Chapter Text
It isn't much of a surprise that you are a bit clumsy today.
You dropped your toothbrush, put on your socks the wrong way, stubbed your toe, and fell on your face.
If you weren't so excited, you'd be pissed.
Today is the first day at your new workplace, but not like before.
This isn't just another diner job where you desperately beg, to any god, you know, for a nice tip to survive the month. This is a job you are finally qualified for.
A job that makes every single day in the university worth it. All the hard work you put in.
It was surprising, to say the least. When the invitation arrived in your mail box, you honestly thought it was a prank.
Living in a city that exists on a different plane of existence? Where you can work on expanding and studying the magic knowledge that you have been dreaming of for years? Yeah right. You trashed it immediately.
But to your luck, your curiosity was just too great. You fished out the invitation and called the number on it. Just to see what it is. If it was a prank, then you would've been the biggest living idiot falling for it. But the hope just couldn't be ignored.
The voice on the other side congratulated you, saying that it is an honor to have been offered this opportunity to a mere human. You already figured out that the guy didn't like humans, his distain for them leaked out of your phone.
He explained that you'd get a job and apartment in the 'City of Paradise', whatever stupid name that is.
You asked, fairly sarcastically, what you did to deserve such an incredible offer, but the man on the other side didn't even seem to notice.
"My master is quite interested in the hypothesis of magical storage units that you apparently published 3 years ago.", he said sceptically.
You couldn't believe anyone was interested in the hypothesis, especially from someone who never even had any contact with magic before. You were never able to prove that magic was storageable. Hell, no one even cared about magic. All the people from the university were either extremely disinterested or blatantly racist towards your study.
Soon after you left, you had a hard time getting funds for your research. To the point you had to job hunt. Living in a shitty one-room apartment with a horrendous rent.
You were at your lowest point.
So, of course, you'd say ok to live in a weird ass city in, literally, the middle of nowhere.
But that's not how it was when you arrived.
You know a bit about the multi-universe since your world has trading connection everywhere.
But you would've never expected so many different cultures, technology, and magic in one place.
It overtook you, it still does.
This city is what your dream looks like. Monsters, humans, and creatures of all kinds come together and work for a better future.
You seriously had to do a reality check to see if you're not accidentally in a coma or dead.
The big tree in the middle of the city is almost overshadowing the buildings. It's very pretty, has leaves that change color and sparkle like a million gems. You've never seen anything like it before. It radiates something calm and happy, you saw kids play under it and picnics taking place in its shade. The thought of having a picnic of your own under it is already on your mental to-do list.
A quick tour of the city revealed that it is absolutely selfsustaining. There are factories, producing everyday needs, clever if you think about it. Why buy from outside if you can produce everything yourself? As a new civilization, it uses all its perks. There are way too many different restaurants, from asian to south American, German, Indian, and even Foods you have never heard of before, you can't wait to go eat in all of them.
You still wonder how they get every ressource in one place. There is nothing outside of the city, devoid of everything, just white. How did they get water here? It fascinates you.
You arrived at your apartment, neck stiff from looking up at all the grand buildings and skylines transporting people. Tired of trying to understand such a paradigm shift. And gladly exhausted. The little sparkle of hope that rested in your soul is now an everburning fire, fascinated by the new world you entered.
Your new apartment is small, however extremely comfortable. You unpacked the few things you saved from your old apartment after the water leak last year, the furniture was basically trash anyway.
There are still a few boxes in the corner of the room that you skillfully ignore, generally because you are just too tired to unpack, but also because there are a few memories in them that may make you... sentimental.
You already found your family picture in the pile of things that you threw into boxes in a rush.
The mixed feelings from hanging it up sort of gnaw on you.
The new apartment is still a bit stale but pretty luxurious, for your taste. To be fair, you only had run down places till now, so you might be a bit stained in your opinion. Despite everything, it already feels like home.
A new life.
You decide to ignore the upcoming homesickness and get your jacket to head out. Your phone lights up from a notification, it shows the time.
"OH FUCK ME," you are late. 20 minutes late, in fact.
On your first day.
As you run down the staircase, you try to convince yourself that it's not too bad if you are late.
After all, it's just your entire bloody existence that is on the line. And the feeling of hope is being crushed by the reality, that you are an unorganized mess.
To be fair, the man on the phone said that today is just an introduction day, where they get the paper work done and you get a look around. Nothing too serious, right?
So their first impression is going to be that Y/N can't even get to work on time.
Great!
You run out the front door, almost getting trampled by people.
You forgot you're not in your old apartment on the outskirts of the town.
You're in the middle of a metropolitan area.
The laboratory, you are going to work at, is a bit further away. You couldn't go there by foot, so you thought ahead of time.
The skyline, which has a station directly above the lab, also has a station only 2 minutes away from your new home.
You can see the beautiful city from above while you are panicking about already fucking up everything in your life, just because you daydream a lot.
Making your way to the station, you try not to stare at the strange monsters and creatures waiting for the train.
You encountered monsters before, maybe 3 in your entire life. And now you're surrounded by them. You don't want to admit it, but it is kind of anxiety producing, being in the minority here.
You're lucky since there is a train every 10 minutes, it has to be pretty fast to make such a long trip in such a short time.
The train arrives, and strangely enough, it is designed like a cat. An orange one. Strange, strangely cute.
You sit down on the train cushions and look up at the display at what station you have to get out on.
It is a big city.
The air smells somewhat fruity, or perhaps it is that giant slime monster next to you drinking, what you assume is, air freshener.
This smells nice.
You can't help but lean back and hope that you will arrive on time.
"I'm gonna be at the lab today, so you have to take over at the hospital for me."
Sans stuffs down his scrambled eggs like a starving man and then chugs his coffee directly from the pot. Grinning at Frisk's disgusted look.
"First of all, gross. Second off, seriously? You want me to play CEO? Again? You do know that I have so many other projects going on and a lot of diplomatic appointments. I mean A LOT. It's not fair."
They say, slightly frustrated, but remember that at the end of the day, they have to take care of everything anyway. So at least this time they don't have to wait for the bad news, of a skeleton who didn't do his job. Perhaps it's for the better, but if they would admit that, Sans wouldn't even try to work anymore.
"Hey, I got a good reason for skipping that stuff this time.", he stuffs one of the breakfast croissants down his mouth. "Remember the human I mentioned to ya? They startin today. Still have to sign the contract, show em around and then they gonna work with us. And hopefully they learn tons of magic." Sans looks at the time, he still has a few minutes to spare, so he checks his news app.
"The one who tried to invent a battery for mana? We already have mana crystals. A long time before they even thought about it theoretically. I don't really get it."
They huff.
Sans has been reading that human's hypothesis day in and out. Mumbling something, while chewing on his pencil.
What a nerd. Something in Frisk doesn't want to admit it, but Sans hasn't been paying much attention to them, and they hate it. It's been a while since they did stuff together. Jealousy, It's an awful feeling. But no. It isn't jealousy. It simply isn't.
"They managed this, while being ignored by their community, no funds, no nothing. Hate from all around and no pre-knowledge about magic other than books. I'm just curious about what they can achieve, if they've been given the nessesary resources and funds."
He smiles at the potential that human might have, if they can get the concept of magic right in theory, what else can they do?
"Sides," he grins "Didn't you say we should encourage that kinda behavior? Being determined n all that?" He looks up from his phone to see Frisk chewing on his words.
They hate it when Sans is right. Which is rare, but he is being much more of a shithead about it when he is.
"Fine. Yeah. You're right." Frisk turns their head to the side, drinking a glass of orange juice, desperately trying to ignore the shit-eating-grin plastered on that dorks face.
"Ah, by the way, i heard from Vera that Shade got a new cat after the 'incident' with Bun," Frisk mentions.
They try not to smirk at the thought. Vera told them just afterwards. He grinned from ear to ear, and so did Frisk.
"A cat? Him? I thought he hates literally everything that breathes... I'm still wondering why we made him a representative..." Sans starts to tilt in his chair.
"Believe it or not, when Vera saw that his door was open, he didn't expect a little kitten resting on Shades lap. He pet it."
Sans chuckles, he can't imagine the most apathetic person petting a cute little kitten.
"And Vera said to me that Shade looked like he took a nap, he put on a vinyl, but it ended, so the needle was scratching the dead wax. Or he refused to stand up to turn it off. In any case, he is melting over that kitten."
Frisk starts to gather everything from the table and sort the rest of the food into the fridge.
"Seriously. I would've never guessed it. Does he have a name for it? "
"Shadow."
Sans starts full on cry-laughing, falling off his chair, which still doesn't keep him from crying his eyes out. His laugh is so infectious that Frisk cannot help but get dragged into it.
"Shadow!! Oh my god! Genius!" He lays on the floor holding his nonexistent stomach.
Frisk rubs their eyes, which start to tear up.
"Yeah, he said the little rascal is following him everywhere, so he named him Shadow."
"Holy crap, Shadow and Shade. You can't get any edgier."
Frisk looks at the clock.
"Hey, i think you might be late."
Sans jumps up. "Shit, you right!"
He puts on his shoes, almost losing his balance in the process.
"You're lucky that no one expects you to be on time." Frisk cleans up the table.
"Please. I'm fashionably late. It's my style." He says proudly. Frisk decides to not let it bother them.
But it doesn't work.
"For a guy who can teleport, it's pretty rude. But whatever, you do you."
They say, knowing it pisses off Sans, just a little bit. Frisk catches him rolling his eye lights.
"Thanks. Now I feel bad."
"You should!" They smile.
"Fuck you." Sans grins aggressively at them.
"Pleasure!" Frisk grins back.
He teleports away, leaving Frisk to chuckle.
Sans appears in front of the laboratory.
He's sort of proud of how the design of the building turned out.
The university is directly attached to the labs plenty of students walk around here. Because of that, Frisk suggested that it should be colorful.
At first, Sans didn't get it, but when he thought about it, he imagined the entire building covered in color splashes.
And now it's like this.
It doesn't have that 'boring, sterile' vibe.
Especially with the tons of plants and grass fields surrounding the area.
Looks inviting, or at least that was the plan.
Sans really hopes that it invites people into working and learning here. Especially for the newbie.
Several people greet him, some even take pictures. Sans blushes a bit at the attention.
'This is just for today', he reassures himself.
But he can't help but feel like it's a bit undeserving. After all, this city idea was Frisk's passion. He was against it, but now he has grown attached to it. Just a bit.
And so, Sans nods to the people greeting him, somewhat nervous, and enters the building.
He immediately gets called over to the main desk. Kat greets him.
"Hello, Master, your guest is waiting over there."
She points to a human who is frantically shaking a vending machine.
What are they doing?
You arrive at the laboratory. You already caught a glimpse of it from the train. It sort of looks like a giant kindergarten. Not that it looks ugly, if anything, it looks very fun.
But you sort of get a feeling that it was an impulsive decision.
You assume that the building next to it is the university, where you'll be studying as well. You assume so because there are people with backpacks walking around everywhere.
It looks very chill to be honest. The university looks really huge, a small hallway connects it to the laboratory.
As you enter the laboratory, you're surrounded by monsters.
You get reminded that humans are only a small part of this city's population.
There's a sign pointing to the main desk at the right of the entrance, so you head there, nervously.
There is a cat monster clicking away at a computer. It wears a business suit, and you have to admit: It's very handsome, with a somewhat calming smile.
The orange cat monster notices you, smiling softly.
"Hello, how can I help you?"
You flinch, you didn't even realize you were checking her out. You take a step forward.
"Uh, hi! I'm Y/N. Today is my first day here, uh, is your master around?"
The title 'master' sounds a bit ridiculous, but it's what the person on the phone called the guy, so you figured it's fine if you use it.
"Ah, Y/N! We have been informed about your arrival by our supervisor. Master Sans will be here shortly. Please wait in the waiting area. "
You could've sworn you were late... He isn't here yet?
"Thank you." Relieved, you go to where she told you to and sit down in the waiting area.
The chairs are a light blue, they looked stiffer than they actually are. You relax into them.
If he's late, then you aren't.
The weight of that statement falls off of you, the feeling is kind of overwhelming.
The anxiety of losing this job opportunity is crushing you.
After all, if this fails...
You shake your head. No need for gloomy thoughts. You're going to rock this, at least you hope.
And then your stomach rumbles.
Ah yes. The stress of coming too late caused you to skip breakfast.
You fumble in your pockets.
Between some fuzz and string, there is a 5 dollar bill buried in the depths of it all.
"Yes!", you say. A bit louder than intended. People turn around to see who is making such a ruckus.
You mumble an apology and head to the vending machine you saw on your way in.
The things it has to offer are, to say the least, super weird.
'Containing mana, not containing mana?', you're a bit confused at the terms. And there are percentage numbers next to the snacks and beverages presumably to show how much mana they have? You have no idea.
But one snack catches your attention.
There is one thing that has been the downfall of every diet you tried. And that's brownies. You see the little thing almost begging you to shove it into your mouth, which now starts to drool.
You put the 5 dollar bill in the bill acceptor... and...
...
What? You look at the tiny screen. "Bill not recognized."
...
Nothing happens. "Wait, did that thing just eat my money?" you ask in disbelief, feeling yourself getting pissed, most likely a side effect and mixture from being nervous, hungry and possibly loosing the last bit of money you have left. Which results in you getting hangry and shacking the machine.
When it comes to food, your brain just doesn't use logic.
A deep, rough voice interrupts your internal and external rage. "Machine broke?"
You would expect a big fellow, beefy and hairy, but when you turn around, you aren't met with a giant guy; in fact, you don't even meet eye to eye. Or in this case: eye to... eye-light thingy.
The skeleton smiling at you is hardly 5 feet. If you didn't know from his voice, you would have said that this guy was a teen, hell, a kid even.
But his teeth, sharp as razors, glisten at you. He is a bit scary, but the height doesn't really support it.
"The damn thing ate my bill. What kind of vending machine doesn't recognize a fucking dollar?"
The skeleton monster chuckles. "Eh, normally people pay with gold, but personally? I don't buy stuff from em anyway. Here, lemme help."
Something about him makes you calm down, oddly enough. He is just a small fella.
You watch him take out a screwdriver, and suddenly this nice, small guy looks like a professional robber.
He cracks the machine open easily.
You look around, the nervousness starting to boil, Some people look at you, not in concern, but... Are they taking photos for the police? Why are they smiling?
Before you try to interrupt him, the skeleton hands you your bill.
"There ya go. Happily reunited at last," he jokes.
You're honestly surprised.
"Are you a mechanic here? To be honest, you have guts, dude. I've never seen anyone break into a vending machine with so many people around and watching."
There is quite a small crowd building, and you kind of hope that no one called the police.
A lot of mumbling, they make you incredibly uncomfortable. You try to ignore them, not that you can understand much of what they say anyway.
"Heh, it's not like I'm trying to steal. Sides, stealing from myself is just stupid."
You're confused at what he meant, but you brush it off as your misunderstanding.
"I'm Y/N, by the way." You stretch out your hand. Somehow that makes the skeleton grin from... Nonexistent ear, to the other.
"I know. I'm Sans."
The train of thoughts connecting in your head makes a picture of the situation, immediately filling you with sheer embarrassment and threat.
But also extreme confusion and shock, because the skeletons hand feels awfully slimy. At first, you thought that it was your sweaty hands, but no. It's literally slimey.
"The good ol' slime in the hand trick. Always funny." Sans chuckles. But when he looks up at you, he realizes that the joke didn't really hit.
"Not much of a prank lovin fella, huh?"
You snap out of your sudden freeze.
"I'm so sorry, Mr...? I- I almost damaged your property, and I was so rude, I swear I'm normally not like this, I'm so sorry, Please don't send me away!" Words just flow out of your mouth without any control, and you force yourself to stop. The crowd is now completely focused on you, making you shiver. You feel watched, judged.
He looks a bit concerned.
"Hey, hey, Bud, it's fine! Don't worry. Just call me Sans. Or Master Sans. I ain't got a stick in my ass, so it's not a problem, I don't even have an ass, heh." He smiles at his own joke. Your shoulders relax a bit. "Sides, I can see that the nerves wreck ya. Don't worry too much bout it. Here, What didya want from the machine? To calm ya down."
He must've noticed you shivering.
The blush creeps up in your face. Everyone is staring at you.
"Brownies," you say quietly, your face is red. To the point that you think your heart might need a promotion, of how much blood it is pumping to your head.
Screw this job, you just want the floor to suck you up and make you disappear.
He hands you the small brownie, and you eat it immediately. Master Sans looks at you.
"You ok bud? You look like an apple!"
He can't help but grin. You propably absolutely look like an apple, overly red.
"I'm fine." You say, mentally preparing to die any second.
Sans can tell that you'd rather go somewhere more private to discuss the work documents.
"Come on, let's go to the meeting room."
You follow him through the hall, leaving the waiting room that got more and more crowded, possibly because of this incident.
You're thinking about never wearing the same clothes here again, together with sunglasses and a wig. Yes. Totally not suspicious.
Maybe a name change too, for good measure. Those pictures of yours might go around now...
You still can't believe you're embarrassing yourself like this. In front of your new boss, nonetheless. And especially on your first day...
He opens the door for you, and as you enter, you notice that in this meeting room, there are widely different varieties of chairs.
Color wise and type wise, they are all very unique, there are even stools there.
"Wow, what a strange room," you comment. You slowly get a feeling about what kind of person the builder of this place was.
"The chairs give the room a bit of personality, don't you think? Oh, just sit down wherever."
You simply nod, and sit down in a light blue club chair. It's fairly comfortable. You fancy it. You could've sworn that Master Sans gave a bit of a surprised look.
He walks to a little cabinet in the corner, fumbles with something, pulls a couple of papers out, and grabs a pen.
However, unlike what you expected, he sits right next to you, in a purple swivel chair. Actually, he sits so close to you, that you can smell something faint from him... Something spicy.
"By the way, my partner Frisk set this room up, to give an intimate view of anyone's personality. There are studies n everything. The chair you decided to sit in, for example, tells me that you love to kick children in the face and punt puppies. For distance. "
You look at him in shock, already trying to stand up again.
He bursts out laughing.
"Heh, just messing with ya. We just thought this room was so boring with the same chairs. Made the study up. You can stay put."
You sigh in relief. He sort of likes messing with you, doesn't he?
You still need to adjust to his humor, but you are glad that he is being casual.
He explained the work hours, when you're going to study at the university, which, you are surprised with. You will actively learn magic in the university along side actively working here. Seems like an apprentice ship, really. All the while, he is making it very clear that he normally doesn't bother with the bureaucracy aspect.
You read through the work contract.
"Is that a typo?"
He looks over the contract. "No, that's fine."
You look at him, pure disbelief.
"That's literally 5 times the amount I made working at the diner."
"So?", he shrugs it off like it's nothing.
Ever since you met him, and to be fair, it's been what? 10 minutes? But you just don't see him as your boss.
He behaves like someone who doesn't care two shits about business and has no clue on how to run things. You wonder what kind of money he makes. Or how much responsibility he really has. He reminds you of a rebellious teen, who wants to stick it to his parents, probably sleeping in, never doing homework, smoking, that stuff.
You don't like that you are already putting him in a drawer.
But hell! He just put his feet up on the table!
As much as this job is literally your lifesaver right now, you are unsure of how to deal with this skeleton. This attitude might be dangerous. But you can't help finding him sort of charming, with his dorky, non-chalant behavior.
'He is kind of a doof...', you think.
A lovable doof, who is literally doodling on the corner of your page? On important work documents? Does that invalidate them? You decide to ignore him drawing some small... You can only guess that those are ducks.
"Uhm... What about insurance?"
You ask, trying to get his attention away from doodling. But to be fair, it is kinda cute.
"Oh, you'll be completely insured, dental, health, unemployment, vision and long term care insurance. Well, all except life insurance." He says, disregarding the severity.
"Honestly, this sounds too good to be true. And normally, when something sounds too good to be true, it normally is."
He shrugs.
"Hey, what can I say? I'm trying to give my workers nothing to complain about, everyone should come to work happy and excited, not burned out. We already have enough patients with that in the psychiatric ward."
You give into the urge to ask. "Why so? Are people here depressed?"
Sans shakes his head "Well, not really, s mostly ptsd patients here. Other than that, we get a ton of patients from outside the city.
Overall tons of mental problems, s why the psychiatric ward is almost as big as every station in the hospital combined. We've been researching into psychology of monsters and humans alike and have a ton of new techniques, while the humans have a hard time curing mental illnesses. But they are just excellent at causing them. "
He huffs.
You sense a bit of hostility in that direction, so you decide not to press further and to just sign the work contract.
"I'll be showing you the lab and then the university where you'll study."
You nod, already feeling slightly excited to see everything.
Maybe you didn't notice it before, but there is mumbling forming behind the door.
Sans must have noticed it too, since he stares too.
You try and ask him what's going on, but...
He is gone? You could've sworn that he was literally just...
But how?
You look back at the door, and Sans stands there, head against it.
How did he get there? Was it magic?
The mumbling got louder.
He pushes down the door handle, and a bat monster falls onto the floor, before his feet, smiling up at him in an awkward fashion.
A few other monsters stand right by the door, trying to scatter, but a strange blue aura surrounds them, they can't move. You're getting a chill, the air feels tenser.
"Mind tellin me whatcha doin, buddies?" That word seems to hit them like knives. You can't see his face as he says this. But you can imagine it.
The bat monster by his feet lays down casually, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Uhhhh... Eavesdropping?"
"I was about to show them around anyway. Couldn't you guys have waited, like literally one minute?? Absolute dumbasses. I swear to god, can you guys give us some bloody space?"
You're torn about the way he talks with his workers, is he that close to them to be able to insult them like that?
He is... scary, nothing is left of that doofiness that you just described him with.
The pressure sort of sucks the air out of your lungs.
A big lizard monster steps up to Sans, towering over him.
"Chillax Skulls, we're just burstin with curiosity, after all they gon be the first damn human in this compartment! So corse we gon be a bit on the nose bout it! Fril, get up. "
The bat monster gets up and hides in the small crowd.
Suddenly, the lizard takes Sans under her arms and nuggies him.
The tension dissipated as soon as it came.
"So no need to be such an ass bout it, lil Skulls! Just cuz youra big shot don't mean ya gotta kick em down like that!"
Meanwhile, Sans struggles to free himself from the muscular arms. He wiggles in her grasp.
"ZINC! Stop nugging me!"
She drops him onto the ground.
"S' punishment for da rudeness, boss!"
You are just watching that scene play before your eyes, and you're holding in a chuckle.
He was sort of intimidating for a moment, but now you realize that he is probably all bark, no bite.
"Just bloody lemme do my thing!" He brushes his clothes off, angrily looking at, what you now know is Zinc, and she smiles at him, amused at his anger.
You are a bit worried about him. You swear you heard his pride shatter along the lines of 'Skulls'. Zinc must have caught your look because now she gazes past him, at you.
"Don't worry bout it, he's fine, well, 'cept the broken pride of couse! We're always like that."
You laugh.
"I'm glad you all can joke around like that."
Sans turns around, sheer anger written on his face. But also blushing slightly in some gorgeous purple.
"Excuse me? I'm their CEO, basically! And she treats me like a child!"
He turns to Zinc again.
"I build you! Respect me!"
He points his boney fingers at Zinc, who starts laughing, with a booming voice. She brushes his hand aside and starts patting him.
"Nawww~ Grow up ya bundle of bones. Yer just a grown up brat, but I do respect ya, lil master!
"HOW ARE YOU RESPECTING ME WHILE MAKING FUN OF MY HEIGHT??"
You can't hold your laughter anymore, you were so nervous, but you're glad that you're getting it out of your system. You would've never guessed that you can laugh so much on your first day.
"Urg, just... go do your bloody work, me n Y/N are gonna go take a walk round the place." Everyone bows and leaves. Zinc stays. She grins at you.
"I figure that I'll be makin the round too, after all, Dee ain't here all the time and I kno'it better than this ol skeleton."
Sans rolls his eyelights. And then walks out of the door.
You stand there for a hot second before realizing that the tour just started.
All three of you walk down the hallway, there are some offices on each side.
"There ain't a mensa here. Our butts go eat at tha hospital mensa. S good food, trust me. This ol lazy ass got the best cooks for the sick. Even so, to give him credit, Sans ain't a bad sport himself, when it comes ta food I mean."
Zinc started talking about the lab, while Sans, unwillingly, settled on his supporting role.
You wonder how a skeleton could cook when... You're assuming he has no tongue, can he taste things? You want to ask, but it may be a bit rude, seeing that you have only been fed stereotypes about monsters all your life.
"So you're a good cook?" You try to get sans included in the conversation, plus, to your credit, you really are curious. And this is the best way you can ask, without seeming like you are a racist.
"Yeah. I-... Yeah. "
He wanted to say something, why didn't he? He doesn't look at you, making you painfully aware, that he wanted to introduce the lab himself.
You give out a little sigh.
The tour was as boring as expected. Zinc and the human already got into the pre-friendship state. At least he doesn't have to worry about them not liking each other.
He wanted to take the opportunity of showing them the ropes, talk to them about their hypothesis, and get to know them a bit better. But since Zinc intervened, he has been third wheeling this entire conversation.
"Wait, you guys use teleporters?"
You stand there, baffled. It's pretty funny, how clueless you are. Overall, you walk around, eyes all big, as if you have never seen anything like this. Well, you didn't. But Sans never thought about it. What this looks like to a person, completely shut off from magic and monsters and everything. Brand new experience.
He had to stop you from touching one of the current projects of converting water magic into steam magic. You almost got yourself burned.
It's hilarious.
You're hilarious, or if anything, you are interesting.
Sans can't help but be interested. But for now, he can't have a one-on-one conversation.
"Where are the toilets?" You ask, since you sort of need to use one right now. You didn't see any bathroom signs anywhere.
Zinc and Sans stop for a second.
Zinc starts to smirk, looking down on Sans, who begins fumbling with his clothes.
"Oh." he simply says.
"Uhhh.... Shit... Uh." He avoids your gaze.
"What? Is it out of order?" You push for an answer, already guessing that something is wrong...
Sans smiles nervously. "Can't be out of order...
...if there ain't none. "
"Wait, how can it be that there isn't a toilet here? Do monsters not use toilets??" You can't hold back your disbelief.
"Nah, just sinks," Zinc replies, implying that it's totally natural to not use any bathrooms.
"The hospital has toilets. Other than that, monsters don't really have to eat any biological stuff. Most can't, only mana stuff," Sans explains.
"Then I have to go there now, i guess." You say.
"Actually, we also have one in the inventory. You can go there. More private that way."
Zinc looks at Sans bewildered, but he seems to ignore it.
You sigh in relief, For a second, you thought that you'd have to go home every time you had some business to attend to.
Wait, what's the inventory? Like storage? Game inventory? Nah, probably not.
"Here." Sans holds out his hand.
You look at it.
Does he want to hold hands right now? You're confused.
"Uhhh I have a boyfriend." You say. You don't, but it just came out.
Zinc bursts into laughter yet again, her voice booming throughout the entire building, she slams her fist against the wall in her laughing fit.
"I'M NOT TRYING TO DATE YOU. WE HAVE TO TELEPORT!" His eye lights glow a darker shade, but he doesn't look very intimidating like before. He blushes again, you like the color.
"Oh." You say, dumbfounded.
"Sorry."
You suspected he had that kind of magic, but didn't think he'd be needing your hand to teleport you. Also, you're super excited to ask him about it. But you just have to settle it all later.
"Just bloody do it. I don't wanna clean up any 'accidents'." He taps his foot with impatience.
Ouch. But fair.
You take the skeleton's hand, and suddenly both of you are surrounded by a purple glow, the world twists within a second.
Your entire body feels like it's being zapped by electricity, but it's not hurtful, it just overwhelms and pressures you.
You feel incredible discomfort.
Suddenly you only see white.
There's nothing but a blinding, everlasting, white.
Some kind of threat is settling itself in your chest.
'Is this death? Did I die? I just wanted to go to the toilet!'
"Hey. Everything good?" Sans asks, not letting his concerns be heard. He is looking at you, kneeling on the ground.
"I think I'm dead. Give me a second." You say. But it's probably going to be a minute. This was pretty intense.
"Core, make a bathroom."
Before you can wonder what he means, in this middle of nowhere, a wall is emerging from the ground. 4 walls, and a roof. Then a door.
"There ya go."
It's 11 am, not even noon and your entire world view is just shattered over and over.
You sort of need a break right now.
You go in, and suddenly, you're in a normal bathroom. Nothing fancy, if anything, it looks like it's just like any apartment bathroom, except for the fact it looks like it's never been used before. And that it didn't exist 1 minute ago. There is a hint of citrus fruit in the air.
After you're done, you step outside. You feel a bit calmer, actually. Sans is sitting on a chair scrolling through his phone.
"Did you wash your hands?"
"Of course I did." One of the things you always do. If anything, it feels wrong not to wash your hands afterwards.
"Good. Did you know that you can reduce diarrheal illnesses in people with weakened immune systems by 58% just by washing hands? And absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illnesses in schoolchildren by 29-57%. And also respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by 16-21%."
"Absenteeism?", you ask.
"When kids don't have motivation to go to school. Or people to work."
"Woah, you know your science, huh, should've guessed for a lab nerd." He seems pretty smart. Or he just brags with surfacelevel facts.
"More of my doc side poking out, really."
"Wait. You're a doctor? Like health?"
You look at him with confusion. How can he run the laboratory AND be a doctor? Especially in medicine, that would probably occupy him all day.
"A skeleton can't, huh?" Sans looks at you suspiciously.
"No no! I mean, timewise! I don't know how you could do all that stuff like running the labs and at the same time being a doctor! Must be tough. "
"Ah. Sorry. Uh..." It definitely caught him off guard.
You look at him interested, sort of begging him to talk about himself, He shuffled in his seat nervously.
"Well, I have Zinc and the other robots to help me out with stuff. I used to work full time in the hospital, built that myself heh... Not doing much other than being the boss of the hospital, now. And sometimes not even that. My partner Frisk takes over pretty much everything, since I got interested in science again. I needed some equipment for the hospital, so I figured I'd make em myself. And now I'm back in the science biz."
"That's literally... So cool." you unthinkingly say.
You can see him starting to blush that beautiful purple again, which is somewhat... cute? 'Did I really just think that?'
He keeps avoiding your gaze.
"Ehh it's... Whatever. Well, the entire city thing was Frisk's idea. I just built it. Sides, I didn't- I was just, ya know... A- Anyway it's lunch time, so... We gotta go. "
He extends his hand towards you, still blushing at your comment.
Even when if he is your boss, he is still a dork. And you appreciate it.
Though you can't shake the awkwardness. You're so used to always sucking up to the people higher in your hierarchy.
This absolutely doesn't feel like it. If anything, you and Sans have been talking like coworkers. If not for the fact he literally built the city and laboratory you'll be working at, you would guess that you are becoming friends.