♡

“I wasn’t even expecting it the first time around.” 

A hand pressed to her forehead, her smile small, but undeniably, quietly, happy. She had those who considered her a mother on set; a few toons who were missing a maternal figure in their lives. She was pushed into the role, at first, resenting it, but eventually growing to love it. She’d thought about children of her own, one day, but it wasn’t something she expected. 

Let alone with Sans. 

Her hand landed on top of his, nose twitching in response to his touch. 

Sans had cured a lot of loneliness when he came along. Lola still wasn’t used to having someone consistent in her life. Going from a one, to a two. Now, there would be a three along for the ride. And even if she and Sans happened to part ways — she would still be a mother. Thinking of only herself wouldn’t suffice anymore. 

“Ha — you kiddin’? No.  Wasn’t sure if I was delusional or really feelin’ all these symptoms, anyway…” 

Goodness, names… there was so much to do. 

“Wouldn’t be opposed if you had anything in mind. Y’know, for a name. Your kiddo, too, heh.” The bunny gave a rib bone a playful poke, before reaching to cup his cheek in her palm. Despite her happiness, she wanted to make sure it was shared. 

“Sans… you’re… excited, right? Or… happy? Maybe?” 

Anything? He could be hard to read. Even though she knew him well, now — Lola wanted to make sure. 

“W-well, yeah...” The skeleton balked. Hesitancy written in every seam of his clothes-- and perhaps even engraved to the bones in his body. “I mean, was expecting somethin’ like that as much as you were.” Which-- wasn’t much at all. “I guess it’ll take some time for it to, uh, sink in... y’know?”

Though the skeleton heartily believed Lola wouldn’t have gone so far as to find herself another man with him in her life, the question remained: was the child truly his? Who else could it have been? Every vestige of pregnancy marked positive on paper and test, but none of it had managed to breach the walls of his mind quite yet.

Unlikely of him to leave the bunny on her own to raise the young when her kind paired for life and he, had committed himself to her. Body and soul. And even if those children belonged to someone else... present circumstances begged for some semblance of a family, and Sans, to the best of his ability, would try to offer them one.

“Tell ya the truth, I, uh, didn’t really think skeletons were, uh, fertile.” Slumping down on his seat right beside the bunny, Sans shifted spectral lights skywards and tipped back his skull against the couch’s backrest. “Bit difficult to process otherwise when I’ve gone so long thinking I wasn’t capable of that. I mean, it makes sense... right? My cock’s magical. In all technicalities, I’m an eunuch.” Despite everything, he still found it in himself to pull a joke or two regarding the matter. “...but, uh, here we are. It might sink in tomorrow. Or maybe the, uh, kid will be born, and I’ll still hardly believe I’m not dreamin’ or somethin’.”

One paw remained rooted in his palm, the other, slowly scrolling through apps until she found one with exactly what she needed. The test in question was ordered, along with a few snacks for the two of them — some fruit, some popcorn, cookies, and chocolate. A few things she didn’t normally indulge in, that she’d been craving. 

It was a question she already knew the answer to — but having it in concrete proof — seeing the results right before her eyes, might make the situation more real. She was quiet as she placed the order, and even quieter as they waited for their delivery. When the knock on the door came, the bunny all but launched herself from her seat to retrieve the items. She disappeared into the bathroom without a word. 

She emerged ten minutes later — a covered stick in hand. Two pink lines were clear as day on the window. With a small smile, Lola presented it to Sans. 

“Really wishin’ I had that book of dad jokes to give ya.” 

Sans had busied his time drifting in and out of sleep, chin to rib cage and eyesockets fallen shut, not even to stir awake when Lola wriggled her way out of his hold to get the door, then likely making a beeline to the bathroom. It was when she approached him again that, almost as if on cue, the skeleton woke from slumber.

“Oh?” Shifting stances to a seated position, both his bony hands reached for the bunny’s loins and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Huh, can’t say I was expecting it would happen for a second time. This whole father thing.”

Two did he raise, a human and a skeleton. Tori’s kid once upon a timeline had been far less challenging than Papyrus to bring up, something about different personalities, perhaps? Sans didn’t let the thought linger for long enough to fester.

Easing back into his seat, he ran the pad of a bony thumb over the fur on Lola’s belly.

“Thought about a name yet? If, uh, boy or girl.” 

The bunny shifted and squirmed against his touch, a shaky breath falling from her mouth. With her body’s newfound developments, she was much more sensitive than before. A feat in itself. As he pulled away, her body ached to follow along with him. 

“Get back here…” A bold command, one that could be mistaken for a plea. He couldn’t start toying with her, only to leave her yearning for more. That was her job. To tease him — to turn pining, onto perishing. Though Sans did his fair share of that to her, as well.

“So… both of us’re waitin’ on the other to make a choice, huh?” She chuckled softly, her paw falling to her belly. “Guess I’ll get a test. To be sure, y’know. But, uh …” Her arms looped around her knees, long ears falling into her eyes, conveniently masking the despair and uncertainty she harbored. 

“— I don’t want you to be unhappy, Sans. You’re not obligated to do — anything, really. I don’t expect it. So don’t feel like you gotta stick around ‘cuz it’s ‘right’, or whatever.”

Lola would rather die than accept pity. And she would rather handle this alone, even if it meant the harder road traveled. 

“I don’t think givin’ it up is an option.” 

Not with the unique mixture of species, between the two of them. Too risky for the baby, and she didn’t think Sans would want to. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to, either. Other options — more drastic ones — seemed unthinkable to her. 

“D’you … d’you wanna keep it?”  

Trudged steps brought him back to her side, but instead of taking up the seat he’d occupied not long before, Sans held out his hand for her to seize with her paw. An affectionate gesture.

“Right.” The skeleton refrained from saying that wasn’t how he thought it worked. Specially not when the only dodging a guy like him ever did was in battle-- and when asked questions he had no desire to answer, of course. Except this time, the skeleton wasn’t doing a lot of dodging so much as trying to digest the situation. “I don’t see why not?”

Maybe that thought he’s entertained at some point, the one that concerned a certain eternal bond, didn’t seem all that alien an idea this time around. Shuffling on his slippers, Sans gave the bunny an encouraging squeeze to the paw. The last they’d joked about marriage, he was certain everything about Lola came unprepared. Hence her brushing it off as nothing but that.

A harmless little joke.

“Yeah... I think you should.” He also thought to keep his thoughts to himself, until at least the bunny was certain of it. 

Pocketing out his phone, Sans held it over to Lola, jerking his round jaw bone towards it.

“Feel free to use my card to have it delivered over.” Though the skeleton normally ran errands himself, he did have a couple of apps in his phone that paid others to run errands for him. One such apps was a grocery store one, the other, a pharmacy.

Her brows knit at his answer, and his relaxed smile. If he had doubts, he wasn’t showing them — and for a moment, confusion etched her features, her shoulders slacked. All she could do was tell her truth — though she certainly didn’t expect him to be on her side. Most men wouldn’t be. Most would run, or push the blame off at the first opportunity. 

But then … Sans had always been different. 

She relaxed against his hold, pressing her twitching nose against his cheek, before gracing him with a kiss in the same spot. She’d been told she didn’t deserve good things, for so many years — by herself, and others. That she didn’t deserve happiness. Let alone, someone like him. It was hard to accept, at times — that it seemed like nothing she did could chase him away. A frightening realization, and a relieving one. 

“I love you,” the bunny breathed against his cheekbone, the familiar scent of petrichor wrapping her in a warm blanket, more comfortable than any treehouse or planted home in the world. And while he was waiting for her to decide, the bunny valued his opinion too much to let it go. 

“What d’you wanna do?” She hoped she didn’t have to explain herself further. She wasn’t entirely sure, herself. But maybe … being a mother wouldn’t be so bad.

Eternal grin widened to the confession. There was an object of envy in those who could so easily say it, and mean just that. With a tongue poking at the dip of a molar, digits drummed playfully over the rabbit’s tummy, flattening before skating phalanges up her shirt to toy idly, affectionately even, with a budding nub.

Afternoon fell fast, giving room for the blooming light of the moon peeking just outside their window, halfway above the horizon. With the press of a kiss to Lola’s forehead, the skeleton stood up to turn on the lights, dimming them to a candlelight amber. Not for himself, no... While skeletons wanted for more sensitive nostrils, they didn’t lack in sight. And Sans, just like the man before him, could see well in the dark.

Someone rested their elbow on the rabbit’s head to make fun of her for being short. Now she’s sitting in the hall after getting disciplined for biting that person. Its not fair! Life is cruel. She knows she’s sulking, but it’s hard to make yourself feel better when you’ve had a bad day overall.

She’s picking at grout on the floor idly, her ears folded downward as she grumbles about them ‘deserving it’ and ‘that was bullshit.’

“Lookin’ a little stumped over there.” The skeleton commented towards the bunny-- in reality, it was a jab at whoever had been harassing the poor thing. “Now, I’ll give ya a count of three to quit harassing your friend.” 

Not being the tallest guy favoured no intimidation tactics-- but those girls were wrong to underestimate him, for when the count reached three and they hadn’t budged an inch, all the skeleton did was to point their way and move his hand slightly to the side-- a compelling force jerked the girls away from the bunny. And right out the door to the gardening club, which closed on its own mysteriously.

“You, uh, alright?” The skeleton neared the girl and offered her a hand. This one had a reputation among male students-- none of the professor’s business, of course, though Sans reckoned it to be reason to hatred among female ones. “The name’s Sans by the way. I’m, uh, replacing the quantum physics professor this semester.”

unprompted || @hyprlnk​

“huh. that makes me wonder...”

She was quiet, attempting to gauge any emotion from him — disbelief? Anger? Happiness? She knew he wouldn’t call her an outright liar — but she was waiting for a comment on the sly. Something that she would pick up on, and feel hurt by — something giving her the excuse to run away. After all, if he didn’t trust her, what good was their relationship? Get it over with, a voice rang in her mind. She could accuse him of being like every other person she’d dated (even though he wasn’t), and she could leave before she got hurt any further.

She waited… and waited… for something that never came. Her head tilted, her paw flattening on top of his hand. She was cautious … after all, she wasn’t going to force him to stick around when he had his doubts. 

“Like I said, haven’t taken a test yet, but …” Her shoulder raised in a shrug. “I’m, uh … gainin’ weight,” Lola admitted, quietly, almost like she felt ashamed. Her moods had been swinging like Tarzan on the vines. Fine one moment, cranky and irritable the next. “Haven’t felt like playin’ ball. Or anything, really. And you know that’s… not like me.” She hadn’t been feeling like herself at all, as of late. 

“I can take a test to be sure. I just … feel … different.” 

Almost like she knew before it was even confirmed. And people always told her, when it happens, you’ll know. 

“You, uh … d’you believe me?” Not regarding her symptoms — but on the fact that she’d been faithful. She was expecting him to say no. She was expecting him to give her a reason to send him away. 

It wasn’t what she wanted. It was what she expected. 

“I mean, I trust you.” Certainty laced his baritone, the kind to inspire confidence, but other than that, the skeleton gave nothing away. “So I guess skeletons are fertile after all, huh? News to me, but hey.” A shrug ensued. “Don’t got a reason to doubt ya, do I?”

Lola said nothing on how she wanted to handle the situation, and at least in his view, it wasn’t the skeleton’s place to intervene. Just as well, Sans didn’t have a lot more to add to the conversation. A first he’d never expected-- a first which had certainly caught him with his knickers on askew hadn’t prepared him for a reaction.

So instead, he waited. Raking phalanges gently through the short-trimmed fur coating his girlfriend’s belly, where not even a bump could be seen yet aside from what he reckoned to be natural weight gain that came with the initial stages of pregnancy.

His blinks were slow, and his chest never heaved.

@megalobonia​

A  voice,  one  recognized  but  the  face  remained  blank  in  her  mind  .  She’d  never  seen  it  before  .  Still  ,  the  memories  remain  warm  .  Pressed  against  a  door  ,  she  can  feel  the  cool  ever-lasting  winter  of  Snowdin  leaking  through  .  He  tells  her  a  riddle  ,  the  answer  is  a  pun  .  They  laugh  together  .

❝  Oh  it’s  you  !  It  is  ,  isn’t  it  ?  ❞  Toriel’s  finger  catches  the  golden  bracelet  around  her  wrist  .  Tugging  ,  and  fidgeting  with  it  nervously  .  Head  tilted  as  her  tired  eyes  now  found  the  Skeleton  .  Had  he  mentioned  he  was  a  skeleton  ?  Toriel  couldn’t  seem  to  recall  ,  but  she’s  sure  she  knew  .  Something  in  their  voice  .  ❝  From  the  other  side  of  the  door  …  ❞ 

“uh...” landing in the ruins came to the skeleton just as unexpectedly as running into a familiar face-- but with a different air about her all the same. while the toriel he knew was donned in pastels with a gaze so soft it was reminiscent of cotton candy, this one struck him more as a queen of darkness with sharper edges and the kind of look that could kill with how intense it was. 

nothing like the one sans knew, and yet...

“y-yeah.” the skeleton stammered. “sorry for, uh, comin’ in unannounced. didn’t mean t’a trespass-- or, i dunno, take ya off guard, y’know? was jus’... passin’ by.”

More questions, and an increase in the probability in getting a migraine from this strange and goofy looking skeleton. All of his inner alarms were ringing loudly to do something about him, yet he ( he??? ) also technically hasn’t done anything to make it worth kicking him out with no repercussions.

Aster might’ve lowered his guard enough to entertain the idea of having a reanimated skeleton in his Warren, even indulge him in a conversation, if the suspicious vibes weren’t so… Strong. Plus, he kept asking weird questions, reminding him too much of a certan spirit.

“Absolutely not!” The Pooka warrior exploded furiously. The mere thought, the gall of that skeleton assume such a thing about him… The nerve! “Why would you even ask something like that?? Even if it were the case, which is NOT, that is infringing on my privacy.”

❝ is it? ❞ by the looks of things, the skeleton just might have hit a nerve. but he didn’t look particularly concerned about it-- if anything, lazier than before to engage in a battle of wits.  ❝ dunno, man. when you see an egg and someone who claims to own it, it’s only natural to ask if they were put by, well, the owner or someone else, no? oh, well. ❞

as the egg scurried about, the skeleton -- still leaned back against that tree -- scanned their surroundings. 

❝ so, uh, you don’t happen to have seen a skeleton around, do you? aside from, uh, me. ❞ he outstretched an arm a skull and a half’s worth in height above his own. ❝ 'bout this tall. red scarf... blood orange if you want the specifics. ring a bell? ❞

The bunny allowed him to carry her, to use his magic as he pleased. Being taken care of wasn’t something she was used to, and it took all her power to simply let it be. Whenever things like this happened in her past — traumatic experiences, mostly at the hands of men, Lola took care of them, struggling in silence, and remarkably alone. Her internal struggle was nobody’s business — and her assumption was that the others, like Bugs, would only disapprove of her for not being strong enough. That was what everyone expected, after all. Lola was the strong one. Lola never asked for help, why would she, now? 

Others had greater burdens. She didn’t want or expect sympathy — but shouldering all of the weight, as brick by brick fell, drove her further to breaking. 

She shifted closer, though she was taken aback by the strength Sans displayed. She looped her arms around his neck, her nose nestling close to his nasal bone with her nod. Even when things were unsteady, he was secure. She was safe with him. 

“… I do.” She spoke softly, her cheek rubbing against his neck. Her paw landed on his cheek, brows furrowing. Appearing helpless and needy had never been Lola’s method of operation. Putting her vulnerability on display was always so difficult, but in another display of her trust — Sans was privileged enough to see that side of her. 

“… You’ll be with me at the hotel too, right?” She didn’t want to be alone. There was a moment of quiet, before she stood, almost robotically. “… Gotta get some stuff together.” She slid off the edge of the bed, where he’d placed her, to head towards the closet to retrieve some weekender bags she had stored away. 

“Pajamas, toothbrush… y’know, heh. Guess we could treat this as a little getaway, if you’re comin’ too, huh? Kinda fun.”

The silver lining of having to temporarily uproot her life.

❝ 'course i’ll be there. ❞ even if that meant calling off work. though there was some measure of confidence in success... the ones in charge did owe him plenty for every last minute importantly urgent assignment they sprung on the skeleton, after all.

that lot was unlikely to go down without their token monster around.

waiting by every door-frame he could lean against while tapping away at his phone, sans had just finished a call asking the hotel about its available rooms before wondering if they wouldn’t be better off renting an apartment. for now, however, that would have to do.

❝ ya ready? ❞ heading over to the nightstand, sans picked up lola’s keys and went about checking every window. to make sure it was closed and curtains drawn shut. the last thing they needed was one of those weirdos sifting through lola’s belongings after everything that had panned out. ❝ if ye forget anythin’ i can jus’ come back ‘ere and grab it for ya, y’know?  ❞

for a man who never used the door, he was most certainly acquainted with the concept of locking things-- going so far as to know where lola kept her keys, and their spare. 

❝ ya, uh, get weirdos like these often? ❞

She let the heavy silence linger, her gaze finding the courage to settle on him, eventually nodding. She wondered, as she saw his eyes wandering downwards, if he was beginning to piece things together. Lola had learned a lot about Sans, in the five months they’d spent together — and one thing was that a lot of his thoughts went unspoken. Round in body, sharp in mind. The two of them were unassuming — quiet about what they knew, to benefit themselves. It was one, small thing they had in common. 

“Uh… might be a little late for a condom, babe.”

Finding the courage to make eye contact, she summoned a small smile. She didn’t want him to find out in such a mundane, boring way. If she had time to think about it — to confirm things — she would have done something memorable. Something to make him smile. Something to make him excited for the prospect of being a father.

Or, in an old-fashioned, impulsive move, she would have dumped him and never spoken to him again, and handled things on her own, just as she had with everything else. The thought of relying on someone for anything had never been Lola’s ideal; she could certainly take care of a child on her own. Not ideal, but it was nobody’s responsibility but her own. 

“Haven’t been with anyone else. I promise. Up to you, if you believe me or not.” 

She wasn’t about to go out of her way and prove anything. She wasn’t about to fight, either. 

“Haven’t taken a test or anything, but…” Intuition was kicking and screaming. “—- Always kinda figured that breeding kink would catch up t’me.” 

Normally, his first reaction would have been to dub her a liar, but in a subtle way that wasn’t outright accusatory. In a way that pointed no fingers, and perhaps even Lola wouldn’t be able to tell right off the bat that was what might have surrounded the skeleton’s thoughts. The sinking acceptance of reality from what would have normally taken place, however, never quite landed.

Now, it wasn’t easy to read a man made of bones when his grin was forced eternal and the light in his eye sockets didn’t quite glint or shift as would a normal person’s. So it was in every subtlety that a reaction might have been understood. And perhaps the key to finding it might have been in the hand that alighted on top of the bunny’s belly, or maybe in the finger thumbing a caress over her navel.

To be a father had never been part of his agenda, and if Sans had ever entertained such a thought, it was in a distant dream. Long forgotten.

@megalobonia​ wanted a starter <3

“Can I take your picture?”

Fascinated as he was, at least Kounosuke was polite enough to ask people before he just stole a snapshot. Maybe in younger years he wouldn’t have given this consideration, but as he’d grown older, he’d begun to realize that some of his habits as a teenager weren’t quite so considerate of other people. There’s a bright smile on his face, as he looks at the other.

“I won’t use it for anything public, it’s just for my scrapbook of this place! I make one of everywhere I visit, the world is just too beautiful not to.”

at least this one was kind enough to ask.

ever since monsters had achieved their freedom, sans had become no stranger to folk lifting their devices to snap shots of him and he passed them by. there must have been hundreds of pictures surfing around the internet of the walking skeleton-- some videos too, no doubt.

shuffling in is slippers, the skeleton stared up at the bear. he’d heard and seen them before-- creatures that weren’t humans, but weren’t quite monsters either and walked the planet just the same. with sentience of their own, too.

“a scrapbook, huh? wouldn’t mind givin’ that a look later.” sans played into it. camaraderie costed nothing and it usually brought a smile to the face. so with a single nod, the skeleton’s spectral lights shifted to the camera. “do you, uh, need me in any specific position or doing somethin’ to make it interesting?”

She pulled his gloves away from skeletal digits, one finger at a time. Her nose twitched with her fragmented thoughts, all floating in the word cloud of her mind. Maybe. Baby. Pink. Blue. Run. Run. Run. The natural instinct to run at the sign of any hardship was calling her name; because no matter how much she loved Sans, some things were easier to handle on her own, instead of relying on someone else. Even him. 

There was a moment of silence before she answered.

“Well, I mean … I wasn’t countin’ on anything.” 

That was the truth. 

When asked about having children before, her answer was always that she didn’t think she’d make a good mother. She still wasn’t sure of that. 

“You think that… maybe, uh — there’s a way we could… look into it?” 

She traced her fingertip along the inner bone of his pointer. She didn’t want to tell him — not yet. Not when she wasn’t positive. While she was desperate to talk to it about someone — anyone — she couldn’t just yet. She wasn’t sure if Sans would even believe her. 

“Like … maybe you could get … tested or somethin’?” 

It was truly a wonder she hadn’t been in this situation before. Partners hadn’t always used protection. She didn’t always discourage those unsafe practices. Within her twenty-or-more years since her creation, she’d never once been with child. Sure, there had been a few ‘scares’ — a few imagined symptoms — and that was exactly what she was hoping for, this time around. 

“Just to… be safe. And if somethin’ happens, we can be … ready for it. Y’know?” 

after the bunny successfully peeled off his gloves, sans took them and shoved them in his pocket before, apart from a sock collection, gloves started gathering in odd corners of lola’s treehouse.

“as in... do it in a cup and put it under a microscope sorta tested?”

sans would first rely on greater dog to win a chess match against someone other than himself than to ever trust a human with that sort of procedure. to wind up in a glass cage with tubes sticking out of every joint for a second time was not part of the agenda. and it sounded no less nightmarish than being born that way.

or spending a good twelve years being tested on, for that matter.

the air of unease and unspoken things was denser now around lola than it had ever been. something was bothering her, and albeit the skeleton was something of a mastermind at guessing these sorts of things, perhaps in underlying denial, he didn’t quite land on the issue.

but he got close.

“do you, uh, want me to start wearin’ a condom or somethin’?” though the skeleton failed to see the point in it, if that was what the bunny wanted, far be it for him to deny her that. but that’s not what you want, is it? no. lola had specifically asked him to get tested, not for him to start wearing protection of any sort.