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When one was accustomed to a small life in a small world, there was something daunting about approaching a new horizon. All of the monsters shared in this joy and fear about the surface world to some degree, but Toriel felt it quite profoundly. Her cozy walls and solitude had served her well for many years, so she was surprisingly at ease when one rather stormy day kept her new family indoors.
“How could this happen? On this most momentous of days! My precisely drawn puzzling puzzles! Washed away like specks of dirt!” Papyrus’s wails of despair echoed off the walls of the tiny house. He pressed his eye socket to the window, jaw quivering as the rain made quick work of his pride and joy.
“Uh...that’s ‘cause it is, bro,” Sans observed from his comfy position on the couch. His gaze drifted to the doorway when he saw Toriel suddenly slip out of the room, but otherwise he was quite happy to laze the day away by watching the rain.
“Yes, but that is not the point!” Papyrus stomped petulantly. “The point is that I had carefully prepared a quest for my dear friend Frisk, and now my expert puzzle is not here to challenge their growing mind!”
Frisk seemed happy enough to be watching the rain, but they extended their hand as far as they could to give the skeleton’s arm a reassuring pat. When faced with such a kind gesture of comfort, even a distressed Papyrus couldn’t resist flashing a small smile for his human friend.
Sans never failed to marvel at the friendship this human shared with his brother. It was sweet, but there was no way he wasn‘t injecting some of his own fun. “Hey Papyrus," he called with an easy grin.
“Yes, brother?” Papyrus turned away from the window, a hand curling protectively over Frisk’s shoulder.
“Sorry about the weather soiling your plans. But I’m sure you can dig up something else to do,” he winked.
“Sans!” The moment, as always, was ruined by his brother’s taste in comedy. Papyrus made a show of scoffing and moving to tug Frisk away from the living room when Toriel reappeared, a large box in her hands and a warm smile on her face.
“I believe I have unearthed a solution for your troubles,” Toriel said serenely. There was a noticeable twitch from Papyrus’s eye socket, but she had Frisk’s full attention. Even Sans seemed to lean forward in his spot, curious. Was more pie to come? “This is what the humans call a jigsaw puzzle! Gather around the table and I will show you.”
Surprising no one, Frisk sped right over to the table, eager hands gripping the edge. They knew what this was about. Papyrus followed right behind, and just for a twist Sans appeared, casually propping himself up on a kitchen stool. Even though that box looked nothing like a pie...if Toriel brought it it had to be good, right? When everyone was prepared, Toriel rolled a black mat over the table, then spread the box’s contents over the spread.
Papyrus immediately plucked one of the cardboard pieces from the table, squinting hard at the painted side. “This is a human puzzle?”
“It is one piece of the puzzle,” Toriel smiled. She turned the box’s lid on its side, showing the group a beautiful picture of an ocean sunrise. “Each one of these puzzle pieces is a small part of this picture. The pieces are cut in such a way that they all fit together in one specific arrangement. The goal is to discover how the pieces fit together and recreate this sunrise,” she explained.
It sure was a large puzzle. There had to be a thousand tiny pieces lying before them on that table. Frisk pinched one between their fingers, looking at the pink piece from all angles. “That’s a lot of pieces. Never seen one this big before...”
“That is why we are here with you,” Toriel promised, ruffling Frisk’s hair warmly. “No matter how large the task, it can be accomplished together.”
“Toriel is absolutely right!” Papyrus spoke once more, puffing his chest out with pride and clamping a supportive hand on the child’s shoulder. “No puzzle will ever succeed in japing the great Papyrus! Or his great companion, Frisk!” His previous sorrow forgotten, Papyrus threw himself at a stool and began to scan the pieces for a match. Frisk joined him with equal enthusiasm, their fingers drumming an excited rhythm on the table.
That left Toriel to sit with Sans on the other side of the table, smiling gently at the shorter skeleton. His eye sockets were closed already, head drooping over his arms folded on the table. “Have you fallen asleep that quickly?” she whispered, leaning close to the side of his skull.
“Nah, I’m up,” Sans murmured back, an odd jolt running through him at---was that a brush of fur on his skull? “Just getting the big picture in my head.”
Toriel giggled her approval as she slid her reading glasses over her snout, ready to begin this puzzle in earnest. “Good! Because we may need your help.”
“I’ll try not to fall to pieces,” he promised with a sleepy grin. And Toriel couldn’t ask for more than that...her favorite human and favorite pair of skeleton brothers by her side, staring down a safe and simple challenge.
---
The puzzle actually seemed to be coming together! There were small lines of pinks and purples that would one day merge to create that vivid cloudscape. There was an orange blob that contained most of the oncoming sun.
“Constructing the frame first was an excellent strategy, Frisk!” Papyrus praised, happily jamming together two pink pieces that didn’t seem to be interested in playing nicely. Frisk giggled and high-fived him in response, carefully slipping the correct pink piece into place. The two of them seemed to have boundless energy to pour into such a simple activity.
Toriel was far more deliberate about her movements. She peered at each individual piece through her reading glasses, studying the curves and flecks of paint in search of some great secret. It was a long time between each of her moves, but when she successfully slotted two pieces together, she’d softly clap her paws and smile.
As for Sans? Well...per his usual standard, Sans didn’t seem to be doing much of anything. One eye socket seemed to be focused on Toriel, catching all her triumphant smiles. His other eye remained on Frisk and Papyrus. It warmed him right to the bone to see his favorite people so happy, and who was he to deprive them of the happiness of solving the puzzle all on their own?
But the puzzle pieces had an unusual ability to move about in mysterious ways. The puzzle wasn’t solving itself, not exactly, but they had a funny way of appearing to the puzzler who needed them most.
“Brother, have you seen any more pieces of the sun?” Papyrus asked at one point, both skeleton and small human looking at him hopefully.
“Nope. Totally in the dark on that one,” Sans grinned, prompting a small laugh from Frisk and a grumble from Papyrus---but even that didn’t last long. Sure enough, there was soon a squeal of delight from the taller skeleton.
“The last piece of the sun! Frisk! Our tenacity has uncovered it!” Frisk grinned heartily and squirmed under Papyrus’s arm to snatch the piece, reverently snapping it into place. The two of them shared an eager smile before moving on to assembling a wispy purple cloud.
With a thousand pieces...they were quite lucky. Toriel cast a questioning glance at Sans, but his smile gave nothing away. As usual.
“Look at that, we’re halfway there. Isn’t my brother the greatest?” Sans chuckled, his bony fingers edging onto the table as if he intended to help for once.
Toriel agreed, even as she watched Sans for a moment. “He is! Excellent work, Papyrus.”
“Why thank you, Your Majesty! But even I, the great Papyrus, am even greater with my dear friend at my side!” Frisk squirmed into the bigger skeleton’s lap, all smiles. Toriel couldn’t help but glow as she looked at them, nodding her approval. She held the purple cloud pieces in her paw now, passing them to her child.
“Thanks Mom, think we’ve got it!” Frisk said simply, adoration clear in their expression. “And thanks, Sans,” they added, not wanting him to be left out.
“Whatever are you thanking him for? My lazy brother has done nothing to assist us!” Papyrus didn’t actually seem to be angry...no, he was smiling at the sleeping lump of skeleton at the end of the table. How had he fallen asleep that quickly? They would never know.
Frisk shook their head. “He’s here. That’s what’s important, right?”
Papyrus’s expression softened even further. “You’re right, Frisk. There is no other lazybones I would rather have for a brother,” he said in a surprisingly soft voice. He reached across the table to fluff Sans’ hoodie around him, only to find Toriel’s paw already there.
“Yes, we would all be just a little bone-lier without our Sans,” Toriel agreed. For once, even Papyrus didn’t groan. She rose from the table briefly and slid a pillow under his arms, careful not to jostle him too much. “Now. Frisk, Papyrus, we have a puzzle to complete! Let us stay focused!”
---
Completing the puzzle turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated. It wasn’t that they struggled with finding pieces to fit together. That part was oddly simple, all the pieces flowing together as if something was intervening. No, what made the end result incomplete was that a single piece was missing. A tiny black hole taunted the puzzlers in the blue sky, up near one of the far corners.
Try as they might, they could not locate the last piece. After a good few minutes of searching, Toriel stood from the ground, dusting off her dress with a quiet sigh.
“We should not allow one small imperfection to ruin our achievement! This is still a beautiful picture. And we still have the rest of the evening to spend on another activity. Shall we try a new pie recipe?”
“Yeah! Let’s do it, mom!”
“It will truly be great!”
As always, pie saved the day. The boys leapt right from the table to help Toriel gather ingredients, and within the hour the entire house smelled like apples and cinnamon. Their laughter rang clear and pure through the rooms, and even the supposedly sleeping skeleton at the table couldn’t help but be warmed by the sound and scent of home.
---
After a heaping helping of pie and warm milk, peace finally settled over Toriel’s cottage. Frisk and Papyrus were tangled together on the couch, their energy having reached its limit at last. Toriel herself looked like she was about ready to curl up in bed, but there was one last matter to attend to: the stout skeleton sleeping in front of the just-barely incomplete puzzle.
She crept to Sans’ side and settled on the stool beside him once more, setting some warm milk and pie in front of his face. “Wake up, sleepyhead,” she whispered. She had every reason to doubt he would rouse for her, but...lo and behold there he was, his eye sockets blinking.
“...Tori? Hey, what’d I miss?” he asked, reaching for the mug before him before he was consciously aware of it.
“Only the rest of the puzzle solving and some dessert,” Toriel smiled, “but fear not. I would never fail to save you a piece of the action!” She winked at him, propping her face up on her paws. Elbows on the table, even...she could forgo some decorum for now.
“Knew you wouldn’t let me down,” Sans smiled back at her, taking a bite. Yes, this pie was as delicious as any of Toriel’s creations...though the inside looked a little odd. Sans lifted the slice up, squinting at it. “...Papyrus helped you with this one, didn’t he?”
“He and Frisk were wonderful assistants,” Toriel gushed. “How did you know?”
“The crust is glittering.”
Toriel laughed. “Papyrus seems to believe that sparkles improve any dish. I showed him how to make colorful sugar crystals.”
Sans took a closer look at the remains of the pie. Most of the glitter was red (with a few specks of pink and silver), and it seemed to be concentrated in the shape of a heart. Probably Frisk’s idea, that kid was just made of love. “Guess they really loved baking, huh?”
“They did, though we missed you,” Toriel said gently. She cast her gaze over the mostly-complete puzzle, her paw drifting to the hole left by the missing piece. Sans followed her movement, only then pushing the pillow away from beneath him to get a closer look.
“Couldn’t find the last piece, huh?” Sans swept the table with a quick glance, but of course there was no trace of that single slice of sky to be found. He admired the rest of the picture in silence, only to be interrupted by a small sigh from Toriel. He flicked his gaze up, startled.
“A missing piece...it seems like a perfect parallel to our lives,” she whispered before she could quite stop herself. “Everything should be perfect, we finally have what we have sought for so long, and yet...”
Now that caught his attention. Sans shifted just a little closer to her in his seat. “And what, Tori?”
Toriel finally realized what she’d been saying and shook her head, her face slightly flushed. “Oh, forgive me! I am merely rambling...it is nothing. I will preserve this puzzle as it is and---”
“What? You won’t throw a guy a bone?” Sans smiled at the familiar joke, a smile Toriel hesitantly returned, but his eyes were trained on Toriel with an unfamiliar intensity. “C’mon, tell me.”
“It is nothing, Sans. Everything is all right.”
Sans would not be deterred. He gently tapped his knucklebones on the table. “Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Alice.”
“Alice who?”
“A listening ear,” Sans offered, looking hopefully up at her.
“But you have none.” Still, Toriel’s face betrayed her by letting a small smile free.
“Doesn’t stop me from being a sounding board,” Sans shot back, knowing he was getting there. “Now c’mon...what’s up?”
Toriel finally relented, tracing that single hole in the sky in front of her. “I should be happier than I have ever been. We are free. No one else was sacrificed. I have a family once more, and I love you all very much, yet I still feel something is missing...” She folded her paws in front of her, pushing memories away.
“Tell me about it,” Sans confessed. “Hey, life’s great. I’ve got a great brother, a great kid, great friends, all the ketchup a guy needs, but...” This happiness was never guaranteed to last.
“Perhaps greed is in our natures,” Toriel mused, her face falling. “An absolutely perfect existence cannot happen. Some things truly are impossible...”
“So you don’t try for anything more...” Sans answered back. “You just let it be, ‘cause what difference does it make?”
Suddenly...she saw in him what she looked like from the outside. For even her dear Sans... For him to be hiding this much awakened something in Toriel, and when she next spoke the flat tone of defeat had lost its hold. “If we have hope...it means all the difference. We have lived long enough trapped within the wall of the impossible.”
“Yeah?” Sans didn’t like where this was going. He was almost starting to feel an unfamiliar emotion.
“We may not be perfect, but we are free, and we can live the best life possible if we only try...” she tried, hoping to convince him as well as herself.
“Spoken like my brother,” yet the comparison popping up unbidden in his mind caused Sans to smile.
“And we all help each other. You do try. You have tried for us all this time,” Toriel finally said, turning to fully face Sans.
“I...what?” This was headed in an unexpected direction. He glanced up at Toriel, whose face seemed to be aglow with the force of a revelation.
“You are not without hope, Sans. You are supportive and you are kind...it was you secretly lending your aid with the puzzle all along, was it not?”
His eye sockets widened. How’d she know? “Nah, pretty sure that was all you.”
“Every piece appeared precisely when we asked for them. You promised to assist...and I have never known you to give up on a promise,” Toriel whispered, the weight of her words reinforced with a proud smile at Frisk that was then turned on Sans. “I see now that kindness has made all the difference. You help us all from the shadows, never allowing us to thank you...but in truth, we are incomplete without you, Sans.”
And then, surprising herself, she lifted her paw from the puzzle to settle over Sans’ still-curled hand on the table. He gaped at it, an odd flush to his cheekbones.
“Aw c’mon, Tori, I’m not all that...” he muttered, head still reeling. She was still giving him that adoring look. He lifted their hands in wonder, only for a suspicious fleck of blue to be jostled from his sleeve to the table. Toriel leaned down to gape at it before laughing softly.
“You see? You really do hold the missing piece,” she smirked, using her free hand to pick up the last piece. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“Sure,” and suddenly Toriel extracted her hand from his to drop a blue puzzle piece into his clutches. He inserted it, only to discover that the paint had partially chipped off. “Uh...looks like we’ve still got a problem.”
Toriel peered down at it through her glasses, then smiled. “Life’s picture is not perfect, but we have solved it as best we can.”
“And hey,” Sans grinned, inspired by Toriel’s smile. He rummaged in his pocket and uncapped a blue pen. “Whaddya know, I think we can patch this up a bit.”
After a quick ink-scribble from Sans, the puzzle was as complete as it could ever be. Toriel smiled and leaned forward, catching Sans off guard with a nuzzle to his cheekbone. “You are a bone-afide hero to puzzles everywhere,” she gushed.
“Only ‘cause it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” he answered, daringly taking her warm paw once more. She did not object...in fact she dared not move to break this spell until she heard a muffled gasp of outrage from the couch. Sans whirled around faster than Toriel ever thought possible and tugged her alongside him, where they soon came across Frisk sprawled over Papyrus’s torso, unsuccessfully attempting to cover the skeleton’s big mouth.
“Oh dear...Sans, I believe we have awakened them,” she said. “But perhaps it is for the best. You two really should sleep comfortably in your beds.”
Frisk and Papyrus turned their guilty expressions to Sans, who answered her with a chuckle. “C’mon, guys. I’m thinking it’s time for a bedtime story. How about the one about the love bug?”
“I think not!” Papyrus sniffed.
“Gross!” Frisk gagged.
“Perhaps we should stick to Fluffy Bunny,” Toriel said smoothly, sliding that well-worn book from her shelf. “We will perform all the voices!”
“Now you two better get hopping before we make you regret listening in,” Sans teased, winking.
“Carrot you cut them a break?” Toriel frowned, though that glimmer in her eye was still there. It would never die.
“Never have I known a pair more deserving of each other!" Papyrus was doing his best to sound grouchy, but seeing the genuine happiness on his brother’s face...well, even The Great Papyrus’s Great Sense of Humor could tolerate their overuse of lazy puns. He cast a fond expression over his shoulder as he made his way upstairs. Frisk was blunter about it, leaping at Toriel and Sans in such a way that they had to lean on each other to catch the child together.
“About time!”
Sans and Toriel hugged Frisk right back, and for once...the missing piece didn’t feel quite so out of reach. They shared a fond look over Frisk’s head before peering down at the kid.
“But we’re gonna have to talk about those long ears of yours, kiddo...”
Frisk squirmed sheepishly. “What about Papyrus, huh?”
“Papyrus doesn’t have any!” Sans laughed, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.
“But that does not preclude him from being an excellent listener,” Toriel reminded Sans, kissing his temple.
“Right. So. You get up there, kid, and we’ll talk later,” Sans finished, giving the kid a tight squeeze. Only then did he let them stomp up the stairs after Papyrus. When Frisk had disappeared behind the door, Sans linked his arm with Toriel’s, leaning against her slightly. She was warm...oh, he could definitely get used to that.
“So. You sure you know what you’re signing up for?” he asked her one more time. Just in case.
“There might be a missing piece, but...I believe we fit together perfectly!” Toriel said brightly. Together they ascended, ready to step into a brighter future---even with part of the sky slightly off-color.