Fairytale Complex - [Sans x Reader]

Chapter Eight | Dating Start! (Part 2 of 3)

"So she really let them go all alone?"

"Yeah, but after she tested to see if they were strong enough to. The kid wanted to explore beyond the Ruins, and so she let them go after that."

He's explained everything the man at the bus yelled at you for, though -- of course -- in a much calmer, detailed manner than him.

"She cared so much for them, that at the end of it all, she even asked them if they wanted to live with her at the Surface."

"Y- You mean as her child?" you ask, voice breaking with your shock. "Why would she even ask that? Did... Did Frisk never tell her they ran away?"

"Not until the Barrier broke," he replies, kicking a stray rock into the water. It makes the surface ripple further and -- once it reaches the bottom -- it starts to glow, resembling the rocks visible in the Underground's makeshift, starry sky. "They said they had somewhere else to be, and that's when they told her all about you and how they wanted to go back home."

"So if they were angry at me, I… I might've never seen them again?"

Anger mixes with your lament, troubling you to the point where you can't judge the situation rationally anymore -- or without being influenced by your emotions so heavily, at least.

"Are you… Are you really telling me she would have replaced me as a parent? I… I-"

"Whoa there," he intervenes, letting out a nervous laugh. "That's not what I meant by that. She didn't know until after she asked them that, so what I'm sayin' is-"

"She wanted to keep Frisk as her child, Serif. That's enough of a reason for me to feel angry about this." Your voice raises and a glare shows up on your face. He stands up in response to your change in mood and tries to ease you out of your anger by offering a hand out to you. "I… I'm more than relieved she looked after them for so long, but… But couldn't she ask them over why they fell down here? Why didn't she ask them if they had someone to look after them way before that, and why did she try to keep them in the Ruins rather than help them journey through the Underground safely?"

"Now that's a bit complicated for me to explain, but…" He sighs and looks up at you when you take his hand and let him help you stand up again. "At the end of the day, it's better if she tells you all about that herself. She understands why she did that better than I ever will, and she can tell you stuff I otherwise won't be able to tell you without her prior knowledge." Although he doesn't have a throat, he almost seems to gulp with the next pause he takes. "But, well… If you need more context as to why she was so attached to Frisk as a parent, she lost both her biological son and adoptive kid way back when."

Your eyes falter in their glare when he says that, though your own emotions still keep you from softening up in response to such a reveal. Respecting Toriel's privacy by not forcing Sans to tell you all about her seems like the most humane thing to do even more now, so you let your glare fade away and ease in with a smile, fueled by sympathy. "...Alright," you say, letting out a breath as you allow your body to free itself from tension. "I understand, and I'm… I'm sorry for prying into this. I didn't know."

Expecting more words from him, you're contradicted when he only chooses to smile back at you and nod. "Anythin' else ya wanna ask me about myself, though? Take a breather, and tell me when you're ready to talk some more."

"Thank you."

You take up his advice and take a moment to compose yourself. You start by looking for your medicine and taking the one you need to for the hour it is; then, you drink some water and take a look at yourself through the river's reflection to see your eyes are already on the verge of watering up again. Continuously feeling sad over the past is almost a trademark of yours now, so you want to shatter that custom by mustering up as much emotional strength as you possibly can.

When you're more confident with yourself, you put the medicine back and drink the rest of the water, storing the empty bottle away after. 

"You were a sentry for the Underground, weren't you?"

The skeleton either didn't hear you, or your question's caught him off guard, the latter you try to discard when you see he's busy helping a small bird cross the waterfall, it's wings too weak for it to battle against the wind caused by the strength of the rushing water. He walks back to the river after that, though once he makes it back with you, it's noticeable how he's chosen not to answer your question yet, judging by the way his irises divert from yours the second he tries to look at you in the eye. "...Yeah," he says, finally managing a reply. "I know we've talked about this before, but… Could you still promise me you won't freak out too much? Or at least, well... Not at the same level as that guy back at the bus? Not that I don't want you to feel upset, but I just don't want you to end up in the hospital again because of somethin' like this."

"Believe me, I won't," you say, voice and gaze both stern, albeit softened by his words. "That's the last thing I want. But… Could you still tell me more about you in that sense? I want to know more about what your job as a sentry implied -- to more detail, I mean."

"Go ahead," he says, nodding. "I'll try to answer with as much depth as I can."

• • •

That moment when you have to cut the chapter into 1 more part because you hadn't checked the word count, and part 2 was 5k words long. 👀

Also, quick fun fact: I almost wrote 'promise by the tiny claw' rather than 'pinky promise', because where I'm from we say 'lo prometo por la garrita', and my brain just failed to come up with the proper translation for pinky finger in English for a whole solid minute, lol.