Work Text:
FRISK
0 ATK 0 DEF
0.25/1 HP
*Alone.
Sans sighed at the stats in front of him. That’s probably the worst the kid"s HP’s been since they put her down here. He chanced a glance past the black text box in the center of his eyeline to take in the small, disheveled figure behind the bars.
It’s a good thing the human had taken such a keen interest in the floor over the past few years, or she might have been watching Sans’s face in that moment instead. Had she been, she would have seen the cocktail of guilt and concern that flashed across it. As it was, though, she missed that little detail, allowing the skeleton to school his expression back to his professional grimace and pretend it never happened. Business as usual.
A soft swipe of bony fingers through the air brushed the “CHECK” box back into its slot on Sans’s menu. Slowly, silently, pink-slippered heels made their way over to the cell across the room. No sense in rushing the inevitable. He could already feel that today was gonna be a bad one, and it was only 8am. Kid"s got all the time in the world.
Finally, the monster stopped directly in front of the human, his shadow falling menacingly on her through the bars and setting a definite tone for today"s “checkup.”
“kid. up. now.”
The child in the cell raised her head blearily, blinking away sleep. Her eyes darted around in confusion and slight fear, before finally tracing the shadow surrounding her to the pair of feet just outside the bars. He could see the sudden realization in her eyes as it was quickly swallowed up by terror. Those slippers never meant good things (anymore).
However, unlike most mornings, where the kid would trip over herself trying to stand up to avoid the threat of a stray bone or two, her frantic panic seemed to be overridden by something else. Sans watched, baffled, as the kid began to droop, eyes glazing over as she laid her head back down on her shivering hands.
He should be angry. Hell, he should bring out the blasters for a move like that. But instead, he stood there, frozen, in what he later would call shock (but anyone there might have observed it to be something closer to sympathy. Maybe even concern).
“kid. you really gonna make me ask twice?”
The child curled in on herself more and her body language made the answer plain to see: no, obviously she didn"t want to make him ask twice. That threat was Sans showing mercy, and she knew it. Asgore or Undyne would have broken her leg already. Yet, despite her best efforts, she still couldn"t manage to get up. It was nothing physical. It was just that something, somewhere in her was wrong. She brought her hands up as far as she could get them, signing sluggishly, as though it took a behemoth amount of effort to even manage a few sentence fragments.
Sorry. I know. Bad. Don"t know what"s wrong.
“well you might wanna figure that out soon sweetheart. i ain’t exactly known for my patience.” His gold tooth flashed and his eye glowed for a split second and Frisk paled. Her signs became more frantic, getting haggard and choppy as she sped up.
I can’t. Sans I can"t- can’t stand- don’t know problem- not hurt- not sick? Heavy- sad- confused- can’t get up- don’t- please don’t hurt me please please please I’m sorry I’m-
Sans cut her off with a bone spinning in the air just millimeters away from her nose. Her hands stilled immediately, eyes coming back into focus on the weapon as she swallowed heavily.
“that’s enough, doll.” He spat out. “keep that chatter up and I might worry that we forgot our lessons about speaking when spoken to- we wouldn’t wanna have a refresher course, would we?”
The bone was less than a breath away now. The slightest movement would push it into Frisk. Unable to sign out of fear, the girl opted instead to let out a shaky, garbled, mm-hmm! Sans grinned, hoping it didn’t look as exhausted as he felt.
“there’s a good girl.” The bone retracted a couple of centimeters and Frisk let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Sans let the noisy sigh slide for now. Kid was having a rough morning.
“now then. I’m gonna be asking the questions, and I better be gettin’ the precise, truthful answers I’m lookin’ for. no wastin’ my time with all that disgustin’ beggin’ ‘n pleadin’ junk- you know by now that it won’t get you anywhere anyways. understood?”
The child nodded diligently, still trying to sit up as she did so. She finally seemed to muster up enough determination to get herself into a cross-legged position with her back leaned heavily against the wall. Sans smirked again, something that, he realized nervously, was starting to take an unsettling amount of work on his part.
“first thing’s first- I was just checkin’ your stats, and apparently, your HP is 0.25 outta 1.” The kid flinched a bit. She knew that was bad. She wasn’t really sure why, but she knew they wanted her HP to remain at consistently healthy(ish) level. At least enough to be sure she was going to stay alive. The last time her HP had dropped considerably- well- it hadn’t gone over great.
“care to tell me anything about that?” His eye lit up for a brief second and Frisk felt her heart plummet into her stomach. “i don’t suppose you’d, uh, know what- or who- caused it?”
The pointed who made her flinch as she felt a sudden wave of shame wash over her, remembering that the monsters had all been there to witness her pathetic attempt to end her life. It hurt just to think about- all those guys she’d come to care for, probably laughing over finding the bloody mess waiting for them in the cell that day. She didn’t know how long it had been since then, maybe a year, maybe five. She wasn’t sure. The only thing she was sure of was that she would never do it again, not after what she went through the week after she recovered.
“yer flinchin’ kid. you don’t say somethin’ soon, i’m gonna take that as an answer by itself.”
No! She signed, eyes flying wide open. Sans leaned back and watched in satisfaction as she tore away from the wall to spit out more sentence fragments with her tiny hands. No- please, I didn’t do anything this time I promise! It just- it just happened! I didn’t even really feel it, not physically. But then I checked my stats at dinner yesterday and it was just gone! And it doesn’t come back up, no matter what I do! It wasn’t me, I promise, I didn’t do anything-
“ ‘kay kiddo, that’s enough.”
She slumped forward, wringing her hands together in fear. Sans closed his eyes for a second, grabbing where the bridge of his nose would be if he had one. After a beat, he lazily opened one socket, watching Frisk in silence.
“so. ya noticed yesterday. why didn’t you tell someone?”
She kept her eyes focused on the cold stone below her as she signed back Humans are seen and not heard. Not supposed to talk to any monsters, didn’t wanna be a bad human. Her signs are tiny, as though she’s trying to whisper with them.
She’s got him there, he guessed. With another sigh he sat down against the wall, motioning for her to come closer. Frisk stood shakily, studiously avoiding eye contact, and staggered over to him. Lazily, Sans dragged his hand through the air and pulled out her soul again, eyes widening when he sees that it’s no longer 0.25, but instead 0.20.
“it dropped again.”
Frisk stilled completely, only her hands moving as she questioned, slowly, What?
“it dropped again. it’s at 0.20. why’d it drop again?”
The room seemed to have lost all of its air, and he could feel the girl quivering next to him. He noticed, almost as if from outside himself, that the only light source in the cell was now a brilliant glowing red coming from his right eye socket. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. They weren’t gonna get anywhere with this if he acted prematurely or scared the kid to death.
“do you really not know anything about it sweetheart? ‘cause this sure as hell ain’t the magic of any monster i know.”
Frisk looked up at him once, then back down at the ground. Her hands came up, little by little, and he saw that she was almost trembling too hard to sign.
I- I might have an idea.
Sans felt his vision starting to burn red.
“oh really?”
A beat passed between the two of them, where the only thing that could be heard was Frisk’s slight whimper.
“so you lied to me, is that it?”
It was a miracle she could sign still, with how hard she was shivering.
It’s not that! It’s just a theory of why- it’s n-not- s-solid! I didn’t want to give anyone useless information! Wasting monsters’ time is- b-bad! Then, smaller, as if hoping somehow he couldn’t see the movements: And… and it’s just… it’s mine. It’s supposed to be mine. Sans did not expect that last part. It’s hers? What’s hers?
Sans reached through the cage and locked Frisk’s wrist in a bony, frigid grip. With a swift tug, he yanked her forward, slamming her against the bars as he muttered in her face.
“doll, i dunno if you’ve noticed by now, but nothin’ is yers anymore.”
She seemed like she was fighting the urge to struggle. Good. At least she still had some sense in her. Her hands raised again, both to cover her face and to explain further.
I know! I know. I’m s-sorry! This just- it felt like mine and I just… I wanted to keep it.
“y’know not a single thing you’ve said so far has helped your case.”
…
“really, kid, whatever you did, you know better.”
… please. Please just give me a chance. I didn’t mean- I just- I
Sans sighed for the umpteenth time today. Pathetic. Without breaking eye contact, he dropped the human to the floor like a sack of popatoes. He was such a fucking pushover. “i’m givin’ ya five minutes to explain it and you better hope to god that it’s a good reason.”
She got back up as quickly as she seemed able to in her fucked up state and bowed her head the way she’d been taught, rapidly thanking him with her hands. He groaned and rolled his eyes.
“clock’s tickin’ kiddo. down to four minutes and forty-five seconds.”
She nodded and swallowed, beginning to sign rapidly.
It was a night ago. Or maybe a few nights ago. I don’t know anymore, time doesn’t mean anything down here. I was asleep and I don’t remember dreaming but I must have been because, when I woke up, I couldn’t remember where I was.
She lifted her head to stare at the grey dungeon ceiling above her. I couldn’t remember anything that had happened- and when I looked around, and saw that there was no sunlight, surrounded by all this old stone I thought- She made a self deprecating noise, something in between a laugh and a sob. I thought I was back in the underground.
She curled up on herself in an attempt to become smaller as she continued. I know I’m gonna get hurt for this. (she signed it more to herself than to him, and he got the sense that she was less talking to him now, and more remembering out loud). I thought we were all back down there and I was so happy. Suddenly- suddenly all these dreams for my future I’d had before we made it to the surface came flooding back- these stupid dreams of eating spaghetti with Papyrus, and living with mo- she flinched- Lady Toriel, and watching anime with Alphys and Undyne, and stargazing with- She cut herself off completely that time. There was a pause. I thought I had a chance at a life again and for just a minute it was amazing.
She stared at the ceiling, eyes wide and unseeing. She wasn’t in the same room that Sans was now, she was off somewhere that only she’d ever seen. Sans watched in silence for a moment as the kid’s face turned into something resembling a smile, and suddenly felt as though he would give anything to see that look on the her face permanently. However, just as quickly as it was there, it vanished, and the girl’s eyes refocused on the cell ceiling before her head jolted down and she leveled a glare at the door.
T-then the guard came. For breakfast. And I realized it the second before he even stepped in. I heard the creaking of the hinges and I knew. It all came back. I’m not in the underground, with hope and friends and a future. I’m here, in the dungeons of a castle full of people who hate me while my people are being killed and enslaved. All because I let myself get some ridiculous hope that I could have a future. Her voice cracked on the last line. Flowey was right. I’m such a- a- a- She was crying, and her hands became momentarily occupied with attempting to wipe the tears off her face before Sans could mock her for them. She soon gave up and just let them flow. IDIOT. I’m an idiot for thinking that even for a second I could have- like I could ever deserve-
She’d stopped signing once more, this time in favor of hiding her face in her hands and sobbing freely. Sans… didn’t know what to do. He watched the tiny human in the cell as she broke, and felt woefully out of his element. He was not equipped to deal with this kinda shit. He knew how to scare, how to keep the humans in line. He didn’t know shit about any of this emotion crap.
Still, though, at least he was pretty sure he understood what the problem was now. It was actually a topic he was rather intimately acquainted with. Frisk was falling down.
Sans had come close to dusting more than a few times during his stay in the Underground. It was just so easy to lose all your hope down there- reliving the same day, every day, with the same angry assholes all crammed into a place so tiny and dark it might as well be a room. Never experiencing sunlight, or the stars, or- oh.
Oh.
Well.
No wonder the girl’s HP was dropping. Jesus, he felt stupid.
He guessed he’d just never really… thought about it before. Or if he began to, he would distract himself. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it. And the humans deserved what they got anyways.
But… did this human?
He looked down at the human child. Except, when he looked down, it wasn’t Frisk he saw, it was Papyrus. Pap from back before he was “boss,” before he even knew the royal guard existed. Back when he was just a baby bones asking for a bedtime story, listening to Sans read “Peek-a-Boo With Fluffy Bunny” while curled up in his lap, quietly “nyeh”-ing as he drifted off to sleep holding his brother’s finger in his tiny baby skeleton hand.
It was in that moment that Sans knew he was fucked.