Chapter Text
He walked through the woods until he found Raine, who was sitting in the grass, curled into a ball. He approached slowly, listening to her mumble beneath her breath.
"'He sent them the word he had not gone; we knew it to be true. If she should push the matter on, what would become of you?" She said as he sat down after a moment of nonsensical ramblings. His bone brow furrowed in confusion before she turned to him ever so slightly, "What is to become of you, Sans?"
He swallowed back the uneasy laugh he wanted to let out. He knew what she meant. Instead, he smiles at her with false confusion, "don't think i know what ya mean there, raine."
"What will you do, Sans?" She insists once again, "What will happen to you once I'm gone?"
He chuckled at that.
"i'll still be sans. and i'll make sure you won't be gone," He put his hand over herself, interlocking them and fiddling with her thumb, "you won't leave me, we can stay here...forever."
She purses her lips and gently takes her hand away, bringing her knees to her chest, "...do you know what a sentence is without a period? Without a punctuation to signify it's end?"
Sans frowned and began to reach out again, only for her to push his hand back. His teeth ticked down slightly, but he stopped trying to hold her hand, "no. what is it?"
"....Meaningless." She took a deep breath and rose once again, brushing herself off and leaving Sans to follow behind as she started rushing away to a small outcropping, a white one with all sorts of colors and decorations, "You can come here forever, again and again, but there will be no meaning if I cannot leave."
He rushed to keep up with her confident and quick stride, "what are you talking about?? i-"
"The only way I can leave is if I get you to care less about me."
"raine, i could never! you're my best friend, i lov-" He stopped himself, "i would never care less about you!"
"Then I guess I'll make it easier," She began reciting the book she knew all too well, "'it hurt his heart to hurt her so and yet he had to do' I must help you forget about me!"
She finally made it to where she had been heading to, a table filled with tea cups and biscuits and jams and enough tea to fill a sea. Golden flower and sea, earl grey and chamomile, any type of tea you could imagine. As she stepped into the threshold, it was like a triggered sequence.
Sans filed in behind her as Frisk hopped up into the table, making the cups shake and startling Sans with their voice. The kid had never talked before, so here? It was certainly a shock.
"Well, well, you see that tweeb down there, MK?" That voice. He knew that voice! He snarled at they thing as it smirked, empty of emotions, but all too happy to fill a role.
It didn't sound exactly like it, but it sounded close to the voice of that thing he saw in the judgement hall. The one that committed such horrible acts over and over. The one who was all to ready to pull out a knife in some of the calmest situations.
The squeaky voice of the armless, yellow scaled dinosaur monster, Monster Kid, spoke up in a mocking tone as he scramble up next to Frisk, "yeah dude, what's up with that coat of yours? Found it in the dump?"
The kid laughed at his own joke while all Sans could do was stare at the demon who seemed to flip personalities as they twitched and signed to MK, "Don't be so rude, MK, be kind-" before interrupting themselves with laughter at the kids joke.
"Yo, I would if he didn't offend me with his terrible taste!" The two children began to laugh uproariously, cackling as Sans glared. Children could be so cruel at times.
Snow began to fall when Sans saw Raine begin to head to the table, he grabbed her arm, "ah, c'mon, ya can't seriously be going with them, can ya? i mean, the white rabbit isn't even in this scene!"
She tugs her arm away as the light snowfall starts to grow, the once dime sized snowflakes coming down a big as a quarter. Her costume starts to change, turning to a more carmel color as she sits, "Yes, well, the march hare is, and today, I fill that role."
Sans starts to sit next to her before she shoves him away, a falsely sweet sympathy in her voice, "Sorry, no room."
Sans huffed a laugh, "no room? really? there's plenty room, just let me-"
"Nope! No room for you!" MK cackled, hopping down and into his seat, followed quickly by Frisk.
"guys, c'mon, don't be so petty, there's plenty of room here-" He tried to sit next to Raine before she shoved him into the table, "ow! what the hell??"
Frisk sighed, like they were expecting that, before twitching a bit. Their hands started moving as if sighing something before another twitch brought back that unsettling, emotionless grin.
Turning to MK and Raine, they roll their eyes and jerk their head at him as though he wasn't there, "You give the goon some room and then suddenly! He wants your chair!"
MK began to stand up, sighing, "I hate these chairs."
Frisk patted him on the head, "You know what that means?" And to the entire room, they shout, "ONE PLACE ON!"
They stand up, practically in sync with Raine and all three move down one spot, kicking the previous chair away.
Sans blinked, unamused, "guys that's obviously not gonna work, there's still more room."
He goes to sit once more, but just as all the times before he's blocked, this time by Frisk and MK. Raine cackles and begins to talk, "Did you hear how mean he was to Mary Ann?"
"Yo, I love Mary Ann!"
"i skipped her scene, i wasn't mean!"
"Then why can't you just say what you mean?" Frisk asked, sparking a small bout of silence from him. They grinned even wider, and the snow began falling a slight bit harder while his grin tightened.
"i did."
They turned to Raine in a dramatic way, stage whispering, "He means; he means what he says."
"Well, it was quite mean what he said," She bites, Frisk and MK nodding along.
"And what he did."
Raine shrugged to Frisk's words, "Guess that's just how he is."
"Yo, I hate how he is!"
Frisk turns toward him with the most fake kindness he had ever seen and lifted a tea pot, "More tea?"
Raine clinked her cup to the pot, "Oh that would be wonderful! More tea, please, and ONE PLACE ON!"
They repeat what they did before, kicking the chairs away and leaving him with even less space. He rolled his eyes and attempted to sit down again.
This time, he succeeds. He sits down and settles for a few moments before MK crawls beneath the table and headbutts the chair from under him.
"Holy fuck-!" He smacks into the ground, his fall lessened by the layer of soft, puffy snow that had fallen.
The three leaned over him and stared him down. Frisk poked and prodded at him, exclaiming in a happy manner, "And now we all explore; the one who wanted more!"
"how can i want more if i haven't had anything yet?!" He smacked the kid's hand away, standing up and brushing the snow off himself, "how can i 'take more' if ya haven't given me anything?!" he mimics the taunting lilt they all had.
Raine stared him dead in the sockets, stone faced and unwavering, "No...the question is how can you take less? Take less and less and less and stop wanting for more. You selfish bitch, go taste regret!"
She frowned as her costume returned to white as the falling snow,"...Do you hate me yet?"
He stared her down and shook his head, despite the absolute broken look in his sockets. He could never, no matter how much it hurt. She smiled as the costume began to shift back, "You should....and you will."
They stared at each other until a tapping can be heard. Sans turns to Frisk, who sat back down by MK, noticing how they look calmer, more settled, as they sign, "Shall we have a riddle?"
He nodded and then they twitched, "Oh look, now he wants a riddle!"
They sound exasperated as Raine interrupts again, sitting down as she speaks, "That and tea!"
"Yo, now I loathe tea!"
"Well, if you insist," The striped sweater wearing rat began, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
He thought for a minute. The longer he spent thinking, the more he calmed down. He couldn't manage to think clearly enough to find the answer, so he shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets, "i couldn't tell ya, kiddo. so why don't ya share?"
"Well, I've no clue!" The group breaks out in raucous laughter, as though it was the funniest joke in the world.
"wouldn't ya rather not waste your time asking pointless riddles?"
"You're the one who's asking, yo!" MK exclaimed with a sharp grin. Frisk shared a look with Raine and leaned back in their seat.
"If you knew Time as we did, Sans, you wouldn't talk of wasting it." Sans scowled, turning toward Raine slightly while stepping away from the table.
"well, some people waste it by doing nothing at all." He kept the smile on his face, his voice dripping with accusation. Frisk gasps and MK lets out a small 'Yo'.
Raine's face twists with anger. She stands and drops her tea cup onto the snowy floor, staining it, "Oh spare us, Sans. Spare me!"
"that's what i'm trying to-!" He's interrupted by her taking a sharp breath, returning to her sickly sweet smile.
"Well, Sansy, I dare say, you've never spoken to Time, have you?"
Frisk stands as well, dragging MK up and gesturing to the trio while they speak, "We, we've spent so many years with him, and you, you're just meeting him."
"So, prithee: pass the scones, yo! Leave us alone-"
"And riddle yourself home, Sansy."
"no! i won't do that. and i'm not the one talking nonsense riddles now, raine."
Frisk shoves him into a chair, along with MK, who started to munch on a scone.
"Oh, Sans, we live in riddles, don't you see! And most..." Their face sombers for a moment, filling with an actual emotion, "Sometimes they can't be answered.... 'Who leaves to be momma's hero, and crawls back a less than zero? They're like a teacup chip-chip-chipped, like an egg the stars dropped for kicks'"
Their self-deprecating laughter made Sans feel a slight pity for them, "lemme guess; you?"
"I'm not me....not anymore." They grew a melencholy look in their eyes, "My friend, my brother, was drop dead funny...then he dropped dead-" They grow an intense, false smile, "Isn't that funny!"
"Indeed"
"Indeed"
"Indeed," They went around in a circle, settling back on Frisk, "More tea?"
They shoved the pot into his face and he pushed it away, MK spoke through a mouthful of crumbs, "Hate tea!"
Raine turned to Sans, shifting colors once again, "Hate me?"
"no!"
She shifted back.
"No tea?!" The three trilled in disbelief, before Raine put the smile back on her face, acting as though he'd asked for more.
Like he was already doing by trying to get her to stay for longer than she should.
"Oh, Sansy and his incessant need!"
The striped human followed along with the rant.
"For cream!"
"And sugar!"
"Ham!"
Smoked ham!"
"And jam!"
"Cold jam!"
"Don't forget cheese, yo!"
And Frisk finished it off with, "Butter on every one of his sad sardines!"
Raine jabbed his ribcage, "Next thing you know, he'll be demanding herbal tea!"
"i don't even like herbs!"
"Or my dude Herb?"
"or tea!"
Their gasps rang out over the worsening snowstorm. Frisk slammed their hands into the table, shaking the teacups and saucers, "So, you think you can tell us now you've a thing for tea? You wonder through this world like it's all a dream- your dream!"
"it is my dream!" He shouted as Frisk stood up, picking up a small butter knife from the table and playing with it.
"Well it wasn't long before you started seeing things, no? Dancing lobsters, vicious monarchs. At this point, I question, how do we get you back to where you belong, back to your home, back to your bed?"
Raine grabbed him by the back of his coat, shoving a teacup full of herbal tea into his face, "Take the cup, Sansy! Take it and let it be a reminder of everything you've said!"
MK headbutts it straight into his skull, "Stop trying to be such a stuck up! We don't wanna know what's happening in that skull of yours!"
He sputtered on the tea and used his sleeve to wipe off his face. He wasn't a human, but the ever growing snowstorm made him shiver, the tea freezing cold as well.
"We're so sick of you're selfishness, Sans! One of us can even say their sick to death!" They had a sing-song tone to their voice.
Sans winced as he chanced a look toward Raine, whose face showed nothing but a seething anger, eyelids heavy with exhaustion. She did nothing as the two kids leered and taunted him, circling him and flashing the knife so that he would stay put.
"It just has to be about your pain, huh, Sans?"
"And you're such a a boring pain! Did you know that, dude?"
"And by the looks of you, definitely not worth it."
"It's making me insane! You think you're so cool, like Undyne, but you're not! You go around here, like you got the hang of Wonderland!"
"You tell riddles as if you know how!"
Finally, Raine pushed the two children aside and grabbed his hand. Smiling, he grabbed it right back, only for her to rip it away and push him to the floor, hard. The thick layer of still falling snow did nothing to soften the fall. Her foot was placed in his chest, as she leaned into him, staring down at him.
Now, two thoughts ran through Sans' mind, the first being 'holy shit, i want her.' and the second thought being 'how do I get her foot off without hurting her?'. He didn't have time to debate either, though, as Raine began to talk.
"It's time to wake up, Sans! Time to get back to the waking world! Though it's not like they miss you there, I suppose. They don't want to hear from you. I don't want to hear from you."
His soul thrummed hard in his rib cage, blue tears pricking his eyes. That wasn't true...right? She had to want to hear from him! She had too! She couldn't leave him. She can't want to be rid of him!
Frisk notices his face, "Stop the analyzing of everything, Sans. We don't want your little nice guy act and we don't want to know your opinions and what you think can or can't happen!"
Raine finally lets him up as the storm turns from snow to hail.
He was done.
"Just face it, Sansy, I'm sick-"
"yeah, yeah, sick to death! i get it! i know! well, guess what, raindrop, so am i! i am sick to death of chasing after you all the time! why can't you just listen to me! i am so sick!"
The storm quiets, and so do the others, who go still at his words. Raine blinks, serious and certain in her words.
"You've ought to be ashamed, Sans"
"why?! this- all of this-!" He gestured to the world around them, the world the was quickly fading away as he awoke, "it's for you! for you're pain!"
"I'm sorry, but who's pain? Because this is not for my pain. I did not ask for this, this is not for me!"
"what does it matter when you're gonna leave me all the same no matter whose pain it's for?!"
She blinks slowly as she, and the last bit of his dream, fade away, "I'm sorry, Sans. But you know I'm dying."
And he shoots up in Raine's bed, staring at the sickly girl in front of him, she looked at him with nothing but concern.
"Sans! Oh thank goodness, you had me worried," She coughs a few times as Sans felt his anger grow, "I saw you were having a nightmare and-."
"i hate you!" He finally barked out, eyesocket glowing and pulsing with angry magic.
"W-what?"
"i hate you! i hate you for being sick! i hate that you aren't trying to live! i hate that you've just given up!"
"Sansy, wait! I-"
But he had already shortcut away.