A/N: hai hai! Quick note, sentences that are italicized like this are your thoughts, unless they are surrounded by "quotation marks".
Also *TRIGGER WARNING* I guess. Idk if it's serious, but just in case.
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"Two orders of fries, Grillbz", Sans said to the flaming man behind the counter. He had taken you to a bar that he indisputably pronounced the "best place to chill".
You were just happy to be out of the cold winter air and the warmth emitting from Grillbz was making everything so much better. You took off Sans' jacket with a content sigh and handed it back to him. He shook his head and pushed the jacket back to you.
"Keep it. We still have to leave the bar ya know".
You nodded your head and tied the sleeves around your waist. The fire man set two plates of food on the table just as Sans took a ketchup bottle and began drinking from it.
Holy cow.
You averted your eyes, deciding that you weren't going to start questioning Sans' preferences of eatery. Taking a fry, you dipped it in ketchup and popped it in your mouth, chewing contently.
You felt like you were being watched, and turned to face Sans who was staring at you as you ate. You gulped down the food hurriedly.
"What? Is there something on my face?" you rubbed your hands around the corners of your mouth frantically.
"No. It's nothing", Sans said, though it seemed as if he had something on his mind. The atmosphere was slowly turning awkward and you were afraid that Sans was going to end up leaving. You didn't want him to go seeing as how you actually liked his company plus being in a new territory without knowing anybody else is pretty terrifying.
"C-Can I have a tour of Snowdin, please?" you finally uttered. You actually didn't want to leave the warmth of the bar just yet but those words were the only thing you could think of that would break the silence before Sans left.
"Sure, bab- I mean buddy", Sans quickly corrected himself as he hopped from the bar stool. You didn't know what he was going to say before but the nervous shift in his eyes told you that it was probably something embarrassing.
You decided to ignore it and followed him out of the bar.
Hurriedly putting on the jacket, you walked through the snow and entered into the nearest building, a library. Or as the sign above the door spelt, the "Librabry".
The inside of the building was small but cozy, with a few older monsters seated around a table huddled around numerous notebooks. You smiled at the librarian as you walked in with Sans close behind you.
"Well this is the library.. Obviously. You can just look around, I'll be here", Sans gestured at the seat next to a one eyed monster and you nodded in acknowledgement.
Walking towards the various bookshelves, you let your eyes scan the spines of the novels. There were a variety of choices: cooking books, history books, and... Manga? You glanced at the title. Neon Genesis Evangelion.
These monsters sure know their stuff.
You continued to inspect their selections until a particular title caught your attention.
"Human Abilities: Observation One".
Your curiosity was officially piqued. Picking up the novel, you skimmed through the pages, allowing your eyes to look over words such as "determination and "soul power". According to the book, human souls are able to survive after death due to their underlying "Determination" and that, apparently, human souls were stronger than monster souls.
This was all new to you. Of course it would be, you only found out that monsters existed yesterday. It seems that monster scientists were experimenting on magic sources which was something that humans didn't even believe existed. You wondered how many other wonders of the world existed that you weren't aware of.
As you continued to read over the pages, a particular section caught your attention. A section written completely in someone's handwriting! It seemed to be hurriedly stuffed into the book, yet the information fit perfectly with the previous notes. The main words at the beginning of the page read:
ABILITY TO RESET
Reset?
You read through the pages, becoming totally immersed in the words.
"Humans souls are able to exist even after death due to Determination. If their Determination is strong enough, their soul power is able to reach levels high enough to conduct a Reset".
Most of the pages after that were written in illegible scrawl that consisted mainly of various symbols and before you could even attempt to decipher the code, a voice snapped you back to the library.
"Well geez, Y/N. If you bring your face any closer to the book ya might end up eating it", Sans had suddenly appeared beside you and you hurriedly closed the book, thinking that he was ready to leave.
"Watcha reading?", he asked hovering over your shoulder.
You pushed the book back onto the shelf.
"Nothing. Just something really interesting about humans", you shrugged and tugged at Sans' jacket. "Ready to go?"
Sans hesitated for a moment, his attention still drawn to the novel that you had placed on the bookshelf. He slowly dragged his eyes to look at you and forced out a smile.
"Yup. Let's get this show on the road, buddy".
Sans had shown you around the small town and even shared with you the story of their little Christmas-like holiday. How a certain monster was bullied and the townspeople gave that monster presents to feel better and now they have a holiday of giving each other presents. It's actually a pretty cute story.
Soon Sans stopped in front of the Inn and gestured towards the structure.
"So you're gonna stay here for the night? It's only 80G".
You glanced down towards your empty pockets and laughed nervously. The truth is, monster currency is different from human currency so thus, you were flat broke.
"I uh... I don't really have any money to stay here...", your voice trailed off as you confessed your lack of funds to Sans. You found it extremely embarrassing and didn't want to look him in the eyes.
"It's no big deal. You can just stay with me and Papyrus", Sans shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly as if it was normal for him to let humans have sleepovers and tea time.
"Are you sure? I-I don't want to be a burden on you", you already felt guilty for taking his jacket, taking space in his house was just going to double the guilt.
"You're not burdening me... And I'm going to worry about ya if you sleep in the cold, so just say yes", Sans' eyes seemed to bore right through you until you found yourself obeying his request, and just as you blinked, you were in a living room.
You gawked at the interior of the house, noticing a rock set on the table and an extremely tall cupboard in the kitchen that had to be at least ten feet in size. You didn't even notice when Sans brought a blanket and a pillow and set it on the couch. You couldn't help but feel happy and a bit touched that Sans would go out of his way to help a stranger like you.
To be honest, Sans was helping you quite a lot today.
You wondered why.
"I hope you don't mind sleeping on the couch... Didn't think you'd be comfortable in one of our rooms heh", Sans looked sheepishly at the pile of fabric on the couch and you smiled at him.
"The couch is fine! Thank you, Sans", you replied just as you realized something. "But wait! Isn't Papyrus still trying to capture me or something like that?"
Sans just chuckled.
"Don't worry. I'll talk to him about it. You just try to get some sleep", he hesitated. "Good night, Y/N".
"Goodnight Sans".
And then he was gone.
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You couldn't sleep.
No matter how hard you tried, there was always that thought at the back of your mind. The new information about humans. Something you had never heard before.
Resets.
Sure you'd heard that word in relation to video games when you wanted to start over a game, but for a person to "reset" in real life is something spectacular. Can humans actually do that?
To be honest, you were pretty curious.
No no no no no no no no no
Remember what curiosity did to me? That's how I ended up here in the first place!
The book also mentioned "After death". That implies that the human would have to die first before they could attempt a reset. You were curious but were you THAT curious?
You thought hard. If you were to reset then even if you died, you would just wake up sometime in the past, correct? So based on that theory, you would still be alive!
Your legs began to move on their own and before you knew it, you were in the kitchen staring down the knives in the drawer.
What am I doing?
You picked one up and sat on the floor, already being unsure of what to do. The blade was glaring at you and you looked over the edges in a repeated manner. You didn't know what you should stab to die painlessly. You only wanted to test out the ability to reset, not actually cause yourself physical pain. You settled on your heart and brought the knife up slowly to point at your chest.
One breath
Two breaths
Three breaths
And you slowly closed your eyes. You were shaking, unsure of what your body was doing but yet you had total control of it.
You positioned your hand, ready to pierce, all you needed to do was stab yourself with enough force and-
"STOP!"
A voice screamed at you from the kitchen entrance, and you dropped the knife in surprise. You turned to face Sans who was staring at you shakily, his left eye blaring a blue color.
When did he get there?
He rushed over to you, kicking the knife into a corner in the process and quickly knelt in front of you, his eyes darting over your skin to make sure you weren't bleeding.
He grabbed your shoulders.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?... What... What were you thinking?.. Do you really hate being underground that much?" Sans' voice trailed into a whisper, and you could basically hear the relief yet pain evident. You couldn't help but feel guilty.
"No! No, that's not it. I'm actually really happy to meet all of you.. I just... I just wanted to test out something", you replied sheepishly, earning a curious look from Sans.
"Test out what?"
His voice was slow and drawn out, as if he was scared to know the answer.
"I read about resets in the book in the library and I-"
Sans hugged you before you could finish the sentence.
"Don't mess with that.. Resetting everything isn't as good as it may sound"
You were taken aback at how sure he sounded, as if he learned that from personal experience. You didn't retort or even verbally respond, your only retaliation being you wrapping your arms around the skeleton. There wasn't really much to hug, so you just settled on clinging onto his clothes.
And there you two lay for five minutes.
Then ten minutes.
Until you finally drifted off.