Chapter Text
Sans was sure that visiting beaches was not meant to invoke deep feelings of one’s scale to the universe. Every movie he’d seen – every anime Alphys had watched with him – and every book he’d read mentioned beaches being full of hot sand and funny memories.
It already wasn’t picturesque, exactly. The strip wasn’t a white shimmer of sand with clear blue water. It was gold and grainier than he’d anticipated. The water darker. Perhaps because it wasn’t the ocean, but a large lake he couldn’t see the opposite side of. Freshwater must make a difference in these things, he assumed.
But he’d stepped out far enough to really look at the stretch of crusty sand and had gotten so caught up in his own existence. How small he was compared to the expanse of water – of the universe. And yet how gargantuan he was compared to the smallest grain of sand. Everything made up of atoms originating from the very beginning of everything, whatever that may have looked like.
He could only liken the rush of water against the shore to the sound of wind through trees. Not because they were audibly similar, but because they contained the same sort of power. A naturally brutal energy that was softened because of the circumstances of that day at that time.
“Yo, think fast!”
Sans turned just in time to watch a beachball smack into Edge’s face, bouncing off to expose a very disgruntled skeleton. “Seriously?”
Undyne was cackling. “You were supposed to catch it!”
“I don’t know if you noticed but my hands are full!” Edge snapped back, shifting to face her entirely as if to present her with everything he was carrying. A small cooler in one hand and a stack of towels in the other.
“It’s okay,” Papyrus said as he passed, giving Edge a consoling pat on his shoulder. “You caught it with your face! Very innovative!”
Edge shook his head, rolling his eyelights like he were sick of all of them. But Sans didn’t fail to notice how he fought down a smile.
“This looks like as good of a spot as any.” Red mentioned as he got closer to where Sans stood, a bag slung over his shoulder. Alphys was close behind him with a picnic basket.
Sans shrugged, digging the toe of his shoe into where the grass loosened to sand.
“GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!” Undyne said, kicking the bag she’d carried toward Sans. It contained a volleyball, the beachball (which had been deflated when they arrived), and what Sans had thought might have been a net, from the glimpse he’d gotten.
Red shuffled around the spot, dragging his feet. “No sticks or anything. Good pick, Sans.”
Sans blamed the slight flush he felt on the heat, scratching at his head. “I just stopped to look – I’ve never been to the beach before.”
“I-it’s not really a beach.” Alphys reminded him. “This is a l-lake! Freshwater.”
“There’s sand down there, though!” Papyrus pointed past where the grass ended, turning into a golden carpet. “So I’m going to count this as my first beach trip!”
Everyone settled things onto the ground, Alphys spreading a large, square blanket out across the space Sans had stopped in.
“I’ll go help Toriel with the rest, too.” Undyne declared, already starting to march back toward the parking lot.
Red smirked. “You know what would make this happen in fewer trips?”
“Fuck you!” Undyne whined. “Learning to use an inventory is hard! I don’t know how you got the hang of it so fucking fast.”
“I had a good tutor.” Red said with a wink.
Sans couldn’t blame the blush of magic on the heat this time and he rubbed at his face as if that would get the color to go away. “Nah, you were a quick study.”
He’d of course offered to help Red learn how to use an inventory when his datemate had expressed annoyance with the task. It had taken a bit for the method of magic spatial manipulation to click, but Red had seemed incredibly motivated to learn.
Using inventories used to be common magic for all of monsterkind. But after the first Human-Monster War, it fell out of practice. The reason was lost to time, but a lot of historians believed it was because monsterkind wanted to appear less intimidating to humans. Pulling something from what appeared to be nothing was startling to a race that was losing touch with its magic. But in more recent years, knowing how to operate the spatial magic required for inventories was something taught in certain trades for convenience or a sign of higher education. There was the odd individual that picked it up from a family member much earlier, though. Or other extreme circumstances.
Sans had learned to use an inventory back when he’d still been in stripes, but it had taken a couple of days to figure it out, and then a couple of weeks before it was reliable.
“Are you sure you are not too warm, dear?”
Sans turned at the sound of Toriel’s voice, surprised by it. When had she gotten over here? “I’ll be fine.”
She smiled softly as she set a folded chair on the ground, opening it enough to place down her bag. She had a wide-brimmed sunhat on with a lavender fabric band that matched her sundress. “It is only that the weather is much clearer than we anticipated, and the sun is out full force. Are you not too warm in your sweater?”
It was Red’s sweater, actually. One Sans still had from months ago because he hadn’t wanted to give it back yet. “I’ll take off the sweater,” Sans assured her, if only for accountability reasons.
He’d told Moss that one of the steps he was taking on this small excursion was to try and not let his scars determine his level of comfort. If he were too hot, he would take off a layer. And he was currently too hot, really. He was sweating, which might be what led Toriel to ask, but Sans was struggling with his own goal already.
“Well, if you are too warm otherwise, I brought a few things from home for you.” She said. “Please do not hesitate to bring your needs to my attention.”
He smiled at her, touched by her thoughtfulness. “Thanks, Tori.” Then he paused, considering. “When you say a few things from home, what do you mean?”
Toriel smirked. “I raided Red’s closet. I am sure you do not mind?”
Going by the mischievous look in the goat monster’s eyes, she’d picked up on how minced Sans’s wardrobe had become in recent months, splicing with articles Red would let Sans borrow and he’d consider never returning.
“I certainly don’t.” Red mentioned from next to Sans – he’d forgotten Red was nearby at all. He looked around and Sans noticed it was to note that the rest of their group was still by the car grabbing more things to carry. “And if you need to cool off but you can’t handle being around other people, we can figure something out, okay?”
Sans’s soul fluttered and he offered Red a smile. All of the Dreemurrs were so considerate. “’Kay.”
“CAN WE EAT THE SANDWICHES NOW?” Undyne shouted still halfway between the car and their spot as if she couldn’t wait to be close enough. Alphys was giggling from where she was helping Undyne with the other side of the bin of firewood, Sans could tell by how her shoulders shook.
“Perhaps we should!” Toriel answered with a laugh of her own. “Come, children, let us take a break.”
A few minutes later saw them all seated either in chairs or on towels and blankets while Toriel dug through the picnic basket and passed around sandwiches. Sans liked when she made sandwiches because he could never predict which vegetables she would put together, but it was always crunchy.
For a while, the only sound was the crunch of vegetables.
Sans finished his food and squinted out at the bright sun reflecting off of the water. It was getting way too warm, and he was aware of every layer of fabric between him and the cooling breeze that would make the heat more bearable. After a glance around to see everyone was caught up in enjoying their food or conversations with each other, Sans slid off his jacket. Folded it in his arms.
He already felt better physically. He could pretend like that was what mattered. And the fact no one was paying attention to him immediately afterward made it easy to remind himself that it wasn’t a big deal.
Sans used to have to hide. All of the time. And now he didn’t anymore.
“I-I think I’m going to move out o-onto the sand.” Alphys declared, brushing the crumbs from her claws before standing.
“That sounds like a marvelous idea!” Papyrus concurred. “May I assist you?”
“Th-that would be nice!”
“We could set up the volleyball net out there.” Edge suggested.
“HELL YEAH!” Undyne shot up onto her feet. “Let’s go, bone boy!”
Edge watched her dig through the bags for the net. “You do realize there’s four of us, right?”
“Not it.” Red opted out.
Edge sighed dramatically, dragging himself out of his seat.
Toriel chuckled in amusement. “I thought perhaps you would all be too excited to swim first thing?”
Undyne’s movement stalled before she gave the goat monster a broad smile. “Oh, we’ll get there eventually!”
And Sans noticed a few hesitant glances his direction, so he opted to speak up. “Sooner than later would be pretty good. It’s only gonna get warmer.”
“Are you planning to swim, brother?” Papyrus asked, politely addressing the needle within the haystack.
“I might stick my feet in, but I’m not gonna swim,” Sans answered. “Don’t wait up for me.”
While struggling to lift a sun umbrella from the ground, Papyrus smiled softly. There was a trace of sadness there that Sans didn’t know how to deal with, so he just didn’t.
“Would you like help with that, my dear?” Toriel asked, standing from her chair to step closer to Papyrus.
“I’m not sure if – oh.” Papyrus muttered the last syllable in surprise as Toriel took the umbrella from his hands as easily as if it weighed nothing. “You’re very strong.”
Toriel laughed. “It is only that I am larger than the umbrella, and you are not.”
Sans scoffed a laugh at the conflicting emotions on Papyrus’s face. Gratitude, fondness, and exasperation all at once made him appear flabbergasted at the words.
“Well, if you don’t want us waiting up, then we won’t!” Undyne declared, dropping the tangled net in her hands.
“Thank the stars.” Red muttered, standing himself before offering Sans his hand. "It's been rough wading."
It took everyone an extra moment to get it, and when they did there was a scattered chorus of laughter or frustrated groans.
Sans accepted the help to his feet, muttering a word of thanks. He left his sweater on the ground on purpose, but he couldn’t help wrapping his arms around himself.
Red sighed softly. “They forgot the spike to hold the umbrella down – I’ll be back.” He scooped said spike from their collection of things before walking toward where Alphys, Toriel, and Papyrus were out on the sand.
Sans watched him go affectionately before glancing back to his present company. He stilled when Undyne pulled off her baggy t-shirt, eyelights catching on a color shift in the blue skin on her shoulder.
Scarring.
His mind sent him several panicked signals, and Sans remained perfectly still. “Undyne?”
She turned to him, halfway through tossing her shirt into the grass. Her attention strengthened when she noticed his expression. “Dude, are you okay?”
“What happened to your shoulder?” He asked carefully. And maybe he shouldn’t – he certainly didn’t want to talk about any of his own scars. But as far as he’d known, Undyne had experienced a relatively normal childhood. A healthy one, at least, if full of its own struggle.
She twisted to look and felt the skin there, as if she couldn’t remember and was trying to figure out what Sans was talking about. Then clarity cleared her face. “Oh, I was learning how to skateboard and I fell into a thorn bush.”
Sans blinked, trying to process that.
“I’ve got loads of scars – do you wanna see them?” She asked with a grin.
“Um…” Sans was startled. “I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable or anything, it’s okay—”
“No, this is fun – you haven’t heard these stories yet!” She practically skipped closer. “I’m excited! Okay. This one’s from trying to jump down a whole flight of stairs when I was a kid,” she pointed out a mark on her left shin. “I broke the banister. This one was from when I wiped out on my bike – you should’ve seen that, I was like thirteen and Red and I were racing and I took a corner too fast,” she was gesturing to a faded scar on the side of her forearm Sans had never noticed before.
“This is from a stray cat. So is this one – different cats, I’m not sure why they always bite me—”
“They were probably hungry and you smell like fish.” Edge called from nearby, digging through his bag.
Undyne narrowed her eyes at him, obviously debating whether she should respond. Then she looked distracted. “OH! This is my favorite one, check it out.” Undyne pulled at the hole in her bathing suit already there for the gills on her sides, stretching it to reveal something startlingly similar to a stab wound scar on her stomach.
Sans’s sockets widened.
“Doesn’t it look sick – I was playing with one of my cousins when we were kids and they pushed me out of a big tree in the woods and I fell onto a stick or something – I don’t really remember – but it looks cool, right?”
Sans’s shoulders dropped. All of these things were innocent ways to retrieve scars. They didn’t sound very normal – Undyne seemed to be pretty accident-prone as a kid, or maybe just reckless – but they weren’t nefarious.
Sans was relieved.
“And I’ve got a couple of other small ones from scraping my knees and stuff, but those are boring,” Undyne said. “They don’t really change the color of my skin as much – see?”
Sans did see, his soul calming in his chest. “Thanks for sharing.”
“She’ll take any opportunity to show off.” Edge said, appearing from behind Undyne like a ghost. He had also removed the first layer of his clothes, so he was in a red tank top and grey swim shorts. The bright ivory of his bones reflected the sun just as well as Sans’s.
A bundle of fabric smacked into the back of Undyne’s head, sending her red hair forward with her as she stumbled. “HEY!” She pulled it away enough for Sans to recognize it as a black shirt.
Sans leaned to look around Undyne to see Red stepping up behind her, entirely shirtless. “Are we gonna jump from the rock or what?”
“Damn, why are you so fucking impatient?” Undyne muttered, chucking Red’s shirt back at him.
“It’s tradition – you get disappointed if we don’t start with it.” Red pointed out. “But it’s also hot as hell and I wanna get in the water.”
“Okay, sheesh.” Undyne kicked off her shoes into the sand. She gave Sans a conspiratorial wink before turning to face Red. “I’ll race you – last one there has to try a flip!” And she shot off at a full sprint, kicking up sand behind her.
Edge swore under his breath, taking off after her toward the water.
Red watched them go, adding his shirt to Undyne’s in the grass.
Sans saw Undyne shout at Papyrus and Alphys what was happening – the former dropping everything so he could run too – as they raced around to a different section of the lake with a large outcropping of rock. “Shouldn’t you be racing, too?”
Red held out his hand toward Sans. “We know a shortcut.”
Sans rolled his eyelights and laced their fingers together. “Isn’t that cheating?”
Red gave Sans the same wink Undyne had before pulling them through the Void.
The wind was stronger, then, as Red had landed them already halfway up the path to climb the rock, so there weren’t any trees breaking it apart.
Red swung their hands where they were still linked together, looking out at the water. “You okay?”
“Hm?” Sans wasn’t sure why Red was asking.
“I heard what Undyne was talking about.” Red said.
Sans smiled softly. “Oh. I asked her about that, it’s okay.”
Red nodded then, looking marginally eased.
Sans couldn’t help his eyelights dropping from Red’s face to the bright bone reflecting the harsh sunlight. Sans noticed scars of a different kind, then. Old, healed cracks littered among his ribs – most of them were very small and clearly fading with age. There were more severe ones on his arms, dark in contrast with the rest of his bones. And Sans knew that if he leaned just a little, he’d see burn marks on Red’s shoulders.
They weren’t put there innocently as a consequence of Red being reckless in childhood. Not as far as Sans was aware. They were from people who had meant to cause him harm.
Maybe Sans should be angry. Pained by the sight of them. He had been, the first time he’d realized they were there, but today…
Sans finally relaxed his arm, instead of keeping it wrapped around his ribcage.
There was a cry of outrage. “YOU CHEATER!” Undyne objected, marching up the rock toward them.
“You didn’t say teleporting wasn’t allowed.” Red pointed out.
“This was a race!” Undyne said. “That ruins the integrity, bonehead!”
Sans laughed. “I told you.”
“You didn’t win!” Undyne declared.
“Okay, deal.” Red agreed, like he’d expected that. “But I didn’t lose, either.”
Undyne narrowed her eyes at him before nodding once. “Okay.”
Sans frowned. “Why does winning matter?”
“Bragging rights.” Red and Undyne responded simultaneously.
Edge was there next, and he rolled his eyelights, clearly annoyed. “You do this every year.”
“And everyone’s still surprised.” Red noted. And then he smirked, looking past them all. “Speaking of surprises…”
Sans followed his gaze.
Papyrus was walking next to Alphys, talking animatedly, even though Sans knew he’d been right behind Undyne and Edge.
Alphys was giggling and she tapped the rock once she was close enough.
“Well, would you look at that!” Papyrus said loudly in a cardboard cutout equivalent of surprise. “It seems I have arrived here lastly!” And he poked the rock with his toe.
Sans felt affection rush through him. He’d probably noticed that Alphys wasn’t particularly fast and had probably stopped to ask her if she’d prefer not to be last.
Papyrus was so cool.
“That means you get to jump in first!” Undyne said. “And you have to try a flip – if you want.”
Papyrus paused. “That’s a little contradictory. I have to if I want?”
“Well yeah, I’m not gonna demand you do something like that.” Undyne said.
Red nodded. “And she wouldn’t have made Alphys do it, either – usually Undyne just does the flip for whoever is here last.”
“Nonsense – what about the integrity of the competition?” Papyrus stepped up onto the rock. “Of course I will attempt a flip!”
“You really don’t have to.” Edge assured him.
“I’m sure it can’t go too terribly.” Papyrus responded, walking past them toward the end of the rock.
Sans smirked. Papyrus was incredibly athletic – he’d been training in his magic with similar intensity to Sans for the sake of continuity in the experiments. Papyrus just hadn’t needed to worry about learning to keep himself alive at the same time. In that way, he actually got further.
Sans had the higher MP, yes, but Papyrus had a natural coordination of his magic and his body that Sans could only achieve after years of grueling work.
“And you’re certain that it’s deep enough in this spot to jump in safely?” Papyrus asked to confirm.
“Yeah, it’s very deep right here.” Undyne answered.
“Okay.” Papyrus clapped his hands together. Shook out his arms and legs. “A flip. Just one?”
Undyne frowned. “Uh… yeah?”
Papyrus nodded and stepped up to the very end. He paused there. Turned around to face them. “Did you know that no one taught me how to swim?”
Undyne gawked. “Wait, what?”
Papyrus grinned brightly, bending his knees. With a single jump, he did a perfectly executed backflip and fell toward the water.
Undyne and Edge rushed forward just as they heard the splash, and the former turned to Sans in a panic. “HE CAN’T SWIM?”
“No, he said no one taught him.” Sans corrected calmly. “He’s fine, he was just messing with you.”
The tension dropped from her shoulders.
“Yes, there he is.” Edge observed before raising his voice. “PAPYRUS, YOU GAVE ME A FUCKING SOUL ATTACK!”
There was the wonderful sound of laughter that bubbled up from below.
“Shit, I’m glad he’s okay.” Undyne said, straightening.
Edge was still looking over the end of the rock, down at Papyrus. “That kid is a menace.”
“That’s what he gets for hanging around you.” Undyne joked lightly.
Sans shook his head, soul warm. Sometimes he took for granted how comfortable Papyrus was around these people. And how much they so obviously cared about him.
“Well, who’s next?” Undyne asked, hands on her hips. Without a moment of thought, she looked to Edge, who still stood next to her.
His face dropped into something tired. “Don’t you even think about – FUCK!” Undyne had given him a hard shove, causing him to lose his balance and fall toward the water. There was a moment where he actually paused in the air, suspended, but Sans saw the instinct falter and his magic dissipate.
There was another splash. Undyne laughed loudly.
Red released Sans’s hand to step up behind Undyne as she shouted down below. “YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE!”
He braced his foot against a small outcropping of the rock and pushed his shoulder into Undyne.
She flailed her arms to try and keep her balance, managing to half turn and look at him. But the one thing she managed to grab was Red’s arm.
The single word Sans heard as they both fell off the rock was from Red. “Shit.”
Sans laughed as he heard them land in the water with a sploosh.
Alphys was equally in stitches, cradling her stomach like it hurt from laughing so much.
“WELL!” Papyrus was climbing the rock again, sopping wet, leaving a trail of water behind him. “That was exhilarating! Will you be jumping in, Alphys?”
“I-I usually do.” She said after regaining some of her composure. “At least once!”
“Would you like to jump in together?” Papyrus offered his hand.
She smiled and accepted his help gratefully. Sans could tell by how she kept her tail wrapped around her legs that she was nervous, and Sans wondered if Papyrus had offered because he’d picked up on that.
Sans watched them all cycle through jumping into the water several times over. Undyne approached the ledge with equal enthusiasm every time, matched surprisingly by Edge as well as Papyrus. Alphys did only jump once, but she stayed in the water to cheer them on. Red was climbing the rock slower each time.
Sans fought down a chuckle as Red sluggishly climbed the rock for the fifth time. “Getting tired already?”
Red purposefully flicked water from his hands at Sans.
He ducked like he could avoid it, but some of it sprinkled onto his arms. Cold enough to be relieving of the heat.
“You don’t gotta stand up here and bake.” Red said. “If you wanna sit with Tori in the shade, you can.”
Sans had been considering it. “Just didn’t want to miss out.”
Red gave him a gentle look that bordered terrifyingly close to sympathetic.
Edge approached from behind Red and Sans felt his magic in the air. The reason was made apparent as Edge seemed to be walking on nothing several inches above the rock. “I figured out why this height in particular is easiest to do.”
Red turned and realized he had to look further up to see his brother’s face. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“It’s the height of my platforms.” Edge mentioned, gesturing to the open space beneath his feet.
Sans nodded. “Familiarity helps a lot with spatial and gravity types of magic.”
Red seemed to be fighting down a laugh. “Sometimes I wonder if you’ll just float away above the trees.”
The magic cut off and Edge stumbled on the rock. Red reached to help but Edge regained his balance easily enough without him. “Don’t say shit like that, it’s fucking terrifying.”
“Don’t worry, boss, we could tie a string to ya.” Red said. “Like a balloon.”
“I hate you.”
Red chuckled, approaching the end of the rock again.
Sans wished he could comfortably stay there forever, but like Red had observed before – Sans felt like he was baking on the rock. “I’m gonna head back down for a bit, I think.”
Red turned back to him. “Okay. Be nice to my datemate.”
Sans smirked. “Don’t drown my boyfriend.”
Red grinned, a soft blush of his magic brushing across his nasal bone.
Just before Edge shoved him off of the rock.
Sans snorted. “Don’t you do it, either.”
“Oh, all right.” Edge conceded. “But only because you asked.”
Toriel was enjoying her novel under the shade of her beach umbrella, listening to the sounds of joyous conversation and laughter on the wind. This was an excellent idea on the part of her boys. Red had requested it specifically, she recalled. Because his birthday was swiftly approaching, and they’d had a sudden surge of hotter weather for the time being.
The trip had been thrown together last minute. Papyrus had been excited to attend, but Toriel had been surprised Edge had gotten the time off of work, or that Alphys and Sans had found the space in their busy academic schedules to fit in a whole day and a half for this. And she knew that Red and Undyne had the weekend off of their program, and they’d been ecstatic when they found out it lined up with beautiful weather such as this.
Toriel had long since decided that getting her fur so terribly wet as to swim was more trouble than it was worth, and she hadn’t wanted to intrude on their fun, so she hadn’t been planning on attending the trip with them. But then Red had asked her very sweetly to join them.
Because it was his first birthday as a Dreemurr.
She smiled to herself at the thought. The adoption had meant a lot to her, but she was learning that it meant the world twice over to Red and Edge. It had taken a year for all of the official paperwork to make its way through all of the right channels, but now that it was finally through it seemed the boys were taking every opportunity to mention it.
Toriel loved it.
An approaching figure made Toriel look up from her book again. It was Sans, still wearing long jeans and his shoes, and she instinctively glanced toward the bag that held a change of clothes. “Hello, dear.”
“Hey.” Sans lowered himself onto the blanket beneath the shade with her. He looked terribly warm. More than a little tense.
“Are you all right?” She asked, trying to keep her voice gentle.
Sans sighed deeply, wrapping his arms around himself. After a moment of nothing, he turned to Toriel with something inquisitive pinching his browbones together. “You’re old, right?”
Toriel’s laugh was so shocked she actually snorted.
Sans turned bright blue. “Not quite what I meant to say, um…”
“Yes, child, I am very old.” Toriel assured him.
Sans covered his face momentarily with his hands, and Toriel’s eyes caught on the faded scarring along his ulnae.
She made sure not to let her gaze linger. “Why do you ask?”
He dropped his hands. “Because it means you’ve seen a lot, right? And you know people and… stuff that I wouldn’t.”
Toriel decided that this was not the moment to tell him that she might know less of some things than he did. It seemed what he needed from her was someone to listen, and that she could do.
Sans seemed to struggle with himself for a moment. “People exist and go through things all the time – sometimes bad things. And it always leaves marks, right? Whether we see them or not.”
Toriel nodded. That was an accurate observation.
“So why don’t I want people seeing me?” Sans asked. “If everyone goes through things and I’m not risking anyone’s safety by being noticed, why am I so…” He trailed off.
Toriel’s soul ached as she attempted to fill in the word for him. “Afraid?”
Sans nodded.
Toriel closed her book softly in her lap, momentarily looking out toward the water in order to gather her thoughts. “Perhaps what you are afraid of is not the act of being seen.” She suggested hesitantly. “Perhaps the origin of your fear lies in the result of it.”
“And what’s the result of being seen?” Sans asked apprehensively.
Toriel gave him a gentle look. “Being known.”
Sans turned back toward the water. Toward the rocks in the distance.
Toriel watched long enough to see Undyne dive from the top. “If you are worried about what they would think—”
“I’m not,” Sans said in a soft whisper, and she wondered if it were a lie. “But I don’t wanna talk about it and I don’t think it’s fair to give ‘em questions without answers.”
Toriel frowned. “And you think it is fair that you should have to hide because of that? They would prefer that you are comfortable and happy over having their curiosity satisfied.”
Sans’s fingers curled tightly into the blanket beneath him at her words. A very sudden reaction, and it took her a moment to puzzle out why. Sans wasn’t used to his own needs being more important than another’s search for knowledge, and it made her soul ache once more.
“Are you too warm?” Toriel asked.
Sans nodded.
She grabbed the proper bag and passed it to him. “See if there is anything in there which you might be more comfortable in.”
Sans took it and hesitated.
“If you would still prefer to hide, that is okay.” She assured him. “But it should be because it helps you feel safer. Not because you think it would help others be more comfortable.”
He seemed to think on that for a while before nodding. In one smooth motion, he stood. In the next blink, he was gone.
Toriel assumed he’d teleported up to the car, and the distant sound of the door opening was confirmation. She returned to her book, breathing in the warm air, a hopeful feeling in her chest that softened the ache in her soul.