her ears and shut her eyes tight as their argument escalated into full blown shouting. Their shouting shook the 10 year old's very SOUL, making her eyes water and her body tremble, a pitiful whine escaping her. After one last shout from Sans, there was a weird hard sound and then a thump as something hit the floor, followed by the sound of a boot stomping. Y/n fearfully opened her eyes to find Papyrus' boot firmly keeping Sans' skull in place on the floor, an expression of pain on her father's face.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT TALKING!" Papyrus bellowed. "IT SEEMS I HAVE TO REMIND YOU HOW YOU ARE TO SPEAK TO ME!"

With horror, little Y/n watched as Papyrus lifted his foot only to slam it back down on Sans' skull. Y/n gasped as Sans let out a cry in pain, following with stuttering apologies immediately after.

"IT IS TOO LATE FOR THAT!"

Papyrus' foot lifted again, but didn't land on Sans' skull. Y/n took advantage of his distraction with Sans to quickly get under his foot and push it back into him, nearly making him fall backwards. He instead stumbled back and quickly caught himself, surprise catching his features. In front of him he found his niece, protectively shielding Sans from further harm, her eyes red. Her shout at Papyrus was impressive, and he would have been impressed with maybe a condescending scoff if he wasn't already livid.

"YOU, A PITIFUL HUMAN, DARES TO CHALLENGE THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?!"

"Ya ain't 'upposed to hit daddy like that! Yer his brother!"

"I WILL NOT HESITATE TO STRIKE YOU DOWN AS WELL."

That's right, Papyrus hates Y/n. She was convinced by the way he treats her. He treated Sans slightly better, but even that wasn't good. Nothing she did brought joy to Papyrus. He called her stupid, pitiful, incompetent, whatever that means and all of the above.

And she tried. She tried so hard everyday to get him to smile at her. That's all she's ever asked for.

When she was younger, he would play with her, even as he grumbled about it. When Sans was busy, he would feed her and bathe her, even as he complained about it to no one in particular. On easy days, he would even watch TV with her. Well, he would watch TV and she would join him, but he didn't mind. Even after buying a house on the surface and moving in, their relationship was unwavering. Then she got older.

What changed?

"We ain't 'upposed to fight like this! We gotta show love to each other, not LOVE!"

"I GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO STEP ASIDE, HUMAN."

Oh, he did not just—

"Are you kiddin' me?! What kinda brother are you?! You ain't actin' like the uncle I know! Yer actin' like those lug heads that don't know nothin' but LOVE! I don't know who you are, but I want my uncle back!"

Now she was crying. Now Papyrus felt a pang of guilt shudder through his SOUL.

"If ya wanna pick on someone, go pick on Undyne! She'll put ya in yer place real good!"

"NOW YOU LISTEN HERE—" But Y/n was having none of that.

"Blow off yer steam somewhere else!"

Papyrus glowered at her. No one speaks to the GREAT and TERRIBLE Papyrus like that. No one. He thought about hurting her. About throwing her out and finish his punishment on Sans. He even rose his rage-trembling fist toward her, but he couldn't. He couldn't hurt the small, fragile thing in front of him. His small, fragile, pitiful, foolish human niece, who had jumped in front of him knowing full well what he was capable of.

Papyrus instead snarled in annoyance, a noise loud enough to make Y/n's SOUL shake in fear...and he turned, stomping away and slamming the front door behind him so loud, the two left in the house jumped out of their skins.

"what were ya thinkin', sweet pea?" Sans spoke after his daughter helped him onto the couch.

"I was thinkin' he shouldn't be hittin' you like that."

"he coulda hurt ya. don't do that again."

"I ain't gonna sit back and watch him hurt you!"

"y/n." a warning. She knows better than to raise her voice at her father.

She instantly shut her mouth, but as sad thoughts raced through her head, she couldn't help but utter, "That wasn't Uncle Papy..."

Sans carefully let his skull softly rest against the back of the couch, the makings of a killer headache quickly forming.

"yer right." Sans muttered. "that was boss."
~*~
Hours later when Papyrus returned home, he found the house dark and seemingly empty.

He lost his cool, showing Y/n who the Terrible Papyrus really is. She wasn't desensitized to that side of him. He had never shown her, he was mindful to never show her. It was no wonder she reacted the way she did.

He felt guilt. That never should have happened, especially not in front of Y/n. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, not like it matters anymore.

She'll probably hate him now, the realization hit him hard. She was the only other human besides Frisk that doesn't hate him or is afraid of him, but with his behavior, he probably flushed that down the drain.

He heavily sighed, his SOUL feeling heavy. It was getting late. He should head to bed.

The next morning, Y/n wouldn't look at him. Whether it was either from fear or hate, he couldn't tell and as far as he knew, it was most likely both. He didn't speak or glance her way either, he kept his gaze on the news on the TV. She grabbed her lunch Sans always prepared the night before from the fridge and headed off to school without muttering a single peep or a single glance his way.

If that didn't prove his suspicions, he didn't know what will.

When Sans came down, he was wary of him. Fearful he was still mad from yesterday. Even then, Papyrus didn't move, almost like he was a statue.

Papyrus felt bad, Sans knew he did, but he knew the numbskull would never admit or apologize for it. Only time will tell how this will turn out and he hoped it would turn out for the better. In the meantime, perhaps he could talk to him?

"heya, boss..." Sans was careful with his tone and volume.

Papyrus was silent.

"n-no work today?"

"No."

There was no emotion under his answer. Not pleasant, not monotone. Just hard.

Sans didn't have any other words for the taller skeleton whose gaze was unwavering from the TV. Sans played it safe and kept quiet, sitting on the lazy boy resting on the other side of the couch farthest from his brother. He opted for watching the news with him and let the quiet droning of the news people fill the empty silence in the room.

Later on that day, Sans stopped by Grillby's new establishment to wait for the remainder of the time for Y/n to come out of school, but when he was about to shortcut to pick her up, Y/n called his cell, telling him she was going to spend some time with Frisk and Flowey, her older siblings, she called them. That wasn't anything new. She visited them occasionally, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she was only trying to avoid Papyrus. Even so, he told her to have fun.

At mid evening, Sans met Toriel in the driveway, worried because she brought Y/n home a bit too late for his liking, but she reassured him by telling him that she had decided to stay for dinner.

"Bye, Mama." Y/n muttered.

"Good night, my child." Toriel replied softly and silently urged Sans to stay, watching Y/n sulk her way into the house.

"Has something happened? She seems to be quite down."

Sans inwardly cringed. "it ain't nothin' we can't handle. we'll get over it."

Toriel suppressed a giggle and shot him a pointed look, but he wasn't about to tell her that his daughter witnessed him getting beaten.

"she'll be right back to her old self in no time, heh." his smile felt fake and so did his laugh, even to himself and he wanted to face-palm.

"Alright," Toriel sighed, obviously not convinced. "But if there is anything you need, you know where to find me."

"you jus' bein' there fer y/n is doin' wonders. keep up the good work."

"I try." Toriel let a giggle escape and gave him a patient smile. "Good night, Sans."

"night, tor."

The next morning, as Y/n did her usual morning routine for school and headed downstairs to grab her lunch and head out, her unemotional gaze caught Papyrus' on the staircase.

They stared each other in the eyes, both unwavering. Behind Papyrus' seemingly permanent hard stare, she saw a hidden question, begging to be answered. She didn't answer it, instead smoothly going back to what she was doing. She grabbed her lunch and headed out without another glance.

What was that? Surely if she hated him or even feared him, she wouldn't have kept his gaze for that long, right? Was what he thought before wrong? Certainly the Great and Terrible Papyrus is never wrong! She changed her mind, is what happened. But of course, who can hate perfection?

When Sans finally woke up and came downstairs, he immediately noticed Papyrus' improved mood. Papyrus was doing exactly what he was doing the day before, but he just seemed...better.

"heya, boss." Sans greeted him the same as any other morning.

Papyrus simply grunted, at least acknowledging that he was there. definitely better than yesterday.

Sans silently sat down on the couch and watched the news with him, just as he does nearly every morning.

Later that day, Y/n again called Sans stating she was going to visit her older brothers again. still avoiding the boss.

"have fun, sweet pea."

She ended up staying for dinner again, but Toriel drove her home a bit earlier this time around. Sans met her in the driveway as per usual.

"She seems to be feeling better today." Toriel stated, watching Y/n enter the house.

"told ya. got everythin' under control."

Toriel hummed a sound in agreement, then bid him a good night. As Sans closed the front door behind him, he found Y/n and Papyrus staring at each other. Not knowing what was going on, some sweat gathered on his skull, becoming more and more nervous the longer they stared. Finally, Y/n broke it, calmly walking passed her uncle and up the stairs to her room, while Papyrus turned his attention back to his cooking. Sans was too curious about what just happened and decided to ask her after asking his brother if he was all right.

He didn't get an answer.

Y/n left her door open as she put her school bag away, so Sans knocked on her door frame to get her attention.

"ya, uh, wanna talk about what that was downstairs?"

"Not really." Y/n deadpanned.

At that, Sans entered her bedroom and closed the door behind him, then proceeded to sit on her bed.

"well i do."

Y/n sighed. This was as awkward for him as it was for her. Even after all these years of raising her, he still wasn't very good at the sharing of feelings mumbo-jumbo, but at least he's trying.

Which told her the lazy skeleton thought it was important enough to discuss.

"c'mon, sweet pea, 'm tryin' here." when he didn't get an answer, he added a firm tone to his voice. "tell me what that starin' was about."

Y/n paused, not really wanting to talk about this, but she knew Sans wasn't going to let it go, so she sat next to him before speaking.

"...I was tellin' him that I'm still mad at him and I don't forgive him fer what he did." she didn't meet his eyelights as she spoke. "That's it."

Sans sighed. "sweet pea—"

"I know he feels bad, but I'm still mad at him."

"ya gotta let it go." Y/n shook her head. "y'know how long it's been since we fought like that?" Again, she shook her head. "Since right after i started takin' care of ya. the boss didn't want ya to see us fightin' all the time."

"...that doesn't make what happened OK."

"i know, but it means we came a long way since ya've been livin' with us."

"Daddy?" Y/n spoke up again after a moment of silence. He gave a small noise as an answer. "Does that mean Uncle Papy doesn't hate me?"

Sans felt his SOUL drop like his smile. In the back of his mind, he was always afraid she would ask that.

"princess," he scooped her up and sat her in his lap. "papyrus never hated ya."

And it's true. He may have thought that she was weak, an inferior creature to him especially when she was a baby, but not once had he looked at her with hatred.

Disgust? Absolutely. But never hatred.

"Before that, he always treated you better than me. He never smiled at me—"

"that ain't true." Sans said with a scoff and a knowing smile. "whenever he thought nobody was lookin', he always smiled at ya. ya were too young to remember."

"Really?"

"paps has a reputation to uphold an' he's too stubborn fer his own good, but he never hated ya. always remember that." he poked her nose.

With a small smile and sniffle, she nodded, hugging him in appreciation.

The next morning, Y/n glanced at her uncle, who was watching the news for the weather as per usual, as she headed down the stairs. Once he noticed it was her, he kept his eye sockets on her as she headed toward the kitchen to grab her lunch. She felt eyes on her as she opened the fridge, so she glanced behind her and Papyrus quickly looked away, pretending that he wasn't looking in the first place. Y/n shook her head and grabbed her lunch, then headed to the front door, but after she opened it, she muttered loud enough for her uncle to hear.

"G'mornin', Boss."

And she hurried out before he had time to respond to her.

After school, she once again phoned Sans to tell him she was going to the park with a friend to play. She sounded happier, so he told her to be careful and if anything she would have to call Papyrus or Toriel since he has to work later than usual today.
~*~
Papyrus cursed to himself as his phone started to ring while he was in the middle of making dinner. Using his magic to place his masterpiece of a lasagna in the preheated oven, he quickly answered his cell before it had a chance to go to voicemail, not even looking at the caller ID.

"STATE YOUR BUSINESS QUICKLY." he ordered with a firm voice.

"...C-Can ya pick me up, Uncle Papy?"

He would have chided her about interrupting him and about how condescending she sounded this morning, if not for her rather stuffed nosed sniffle and broken voice. Instead he replied,

"AND WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Th' park..."

He just put dinner in the oven, it's going to take a while to bake anyway.

"FINE. DON'T YOU MOVE FROM THERE." He hung up.

Quickly, he grabbed his scarf he had hung on the coat rack by the door and wrapped it around his neck as he headed out the door.

After scouring the park, he finally found her huddled on a bench with a sour look on her face and what he saw on her made his magic flare in anger. She was banged up pretty bad, covered in bruises and cuts. He even saw blood.

If he catches whoever did this...

"Are You Well Enough To Walk?" he asked in an uncharacteristically softer tone than usual when he approached her.

Without a word, she slowly rose from the bench and he took that as a 'yes' as he led the way out of the park. He watched her with a trained eye, noticing how she winced sometimes, a small sniffle following each time. After hearing a particularly loud hiss from trying to keep up with him, he stopped completely, turned and knelt before her. She couldn't look at his judging eyelights, instead focusing on anything other than him. The ground looked pretty interesting at the moment.

"TELL ME WHO DID THIS TO YOU."

"Two older boys from school." she immediately confessed.

"BOYS? THAT MAKES THIS MUCH MORE INTERESTING. LET US SEE HOW THEY LIKE TO BE BRUISED." he growled.

"I started th' fight, Uncle."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" the confession surprised him. She may not be a pushover, but usually being a well behaved child, she's never started fights. "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT. I WILL BE INFORMING MY BROTHER WHEN HE GETS HOME."

"As if I was gonna let 'em keep sayin' mean things about you and daddy."

Another surprising confession. She was defending him? After what he did to her?

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT US?"

"They were talkin' about how ugly and idiotic th' skeleton monsters were. Yer th' only skeletons in town."

Well that changes things.

"YOU DID NOT START THAT FIGHT," Papyrus scooped her up, ignoring how she winced and protested. "YOU FINISHED IT." At this rate, dinner is going to burn, so he resumed walking at his naturally fast pace. "HOW MUCH DAMAGE DID YOU INFLICT ON THEM?

"I conjured some sharp sticks around me with blue magic, so it could burn 'em when they tried to touch me again. An' when I threw one, it stuck to th' tree behind 'em an' that's when they ran away like babies."

The baby bones training he gave her when the brothers learned she could conjure blue magic proved useful. Papyrus proudly smirked.

"SERVES THEM RIGHT."

After they got home, he carefully set her down and checked on dinner, which was ready. Quickly, he took it out and set it on the table so it can cool down and completely set. After that, he returned to his niece, kneeling down in front of her. She looked like she wanted to cry. He stared directly at her SOUL without pulling it out, making her feel naked and vulnerable. Her HP was at five out of twenty.

"LIFT UP YOUR SHIRT."

Figures he would know where it hurt the most. Slowly, she did so, revealing big, dark bruising on her ribs and stomach.

He will find the boys who did this to her.

After giving her a look to tell her to stay, he disappeared into the kitchen, clattered a couple things around, then returned in a quick fashion. He knelt in front of her again and held out a hard candy in a blue wrapper, which she stared at in confusion. She wasn't going to say no to candy, but it seemed like a random gesture. She was taking too long, so he unwrapped it and pressed it against her lips.

"EAT THIS." he deadpanned. "IT IS A RARE MONSTER CANDY TO COME BY. IT HAS HEALING PROPERTIES IF CONSUMED."

That's the first she's heard of any monster food with healing abilities. It was pleasantly sweet and she felt the pain all over her body ebb away. HP: 15. If this didn't prove he didn't hate her and in fact did care for her, she didn't know what will. As she came to that realization, she threw her arms around her uncle's neck and started crying, catching Papyrus by surprise.

"I don't wanna fight with you anymore!" she cried. "I wanna watch T.V with you! An' make a puzzle with you!"

Despite everything, she still loved her uncle.

"But you never wanna do any of that with me anymore..." she continued.

Papyrus felt a pang of shame travel through his SOUL. He did want to do that with her. He wanted to do all of that and more, but he thought—since she was a big girl now—that she didn't want to do any of that with him. He had heard a conversation she had with Sans, about how she was big now, that her favorite childhood game wasn't as fun to her anymore. So Papyrus had assumed that now that she was grown, those childhood games and puzzles he used to play with her would now be boring. He realized he was right, in a sense, but now he realized she didn't want to completely stop playing with him.

"An' you were so scary! I thought you were gonna seriously hurt daddy..."

He knew she was scared. Another wave of guilt hit his SOUL as he looked at her with a genuine apologetic expression. It was never his intention to scare her. He was in such a blind anger that he reverted back to how he was before she entered their lives. After a long moment, he hugged her small body against him with a huge hand against her back.

"I UNDERSTAND, NIECE."

She pulled back to look at his face, sniffling.

"That's my line..."

He grunted in response, standing and taking Y/n with him to get the first-aid kit for the wounds that the candy didn't heal. She sat comfortably on his large arm as he carried her to the bathroom. He sat her on the toilet and brought out normal bandages and wrapping bandages from the kit. She winced when he started to silently tightly wrap bandages around her torso. His hands weren't gentle, but deliberate. After that, he cleaned up the scratches that he found, including a scraped knee and scraped palms, wrapping those in bandages as well.

Papyrus was thankful he decided to invest in first-aid kits.

"...Can I help you set th' table?"

Papyrus brightened at the question. "WE WILL FINISH QUICKER THAT WAY. FINISHED."

"You're the best, Uncle Papy." she genuinely expressed as he started packing the antiseptics and leftover bandages back into it's place.

"I KNOW." he smirked.

Sans couldn't completely focus halfway through work. His daughter's SOUL was reaching out to him, to the point where it became borderline unbearable. He almost abandoned work all together when he felt anger turn to fear, but shortly after it went right back to anger and mixed with DETERMINATION. What the fuck was going on?! Is Y/n under attack?! Does he need to show someone the meaning of a g o o d  t i m e?!

Sans was becoming distraught and only noticed he was clutching his shirt over his SOUL when Alphys called his attention, his SOUL visibly pulsing through his hand and his eye sockets devoid of lights.

Alphys told him to go home, deciding that he wasn't feeling well enough for today's full shift. He didn't need persuasion and just about teleported home to find out what exactly was going on with his little girl—who's SOUL was calm by now—but was surprised when he opened the front door. He was greeted with the sight of a sleeping Y/n cuddled into his brother's side on the couch with a blanket draped over them both, which only covered Papyrus' lap. He was watching Mettaton; Sans could hear the robot's boisterous voice from the low volume of the T.V.

With a relaxed smile, Sans thought to sit on his daughter's unoccupied side. When he sat down, he let out a sigh of relief. Now he gets to relax with his two most favorite people in the world. Y/n stirred slightly, humming as Sans ran his hand soothingly down her shoulder length hair.

Papyrus was waiting for Sans to notice that Y/n was injured, but with the blanket combo-ed with the way Y/n was cuddled into him, he's not going to notice a thing unless he took her to bed. That might be for the best. Personally, Papyrus thought he and his brother can discuss what happened and what they will do about it as she's resting. Especially with how fast she had fallen asleep after dinner. She was clearly more exhausted than Papyrus had first thought.

After Mettaton's show, Sans saw it fit to take Y/n to bed, blanket and all, but as he lifted her, he heard Papyrus mutter:

"WE WILL TALK ONCE YOU COME BACK DOWNSTAIRS."

Sans shot him a confused expression. About what exactly? He knows he hasn't done anything to upset him recently. Not again anyway. He decided to shrug that off and put Y/n to bed, so he headed upstairs carefully, so as to not jostle and wake her up. He tucked her in and gave her head one last loving stroke before standing up straight...but something wasn't right. Are her hands bandaged up? Both of them are, now that he took another look. Sans' eyelights disappeared as Papyrus words echoed in his skull. She was attacked, the way her SOUL felt earlier made total sense now! The only thing missing now was the full information. Sans walked down the stairs, eyelights still missing and his face serious, devoid of his signature grin. Here we go. Papyrus waited for his brother to sit down before he started explaining.

"what happened to her?"

"SHE WAS INVOLVED IN A FIGHT. SHE CALLED MY CELLULAR PHONE TO ASK ME TO WALK HER HOME FROM THE PARK. WHEN I GOT THERE, SHE WAS SULKING ON A BENCH, LOOKING BEATEN."

"who did this?" Sans can barely contain his anger.

"SHE TOLD ME THAT IT WAS 'SOME BOYS FROM SCHOOL'. SHE DID NOT PROVIDE ANY NAMES."

Sans curled his hands in an attempt to keep himself from marching out and finding those boys himself.

"IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT SHE HAD FINISHED THE FIGHT. APPARENTLY, THE HUMANS WERE BAD MOUTHING US, SO SHE DECIDED TO PUT THEM IN THEIR PLACE."

"she did?" In surprise, his eyelights returned, although dim.

"YES, SO SHE DESERVES A TREAT. I SUGGEST WE GO OUT FOR DINNER TOMORROW."

"yeah, we can go out." he hastily said. "did you tell her how dangerous it could have been?"

"AND REPRIMAND HER FOR DOING GOOD BY DEFENDING THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?! OF COURSE NOT!"

"but she's still a kid, papyr—"

"BOSS."

"papyrus."

"NEVER YOU MIND HOW DANGEROUS OR NOT IT WAS FOR Y/N TO STICK UP TO OTHER HUMANS! WE WILL HAVE Y/N POINT THEM OUT NEXT TIME SHE IS AT THE PARK AND WE WILL SHOW THOSE BOYS EXACTLY WHO IT IS THEY ARE DEALING WITH!"

Sans smirked. "good plan, bro."

Papyrus' smirk matched Sans'.

"OF COURSE IT IS! IT WAS I WHO THOUGHT OF IT!"

Chapter Text

"Daddy."

"'m listenin', sweet pea."

"Ya sure yer ok?"

"i told ya, 'm fine."

Now eighteen years old, Y/n was a blooming young woman. In eighth grade she started showing what Sans was dreading would eventually happen: his daughter having an interest in boys.

She's a tough little cookie who would gladly put you in your place if you needed it and the no-bullshit attitude she learned off of Papyrus was the sweet icing on the cake, in Sans' books. It meant she could take care of herself, only calling on Sans and/or Papyrus when she absolutely needed it. Being tough, she hasn't needed their intervention in years, but both brothers made sure she knew that they were always behind her and that they were there if she needed them.

In her sophomore year of high school, she started dating. Her first boyfriend couldn't get passed the fact that most of her family were Monsters and was promptly dumped after he started talking about her family in a negative way. Now in her Senior year, her second boyfriend, Damien, didn't mind that she was surrounded by them, he was fascinated in fact, but he was a bit intimidated by them now that he's met them. Y/n and Damien have been dating for three months now and Papyrus had outright demanded he come over for dinner. Y/n had told Damien—insisted even—that he didn't have to if he wasn't ready, but Damien had told her it was all right. He was available the coming week, so that was the perfect time to get acquainted to her family.

He now sat across from Y/n who sat next to Sans and Papyrus sat on his niece's other side. Next to Damien was a silent Frisk, Flowey sat in a pot in front of Frisk and Toriel sat at the foot of the dining table. Toriel was adding the finishing touches on the main course meal and was just about to move it over to the dinner table, all of the sides for the main course ready on the table. Damien was nervously trying for some small talk, all the while Sans stared at him, his eye lights burning into him. The most unnerving part was Sans' grin, which was at it's most neutral, but of course Damien wouldn't know that, having just literally met him no more than an hour ago. Papyrus was outright glaring at Damien, Frisk was suspicious—being the protective older sibling he was—but was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and Toriel kept giving Damien a calculating glance, but was friendly otherwise.

The poor boy was nervous, Toriel noticed, and the skeleton brothers weren't helping.

"can't ya see how fine i am?"

Yeah, because no puns for more than an hour is definitely a good sign.

"Uncle."

Papyrus didn't so much as blink to let her know he was listening, keeping his trained glare on the unfamiliar human he was sure was trying to court his niece into mating with him, but Y/n knew he heard her.

"Don't."

"D-Don't what...?" Damien was almost scared to ask.

"He's fine. He's not like my ex." Y/n continued.

"AND YOU KNOW THIS HOW?"

"Besides th' fact that he's here an' ain't talkin' shit behind yer back?"

Papyrus' rose a bone brow at Y/n's curse word.

"That guy?" Damien spoke up again, the slight fear he was showing before vanished, distracted by the conversation.

"WAS I SPEAKING TO YOU?" Papyrus spat at him.

"I had a run 'n with him the other day." Damien decided it best not to answer Papyrus as to not irritate him further, but that seemed to unfortunately do just that.

"where ya goin' with this, human?" Sans' voice was sharp and to the point.

"Nowhere, really." Damien wasn't affected as much as Sans wanted. "Just wanted to let you know that we had a nice chat, and I...convinced him to not bother Y/n anymore."

After Y/n broke up with him, her ex had started making her feel generally uncomfortable and would slip comments about her when he knew she could hear him. When that didn't work, he started talking about her family, which resulted in a dangerous confrontation with her. He learned that talking about her is meaningless, but talking about her family is suicide. So, he instead focused on indirectly messing with her and when she got together with Damien, it only worsened to the point that Sans took notice of the toll it was taking on her. He was planning on paying this kid a visit, but Y/n told him it wasn't worth the effort.

"convinced, huh?" Sans liked the sound of that, but that doesn't get Damien off the hook. "why don't we cut th' bullshit and talk like men."

"OK." Damien straightened up and looked Sans directly in the eye lights. "I told him to stay away from my girl, unless he wanted to get hurt."

Under the table, Sans curled his phalanges at the "my girl" mention.

"DID HE?" Papyrus asked, incredibly curious and completely tuned into this confession.

"No," Damien's eyes hardened. "he thought I was jokin'. So, I showed him just how much of a joke he was." 

He just gained a couple of brownie points for both skeleton brothers, minus the pun for Papyrus.

"GOOD." Papyrus smirked. "DID YOU MAKE HIM BEG FOR MERCY?"

Damien's eyes went back to having it's happy-go-lucky glint. "Oh, yeah! I made sure he wouldn't even think of goin' after her again." he gave a cool smile. "I can't have anyone goin' after my girlfriend."

Sans' fists twitched under the table at the mention of 'girlfriend'. Toriel finally emerged from the kitchen, thinking that now would be a good time to end the conversation she had been overhearing. She sensed a small trickle of magic rise into the air and it smelled just like Sans. 

"Dinner is ready." she cheerfully called while walking into the room.

"Thanks, Mom." "Thanks, Mama." Frisk and Y/n spoke simultaneously, thankful for her interruption.

"This is the most delicious meal I've ever had, Miss Toriel." Damien spoke when he was half finished with his plate. "Thank you all for lettin' me enjoy dinner with you."

"Why, thank you, dear. You're very sweet." Toriel responded. "If you would like, feel free to have more. There's plenty to go around."

"Thank you, don't mind if I do!" Damien beamed, moving to add more to his plate.

Y/n couldn't help but giggle at how eager he was. It was cute, but she knew his situation.

Damien's parents pretty much act like he's more of a nuisance than a son. His mother doesn't pay much attention to him, opting to ignore him. She goes out often and comes home late. His father is worse, he acknowledges that Damien exists, but the young man is met with aggression and violence if he crosses his father's path. It's got to the point where Damien would often be out for the majority of every day, and only returned home at night when both his mother and father have gone to bed to slip into the house and sleep himself. He would rather not see their faces. He went as far as getting a job at thirteen years old and has been saving his money outside of his home. He learned the hard way that any money he brought into that house would be taken by either of his parents.

Now eighteen, he's put all his money into a secure savings account and continues to put money into it from his job. He's saved enough money to last him a while if he gets a cheap apartment and was in the process of looking for that cheap apartment. He can't wait to take what little he owns, leave that hellhole of a house behind him and never look back.

Y/n knew his situation and she was glad to make him happy, even if the sole reason her uncle invited him was to study him. She plans to help him out more often just to see more of that smile on his face.

"Can Damien stay th' night?" Y/n suddenly asked.

The room instantly stilled, the silence deafening. Toriel, Frisk and Flowey stared at her in surprise, Sans' eye lights went out, Papyrus held his eating utensil so hard, it bent and Damien also looked at her in surprise, his body stiff with a blush across his cheeks and parted lips.

Having a whole room changed it's entire atmosphere and being stared at filled Y/n with embarrassment.

"Stars above, I'm askin' permission fer him ta stay over, I ain't askin' fer his hand 'n marriage!" Y/n suddenly exclaimed when the room got heavy. "An' it ain't like he's gonna be sleepin' in th' same room as me!"

"ya bet yer fuckin' ass he ain't!" Sans shouted.

"I just told ya, he ain't!" Y/n exclaimed back. "He's most likely not gonna be able to get into his place. His parents usually lock th' door around this time and he ain't got his house key! I was hopin' we can help 'im out by lettin' 'im sleep on th' couch or somethin'..."

The room was silent once more when Y/n trailed off, but at least the air wasn't as heavy anymore.

"WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE A KEY TO HIS HOME?" Papyrus started to interrogate.

"'Cause his dad's an asshole."

"Y/n, watch your language!"

"Sorry, Mama, but it's true!"

Papyrus looked to Damien for his answer, who now has a blank, hard to read expression on his face.

"He threw my key away." Damien confessed, his voice even.

"WHO DID?" 

"The man others would call my father."

It seems this human doesn't associate that specific man as his father.

"WHY? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I exist."

Papyrus and Damien stared at each other for a while. This kid has gone through a lot, of that much he's certain. His relationship with his parents were slim to none, he could see it in his eyes. Papyrus acknowledged that look deep in his eyes and nodded.

Sans' eye lights were still out. Hearing the young man's answers to Papyrus' questions, the Judge in him emerged and he stared not at him, but at the very culmination of his being. Damien's SOUL has a long, jagged crack, going diagonally down. It was obvious that it had fractured, tried to put itself back together, fractured again, then tried once more to put itself back together a second time, but failed. Several counts of hope that was then shattered and transformed into multiple counts of abuse. Sans could tell that he, much like his own daughter, has a Joined Trait SOUL: The SOUL traits of two people joined and combined, giving birth to a sub trait. Damien's SOUL seemed to be light orange, which translates to Courage, the joined traits of Justice and Bravery, but it seemed to have gone through tragedy for that crack to stay there like it has. Furthermore, the jagged crack had a purple color: Perseverance is what got him through whatever it was that went down. Something within his parents must have soured. A Justice SOUL and a Bravery SOUL aren't the types to abuse a child. On the contrary, they're more than likely to FIGHT and protect.

"...fine. he can stay." Sans finally muttered, his eye lights dim pinpricks.

Y/n smiled wide, beaming at her father and her boyfriend, who looked at Sans in surprise. He didn't think the skeleton was going to let him.

"YES, I ALSO APPROVE. HE MAY SLEEP ON THE COUCH." Papyrus added, bending his spoon to its original position.

"Thank you!" Y/n exclaimed and Sans felt his daughter's SOUL pulse strongly with happiness.

"Thank you so much." Damien genuinely expressed, his facial expression soft with gratitude.

Damien had been pretty cheerful since he arrived. Intimidated, sure, but still cheerful. To see him without all that cheerful excitement was actually quite unsettling. Strangely enough, Sans thought that Damien looked so much better with a smile on his face.

After dinner, the family had agreed on a movie. A family thing they had fallen into when Y/n was a child. A movie right after dinner. Damien had been silent ever since he thanked Sans and just followed Y/n to the living room. When Sans and Toriel took up Y/n's sides at the couch, Damien opted for sitting on the floor at his girlfriend's feet, even with an open seat a couple feet away. He was tall enough that if he leaned back and tilted his head back, he could lay his head on Y/n's lap. A quarter into the movie, he did just that and melted into Y/n's touch when she absentmindedly threaded her fingers through his hair. Halfway through the movie, his mood finally improved, enough that he started smiling again.

Thank the stars. For the strangest reason, seeing him without a smile was putting Sans on edge. He chalked it up to Y/n's feelings affecting him again through their semi-shared SOULs. Finally, it was bed time, Toriel fetched a pillow and some extra blankets in case Damien got cold, then headed to her own home with Frisk and Flowey. Before Y/n went upstairs, she gave Damien a good night kiss, which would have turned into a make out session if Sans wasn't standing right there. Everyone wished each other a good night, then it was silent after everyone closed their doors. That was a strangely pleasant experience. No one wishes anyone good night at his home. Not for years, anyway.

In the middle of the night, Y/n woke up to use the bathroom and decided to check up on her boyfriend before she went back to bed and found him seemingly having a nightmare. He moved often and kept muttering in his sleep. Y/n went back to her room, picked up her blanket, then returned to her boyfriend. Wrapping herself in her blanket first, she used her magic to lift him enough for her to slip in and had his head rest on her lap. She threaded her fingers through his hair and as soon as he felt her touch, he relaxed, seemingly going back to a peaceful sleep.

Papyrus was the first to wake up and found Y/n sleeping, sitting up on the couch, her head leaned back, resting on the top of the couch. Damien was sleeping on his side, his head on her lap. Papyrus scoffed at the scene. Y/n's seriously asking to get punished. Not sleeping in the same room his nonexistent ass. He's not even going to wake them, he's going to let Sans find them.

Y/n woke up to what sounded like her father growling. She woke up with a start, her magic flaring, showing in her glowing, red eyes. She effectively spooked Damien right out of his sleep, who let out a loud gasp. She jumped up from the couch, ready to defend herself and everyone around her, but stopped short when her alerted eyes saw her father's eye-lightless, angry expression directed at her and Damien.

"Daddy...!" Y/n sighed out, her eyes returning to their original color.

"not sleepin' in th' same room, huh?!" Sans grounded out.

"W-What??" Damien squeaked, his eyes wide.

The dark voids Sans calls eye sockets paired with his murderous expression was legitimately terrifying Damien.

"Damien doesn't know anything, Daddy." Y/n started explaining.

"explain. now."

Even Y/n was scared of her own father at this point. She quickly explained.

"I woke up in th' middle of th' night to use th' bathroom and when I checked on him, it looked like he was havin' a nightmare or somethin', so I grabbed my blanket and came down here. He was asleep th' whole time."

Sans stared between the both of them, processing the information his daughter had just given him. Slowly, he cooled down and slowly, the suffocating, dense magic he was producing into the air was starting to clear out.

"I couldn't leave 'im like that..." Y/n finished, playing with her semi-long fingernails.

Sans heaved out a heavy sigh, but said nothing, merely leaving the room to go to the kitchen. He wanted to yell at her. To tell her that that boyfriend of hers was never sleeping over again.

But, he knows what it's like to suffer from nightmares and wake up to find nobody there to help him through it. He won't reprimand them for this. Besides, she was sleeping sitting up. It's not like she was laying next to him or worse, on top of him.

Plus, he saw how badly he spooked them. They got punished enough.

Sans strolled into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, finding Papyrus already there, as usual and giving him a stink-eye. Thankfully, Papyrus had already brewed some coffee.

"REALLY?" Papyrus started. "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO ISSUE A PUNISHMENT?"

"i scared th' shit outta 'em, what more do ya want?"

"AS ALWAYS, YOU ARE TOO SOFT."

"nah, yer just too strict."

"NONSENSE! I HAVE THE APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF STRICT!"

Sans simply snorted as an answer, sipping on his cup of coffee.

"decided to cut th' kid a break. he had a nightmare, she helped him. an' she wasn't layin' next to him. woulda thrown him out if she did that."

Papyrus grunted and the conversation ended there.

Damien would visit often, sometimes after school and sometimes on the weekends. He would rarely sleepover after that terrifying encounter with Sans and Y/n didn't blame him. He would when he stayed out too late hanging out with Y/n and her family, however. Sans had started hearing about how that kid that's often hanging around his daughter is a troublemaker. He fights in and out of school and he's good at it. He can beat up just about any human who wants a piece of him and he does so without remorse. Sans thinks this rumor is a bunch of horse shit, but some rumors do have a sense of truth to them, so with that in mind, Sans thinks the fighting part is true. He'll fight anyone who wants a piece of him, but Sans doesn't think he's the instigator. Sans thinks that the kid fights to save his own ass, inside and out of school. It explains how hardened the kid can be. Sans was lucky enough to witness this first hand, even though the kid was actually the instigator this time around.

The skeleton was walking home from work. Usually, he'd take his bike, but he was out with Papyrus in his car and when the time came, Sans was dropped off, so he didn't have his bike with him. He could take a shortcut, but he was already tired, he didn't want to pass out as soon as he landed. Risk a lecture from Papyrus for sleeping somewhere he shouldn't? Hard pass, thanks. So, he sucked it up and just walked. It was already dark when he got out of work. 

There was the aforementioned "troublemaker" walking down the same road. What was he still doing out at this hour? At this time, his parents most probably locked him out of the house. Fuckin' hell, he might as well tell him to come with him or Y/n would be mad at him if she ever found out. Besides, he would feel bad if he just let the kid sleep outside, assuming he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Just as he was about to call out to him, Damien called out himself, sharp and demanding.

"Hey!" his sudden voice legitimately startled Sans a little. "Leave 'er alone."

Who is he talking to? Now that it was brought to Sans' attention, there was a small group of men huddling in a corner in front of Damien. Guess they had some girl or something.

"Or what?" Such a lame human response, Sans thought. "What's a scrawny fuck like you going to—"

Surprisingly, Damien socked the guy so hard, he stumbled back, effectively shutting him up. Quickly, Damien seemed to grab someone and he pulled her behind him. Wow, he's saving a girl. He muttered something to her and the girl immediately ran off toward Sans. The skeleton startled, quickly disappearing before the girl got a good look of someone being there. As she ran past, she was panicked, her breathing quick and she panted loudly. She must have been crying. Looking back, Damien was already fighting the group of humans who seemed to be just about his age, maybe older. He had his hands up, as if he knew how to box. Who knows, he probably did. It's not like Sans bothered to ask. As he took on the group head on, Sans saw his SOUL shining through. He seemed to be filled with Courage. Which also means he was frightened, and who wouldn't be in his position. Sans didn't interject, keeping his distance. He wanted to see what he can do.

Damien was a skilled fighter. He was agile on his feet, dodging the other's attacks, and easily counter attacked. His moves and way of dodging and attacking weren't exactly tight, which meant Damien was a self taught fighter, but he was still doing pretty good, until he wasn't. One of the three guys got Damien good on his side while he was distracted with one of his friends. They instantly started getting the upper hand as soon as Damien fumbled due to the hit, but the kid managed to fight back, now fighting harder than before, his SOUL shining even brighter. He's back on top, but Sans could see the hits he took were making him sloppy and he was quickly losing his steam.

Right. Sans has seen enough.

He summoned sharp, red bones all around the kid without warning, the magic burning the attacking thugs. All three jumped back in pain as Damien stared confused at the barrier of bones.

"hey, there, humans." although Sans wasn't speaking very loud, his chilling voice still carried. "i see yer all havin' a good time. mind if i join?"

"Who the fuck invited the freak?!"

"Get lost, monster! Unless you want to get fucked up, too!"

Sans rolled his eye lights. "here's what's really goin'na happen: yer gonna leave."

"Oh, really? You gonna do the skeleton dance on us if we don't?" the thugs chuckled.

Sans joined in their chuckle, something that they didn't appreciate, so their chuckles ended quickly. These guys are idiots.

"with idiots like you, i'm gonna have a great time." Sans rose his arm, summoning a very large Gaster Blaster, it's eye lights flaming red.

Sans summoned the Blaster behind and above him and the way its muzzle loomed over him shielded him from the street light above him, casting him into shadow. Sans looked more ominous, a short yet large skeleton Monster, with one eye light burning with magic and a wild grin with a still visible golden fang despite the rest of his face being shielded in shadow.

The three human thugs plus Damien froze in their place in fear. 

"l e t ' s   p l a y."

The blaster behind him opened it's maw; chaotic, red magic gathering as a ball just outside its open maw. It set off Damien's fight or flight, but with the barrier of bones around him, he had nowhere to go, so he simply crouched, sitting on the pavement. The three thugs, however, booked it in the opposite direction as fast as their feet could carry them. Damien saw their looks of absolute panic a second before they ran.

Sans simply watched them run, the blaster behind him stopped gathering magic and closed it's mouth. He summoned the blaster away, doing the same with the bones surrounding Damien, then he closed the distance between him and the boy until he stood in front of him. Damien was still scared shitless. The still cowering human teen silently watched Sans' every move, not getting up from the ground even when the skeleton monster stood before him.

"how ya fairin', kid?" Sans asked him, carefully watching over the boy in case he had any internal damage.

It took a while for Damien to find his voice, finally finding it after Sans rose a bone brow, expecting an answer.

"I-I'm fine." Damien's voice came out a bit squeaky since it was forced.

"good." Sans all but grunted out, using his magic to take hold of Damien's SOUL and lift him off the ground and on his feet.

It was a weird sensation to the boy. He felt warmth wash over him, from the top of his head to the very tip of his toes. Then, he felt a pull and he was suddenly flying to his feet. Surprised, he stared at Sans, who was only looking back, then the skeleton turned and started to walk away. When he didn't hear footsteps behind him, he stopped and looked back to find that Damien hasn't moved an inch.

"whadya waitin' fer, an invitation?"

Damien startled, quickly moving to follow him. The start of this walk to Sans' home was quiet between the two. The only sounds heard were the sounds of the city. Damien broke the silence for a moment, simply stating,

"Thanks. For helpin'."

Sans simply responded with a rough grunt of, "yeah." and that was the end of that short conversation. Sans took his cellphone out of his pocket, seemingly remembering something since he muttered, "oh, yeah." under his breath. After holding his cellphone to his skull for a few moments the call seemed to go through.

"hey, tor." Damien heard Sans say. "ya busy? ...got a favor to ask."

Damien tried to make out what Toriel was saying, but he didn't want to walk up to the skeleton and make it obvious. Instead, he settled to walking closer behind Sans, straining to listen.

"think you could come by th' house in a few? ...'s important. ...well, not to me, but y/n would be upset if i just left' im."

Ohhh. Damien had a guess as to what Sans was asking. Sure, he wasn't doing this out of the kindness of his nonexistent heart, but he was still doing it! Damien was still grateful. Man, his side really hurts...He gingerly cradled his side. He's not even going to look, he knows it's a blooming, nasty bruise.

"see ya there." Sans finished, hanging up his phone and pocketing it.

It didn't take too long to get to Sans' home. Damien was exhausted. Fighting three thugs at the same time took a lot out of him, especially since the usual fights he gets into are one-on-one. When Sans walked up to the front door of his home, he opened the door for Damien, seeing as the kid looked ready to drop, especially with how he looked slightly hunched over, trying to cradle his side with a hand. Sans knew that he was trying to minimize the growing pain he had there. One of those thugs really got him good. He watched Damien carefully move into the house before walking in himself and closing the door behind him. Sans didn't even need to inform anyone he was home, hearing a sharp gasp to his right. Looking over, he saw Toriel with a look of surprised horror, two paws over her snout. Damien looked terrible, he looked as awful as he felt. An eye was starting to swell, and he has bruises blooming in various places on his face.

"H-Hi, Toriel." Damien tried weakly, offering a pain filled smile, before his legs buckled and he started to crumble.

Quickly, Toriel rushed to him, catching him before he hit the floor beneath him. She lifted him up effortlessly, placing him on the couch face up.

"Damien!" he heard his girlfriend call him.

Y/n, who emerged from her room when she heard the front door close, quickly rushed to his side when she saw him, falling to her knees next to the couch so she can be face-to-face with him. Y/n held his hand and cooed at him as she cupped his cheek with her other hand. The most he can do is offer her a weak smile as Toriel got to work on healing him. A soothing warmth quickly spread over him, starting at where Toriel had placed her paw on his forehead. It was so soothing in fact, that Damien just fell asleep.

"Daddy." Y/n called, stepping away from her boyfriend now that he has fallen asleep. "What happened?"

"he took on three humans at once tryin'na save this girl."

"He saved a girl?"

"yup. she was bein' harassed. he saw it before i did an' immediately did somethin' about it."

Y/n softly smiled, looking back at the now sleeping boy.

"That's my Damien."
~*~
Damien woke up in the middle of the night, still feeling fatigued, but at least his body wasn't in pain anymore. Toriel used healing magic on him, Damien realized. He wished he could have thanked her. A soft noise brought his attention to Y/n, who fell asleep sitting in front of the couch he laid on, her arms were folded next to his side as her head lay on her arm like a pillow. Damien felt his heart swell and he also felt bad for making her worry. She must not be comfortable like that. He would pull her onto the couch with him, but Sans made it very clear that that is a big no-no. Instead, he carefully got up from the couch and slowly and carefully—as to not wake her—picked her up and laid her onto the couch, laying the blanket he had draped on him on her, got himself another blanket, and used Sans' recliner chair as a pseudo bed, reclining it to it's maximum and laying down to go back to sleep.

Papyrus once again found the two teens in the morning and he shook his head. They're still sleeping in the same room, but he forgave it this time. Given what happened to the boy yesterday, he decided to give him a break. Plus, they're not sleeping on the same piece of furniture this time around. Sans won't like that Damien's using his recliner, though. 

The boy's a piece of work, he'll give him that. Papyrus heard what happened, especially when he asked Sans for more details. He's a tough cookie and he definitely lives up to his Courage SOUL Trait. Papyrus has a feeling that Damien won't be going anywhere anytime soon and if he spends most of his time in their home instead of his own, then maybe they should invite this boy to stay. Sans would likely not like this idea. Perhaps Toriel has room for another child?

Chapter Text

Damien has become a constant presence in the skeleton's household now that he lives with Toriel, much to Sans' dismay. Papyrus seems to have taken a liking to Damien and it was apparent with how he treats him now to how he treated him when he first met him. In all honesty, Sans acts like Damien is an eye sore, but somehow Damien has learned how to look past Sans' words and see the real hidden words. Most of the time, what Sans says is what he means, but on particularly good days, Sans' snark isn't what he actually feels and Damien can decipher him perfectly. Sans is not amused by that.

"you again?" Sans asked as he opened the door after he heard a knock. 

"Hi, Sans!" Damien cheerfully greeted him.

Sans grunted and simply moved back to his spot on the couch as Damien closed the front door behind him.

"I know the drill: keep the door open, right?" Damien said on his way to Y/n's room.

"damn right." Sans replied. "th' second that door closes, yer out."

"Aye aye." Damien saluted, then continued on his way.

Sans shook his head. Silly kid. He knows Damien is here for Y/n, but the kid seems so comfortable in the skeleton's home and it's more than obvious he's much happier as opposed to before living with the former Queen. Perhaps it's because he's living with Toriel now and doesn't have to walk on eggshells around his parents anymore.

The day went on like normal. Papyrus came home from work in the afternoon and Damien stayed for dinner as he always did—which they had early so Damien doesn't have to walk home at night—then they went to the living room to watch something together. In the middle of the movie, someone knocked on the door, which was strange. If Toriel was going to come over, she would have already been there and it was rare for Frisk and Flowey to come over late, plus they would have called if that was the case. Undyne also calls Papyrus before she comes over, so it couldn't be her. Of course, there are rare times where Undyne shows up unannounced, but there hasn't been any negative or overly exciting energy from her as of recently, so Papyrus highly doubts it's her. Just in case, Papyrus checked his phone just to confirm and nope, no calls. The knock came again, more forcefully and urgent this time. Papyrus got up from his seat to answer the door, while the rest of his family stayed to continue to watch the movie. When he opened the door, an unfamiliar man was impatiently waiting with a sort of sour look on his face.

"YES?" Papyrus asked the unfamiliar man.

He's never seen this man before in his life. He was large for a human and seemed well built. He was frowning and Papyrus guessed that he came to address whatever it was that had him unhappy.

"I believe you have my son." the man gruffed out.

Damien froze from inside the house, having heard his so-called "father's" voice. Damien's new sudden demeanor alerted both Sans and Y/n. Sans turned to the teens and discreetly told his daughter to take Damien upstairs and Y/n didn't wait a second longer. As soon as the words left Sans' teeth, Y/n took Damien's hand and shortcutted to her room upstairs.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

"Damien is my son. I know you're housing him."

"WE ARE NOT HOUSING YOUR SON."

"Don't lie to me." the man's hackles seemed to rise.

"look, pal," Sans interjected, coming to his brother's side with sharp words. "yer son don't live with us. ya would know that if ya actually paid attention to 'im."

The man glared at Sans and Sans glared right back. There's no way in hell he's backing down from this human male.

"That brat hasn't been home for a while and I know he's dating your brat."

Both Papyrus' and Sans' magic flared in anger. How did he just refer to Y/n?

"come again?" Sans growled.

"KEEP MY NIECE OUT OF YOUR VOCABULARY." Papyrus' face was calm, but there was a threatening growl under his tone that was hard to miss. "THIS IS YOUR ONE AND ONLY WARNING."

The failed father held his hands up in surrender with a calm demeanor. He heard from the wood work that the skeleton brothers weren't a force you wanted to reckon with in the Underground and he's assuming it's the same for here on the surface. He has enough sense to not provoke them further.

"You tell that worthless son of mine that if he doesn't come back tonight, he won't have a room to come back to."

He then turned and walked off. The brothers didn't bother giving him a response, they simply went to close the door once he turned around. However, before they fully executed it, they witnessed a small red bone jut up in his path from the ground and he tripped on it face first with a grunt of surprise. Sans immediately burst out laughing his ass off at this man's misfortune, while Papyrus smirked in amusement. The man would have turned to glare at the skeletons if it weren't for Papyrus closing the front door and locking it just for good measure. Sans was starting to get a stitch in his side, he was laughing so hard. All the while, Y/n made her way downstairs with Damien slowly following her. 

"GOOD JOB, NIECE!" Papyrus proudly congratulated her, placing an affectionate hand on her head once she reached him.

"Thanks!" Y/n proudly beamed.

Finally, Sans started to calm down, wiping a stray magical tear away from his eye socket. Damien was strangely quiet. They knew him, he would have found the trip funny as well. It seems the sudden appearance of his father really shook him.

"Dame?" Y/n asked, gazing at him with worry.

"I don't know why he cares all of a sudden..." Damien started. "It's not like it made a difference before."

"I IMAGINE IT IS BECAUSE HE FINALLY REALIZED YOU WERE GONE. HE SAID IT HIMSELF, "THAT BRAT HASN'T BEEN HOME FOR A WHILE"."

"he might not've cared while ya were around, but he cared enough to go lookin' fer ya when ya weren't."

Damien stared down at his feet and Y/n recognized that as him slipping into his thinking space.

How does that make sense? Why would that man care now that he's not around anymore? This guy wants to start trying to act like a father now that his son is missing from his life? No! That's not how Damien's playing this. Either you care or you don't, that guy doesn't get to do both. He didn't care before, so Damien knows for a fact that hasn't changed. Something was obviously happening that he would start looking for him.

"he said if ya don't go back, they're takin' yer room." Sans snapped him out of his thoughts.

"They can have it. I took everything that I cared about. Nothing in that room matters to me."

Sans mentally shrugged. He gave the kid the message. What he does with it is his business. He doesn't go back? Good. His father's a piece of shit and the kid's eighteen. He can make his own decisions.

"good. fuck 'em." Sans ended the conversation with that and headed back to the couch.

It would be nice to finish watching that movie. Y/n took Damien's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze with a gentle smile, which had him smiling back.

"I'll shortcut ya home in case that guy wants ta come back. So don't worry, 'k?"

"Thanks." Damien breathed easier. He was worried about walking back to Toriel's and potentially running into him. "I love you."

"Love ya too, babe."

The small family plus Damien decided to finish their movie, then Y/n shortcutted him to Toriel's front porch straight from the living room. She entered with her boyfriend to say hello to her mother and brothers, then shortcutted back home. After, she had a piece of monster candy from a small stash she had to recover her small magic reserves and started getting ready for bed. Hopefully, that horrible man won't come by again.
~*~
A knock rapped on the door and Sans, who was at his usual spot on the couch didn't bother to look or get up to open the door. He knew who was on the other side of the door and simply used his magic to unlock the door with a flick of his finger.

"Good afternoon, Sans!" Damien greeted him after entering their home.

Just as Sans thought. Nowadays, there isn't a day that goes by where Damien isn't visiting. He's a move away from living with them.

"y/n ain't here." Sans called back, skipping the greeting part. "she's out with paps."

"Oh. I'll just wait for her, then."

Unexpectedly to Sans, the boy sat next to him on the couch, careful not to sit too close to him. He didn't want to invade his personal space. Sans startled, but managed to keep himself from jumping. He simply whipped his head to the side to look at Damien in short lived surprise.

"What're we watchin'?" the boy cheerfully asked.

"i'm watchin' th' news."

"Aw, lame." Damien whined softly and then pouted, watching the news with him anyway.

After a long while of listening to the news casters drone on and on, Sans thought this was a good opportunity to ask Damien questions that he didn't want to ask in front of Y/n, who was always together with him.

"what's yer deal?" Sans asked out of the blue.

Damien answered him with a lame, "Huh?" followed by a confused expression.

"yer here fer y/n, i know that, but ya have no problem hangin' around me and paps. like ya wanna hang out or somethin'."

"'Cause I do."

Wait, really?

"are ya serious?" Sans asked incredulously.

"I'm serious!" Damien beamed. "Monsters are super cool! I liked you guys since you showed up, so if I get a chance to hang out or just talk like we are now, I'll take it!"

Sans flustered, the compliments making red magic rush to his cheek bones. Sans is not good with compliments. A threat, that's easy; he'll just threaten you back or better yet, he can duke it out. But compliments and talking about feelings isn't something that's ingrained into him. If it weren't for Y/n, he would be completely inept at it.

"...yer th' only weirdo that thinks that."

Damien chuckled, completely seeing through Sans' words. The conversation naturally died and Sans went back to watching his TV. The air was clearer now that the two had their conversation. There was a tiny bit of floating embarrassment, but the silence between the two was comfortable. Papyrus and Y/n finally came home about an hour after. Sans had switched channels to some sitcom shows that he and Damien were enjoying once the news was over. Surprisingly once more, Damien didn't get up right away when Y/n got back. He figured she would need time to put away her shopping and he would get to enjoy the show with Sans for some minutes longer. He was proven right when she went about her way of doing just that. When Y/n finished, she opted to watch TV with them. She went to sit beside her boyfriend, but Sans sent her a raised bonebrow, so she instead plopped herself down right in between them. The rest of the day went back as normal as it usually does. An early dinner so Damien doesn't have to walk in the dark and a show or movie for some family time.

"Are ya sure ya don't want me to take ya?" Y/n asked, worried that her boyfriend might encounter someone unpleasant.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Damien flashed her a cool smile. "Toriel lives pretty close."

"I just don't want ya to get caught in th' dark."

"I know and I love you too."

Y/n sighed, then smiled, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Just leave already, ya dork."

"See ya guys!"

"yeah, yeah." he heard Sans mutter from somewhere in the background.

"GET HOME ALREADY!" Papyrus called. "DO NOT FORGET TO CALL TO LET US KNOW YOU'RE HOME!"

"You got it, Paps!"

With that, Y/n and Damien bid each other goodbye with a kiss and off he went. The cool night was pleasant to him. He enjoys nightly walks even if it's dangerous to do so. He doesn't care much, it's not like he can't defend himself. Besides, if he really needs help, he can just call his girlfriend to send Sans or Papyrus, or call Toriel, no biggie. The night wasn't totally without it's noise, he lives in the city after all, but he still enjoys a nice stroll at night every once in a while. He was almost home when he heard the sound that he was dreading the most.

"Damien."

His father's voice cut through the pleasant cool air. Damien froze like a deer in headlights. Shit. This chilling encounter is what he was afraid of the other day when this man visited the skeletons.

Shitshitshitshit—

"About time you finally came out of hiding, you little shit." his father said, advancing on him.

Damien felt panicked, but he faced his father, his SOUL filling him with Courage.

"What do you want?" Damien growled back and stood his ground.

He willed himself to not move back. He doesn't want to show this man that he's afraid or he'll get the upper hand. Damien will not lose to him!

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Why does it matter? You never cared before."

His father bristled, it was obvious by the way his posture changed. That was apparently not the right answer.

"I asked you where you've been." he repeated, a pointed growl underlining his tone.

"And I asked you why you care." Damien growled back.

The man's face changed to the color red. It looked like he was actively holding himself back. Damien watched his body language like a lion eyeing its pray. He was tense, his muscles constricting themselves. His hands were clenching into fists and releasing: he's trying and failing to calm himself. His jaw was strained; he was grinding his teeth.

He's getting angrier with every word Damien speaks and Damien's SOUL keeps raising his Courage the more fearful he becomes.

"Because I'm your father, you fuck! Now tell me where the fuck you've been staying!"

Damien's anger flared. Father?! Who's his father?!

"You are not my father, Justin!" Damien exploded, shouting back at him.

The failed father seemed to startle, but his surprise quickly changed back to anger.

Damien cannot deal with this man alone. He's afraid of him and his aggression. He believes he's done a fine job of keeping himself together enough to hide his fear, but he wants out of this encounter as soon as possible. He didn't move out of his so-called parent's godforsaken home for no reason! Damien attempted to secretly dial Y/n in his pocket. He doesn't have many contacts in his phone, it's mainly his girlfriend's family. Either he accidentally called Toriel and she'll come help or he dialed one of the skeleton brothers and they'll come help. It's a win-win either way.

"What kind of father yells at their kid when they try to tell him they're hungry?! What kind of father beats their kid for crying when their mother locks them out of the house for an entire day?! You think a father would shove his kid hard enough they hit the wall just because they accidentally stepped in front of him or would leave them to walk home at night after "forgetting" them damn near an entire city away?! I was ten years old!"

Damien was shaking, he was so angry. He was shouting so loud, his throat was starting to hurt. He felt tears burn at his eyes, but he willed them away. He will not stand there and let this man call himself his father after all the abuse he's thrown at him. Absolutely not!

"I don't know who's father you think you are, but you ain't my fuckin' father! And I got your message the other day, you can fuckin' keep that room. It ain't mine!"

"You ungrateful bastard. I know you've been staying with those monsters!"

Just by the way he said those words, Damien has a feeling where this was headed and he doesn't like the raw anger festering in the pit of his stomach.

"It's none of your fuckin' business who I stay with!"

"Yeah, you've been shacking up with that whore girl that's living with those skeletons!"

Damien saw red. No one refers to Y/n like that without a consequence. He flew at Justin, slugging him good in the face. The man staggered back from the blow, holding his face in stunned surprise.

"Don't you ever talk about Y/n like that again." Damien warned him with a dangerous low voice.

"You're dead." Justin growled and jumped at Damien, catching him by his shirt and connecting a hard punch to Damien's face.

Damien recovered quickly, grabbing the man's wrists with a bruising grip.

"I'm gonna break your fuckin' arms!"

Damien was actually in the process of doing just that when his entire body suddenly felt warm and he flew backwards away from Justin, but kept an inch or two off the ground. Bewildered, he looked around and found Sans walking passed him, his skull devoid of eye lights. The young man felt a chill run up his spine just from looking at his face. Sans looked ready to kill.

The skeleton had Justin flailing in the air, an expression crossed with anger and panic on his face.

"What the fuck?!" Justin cried loudly.

"here's what's gonna happen." Sans started, steadily lifting the man higher and higher. "yer gonna leave and never contact either of my kids again, capiché?"

"You better let go, monster! You're going to be dust by the time I'm done with you! That's my son!"

Damien's anger rose again.

"Justin, Shut the fuck up! You're not my father!" he shouted.

"quiet." Sans calmly spoke to Damien and the young man did just that.

He is not going to go against Sans' word. Especially not at this moment.

"this kid ain't yers. he's mine. and i protect what's mine. ya want down so badly?"

Without warning, Sans suddenly let go of the man's SOUL. He plummeted, becoming more and more panicked the closer he got to the ground. He started letting out cries of fear, but Sans grabbed him in midair a few inches away from the ground. Justin was mid-cry when he stopped him.

"stay th' fuck away from my kids." Sans finished and simply released him. The man fell painfully on his ass and he scrambled to get up and run away.

Damien felt himself lower, gently being set down so he was standing firmly on the ground. The young man was frustrated, but was also so very relieved. He simply let his tears stain his cheeks. Sans called him his. He knew Sans tolerated him, but to straight up be called his kid? Damien never knew he felt for him that deeply. Sans' eye lights returned as he looked to Damien, then he poked his forehead.

"th' hell are ya cryin' fer?"

"Sorry." Damien replied, wiping at his face.

Sans silently motioned to follow him and he did, sniffling as he went. Might as he try, his tears were slow to stopping and Sans was quick to notice. Damien's constant watery sniffles were also a dead giveaway.

"kid..." Sans drawled, almost whining. "quit th' waterworks, will ya?" 

"You called me your kid..." Damien started.

Sans flustered. He said that in the heat of the moment, but the kid's around so often he might as well be.

"...and?"

He didn't deny it! Damien couldn't believe his ears! The young man thought for sure that Sans was going to deny it or say that it was a mistake or maybe even dismiss him.

"...They won't stop." Damien sniffled, wiping at his eyes again.

"keep up, yer sleepin' over tonight. i'll talk to tori." Sans sighed.

"I-I am?"

"yer sleepin' on th' couch." Sans continued. "if I catch ya even close to Y/n's room—"

"I got it." Damien finally smiled again, then remembered that the bathroom is right across from Y/n's room. "Hey, what about the bathroom?"

"tough shit." Sans hummed.

"What?!"

Sans snickered, which made Damien chuckle.

"IF YOU INSIST ON ALWAYS GETTING INTO FIGHTS, GET YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR OWN SITUATIONS! NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO GET INTO A FIGHT AT NIGHT, WE WILL NOT SAVE YOU. THIS IS TWICE NOW!" Papyrus scolded him almost as soon as he entered their home again.

"But Paps~! It's not my fault! Justin approached me, not the other way around!"

"WHO IS JUSTIN?"

"th' kid's douche bag dad." Sans provided.

"He is not my father." Damien reiterated.

"MY POINT IS, IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT, BEAT THEIR ASSES INSTEAD OF CALLING FOR HELP!"

"I'm tryin'!"

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! DO I NEED TO TRAIN YOU?!"

Damien paused. Training with Papyrus? That sounds cool! His face lit up at the prospect.

"That's enough, Uncle." Y/n said, hugging her boyfriend, who embraced her back. "Daddy left to find 'im after he called 'im, shoutin' like that."

Ah, so he accidentally called Sans.

"AND HE SHOULD HAVE LEFT HIM!" Papyrus argued. "TORIEL SHOULD HAVE WENT TO SAVE HER OWN SON!"

Wait, son?

"So cruel, Paps..." Damien pouted.

"Uncle! Mama would have actually killed Justin!" Y/n exasperated.

"ALL THE MORE REASON!"

"s'better that i went." Sans piped up.

"BAH!" Papyrus scoffed. "I SAY GOOD RIDDANCE."

Both Papyrus and Sans walked off and Damien thought that was the end of that, so he followed Y/n, intent on hanging out before going to bed. When the time came, Damien headed to the living room or else Sans will be angry, and he literally does not like it when Sans is angry. It's one of the most frightening things he's ever seen in his life. This is supposedly tame for Sans, especially after Y/n came into their lives, so he couldn't imagine what Sans was like before then. Damien found Sans setting up the couch, placing down a pillow and folded blankets. The skeleton noticed him as he approached and he nodded at the boy.

"Night, kid." he said with a pat on his head and off he went to his own room, Damien assumed.

Sans hadn't wished him a good night like that before and it made Damien smile after him. He sat down on the couch feeling happier than ever. 

They've all welcomed him in their own ways. Damien feels eternally grateful to this family. His family.