PerheTale

Please, Callie… You have to wake up...

No… No…! She tried to push a bit farther, but the voice disappeared. She was alone. Again. She screamed in rage. Was that her punishment for being so weak? How could she make amends if she couldn’t even get back to all of her loved ones… She wanted to see the kids again, so, so bad…

You know what she would do if she was awake…?

Mina…? Yes! Yes!! It was Mina’s voice!!

Oh, yeah. She would definitely sing the Moustache song!

Kyo… Callie laughed. She really had destroyed the kids mind with that damn song.

Ye- Wait, no!

Haha, poor Mina…

Oh my god yes, she would totally do that!

And that was Ellyne. Their voices seemed so close now! If only they could keep up a bit longer, maybe she could…

How does it goes again…?

Silly Deca.

Please guys, no.

Just a bit more kids, please…

Je veux ci, je veux ça, y en a jamais assez pour moi

Deca…

C’est comme ci, c’est comme ça

Kyo...

Y a toujours un truc que j’ai pas

Ellyne…

… J’donnerai tous c’que j’ai pour une moustache

Mina…

Even Mina… She could hear them all so clearly now. The void was starting to break around her, and a few tears ran on her face as light suddenly burst everywhere. Her eyes were burning. She was feeling so heavy. Her whole body was painful. But she could see them. Right beside her, they were there, all of them. Her beloved kids… And they were singing the Moustache song altogether. She smirked, restraining herself to laugh. She stretched her arm to grab Mina’s hand, and the girl jumped in surprise. She turned toward her mom, tears at the corner of her eyes.

“S… Smom!!!”

“Moustache been so hard for you to sing that, dear” Callie laughed softly

“Oh my god not already” Mina smiled, still crying

“Smom!” Decaîrell shouted, jumping on the bed.

Callie squealed at the sudden weight on her belly, but she had barely the time to realize what was happening when she was suddenly covered with her kids hugging her. She grabbed them all, hugging them strongly.

“We were so worried!!” Mina said

“I’m sorry kids, I’m so sorry… I should have never doubted you! I have been so blind…”

“I guess we have been a bit unfair to you too…” Mina said “You just wanted what’s best for us”

“”I’m just so scared to see you leaving me… I’m sorry to have pushed you to leave so suddenly without any explanations…”

“Sans explained us what happened. You were just trying to protect us” Ellyne smiled

“Still, I should have told you. I was just so lost…”

“You know, if that can make you feel better, we can still-” Decaîrell started, before being cut by Mina

“We are not gonna kick Sans’ butt so hard he can’t walk for two days Deca, we talked about that”

“Well I still think he kinda deserve it” the monster mumbled

“He saved smom!”

“And he lied to us”

“Come on kiddos, no arguing. I’m okay now.” Callie interrupted, before asking “Talking about Sans… Where is he?”

“He went back to take care of Papyrus” Kyo explained, while Mina chuckled at the sight of Callie’s reddening cheeks

“Yeah, speaking of which, you really have to tell us what happened back then because his face was looking a lot like the one you’re making right now when he got your soul back smom”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about” Callie paused “... Really?

“He was as blue as his hoodie. Did he Sleeping Beauty’d you out of Flowey?”

“Absolutely not!”

“Oh my god he did”

“HOW DARE HE KISS MY MOM” Decaîrell protested “IMMA KICK HIS BUTT”

“Kids, nobody kissed nobody” Callie tried to argue, her face bright red

As Decaîrell continued his protest, the other kids laughed, and despite her embarrassment, Callie couldn’t help but smile. Not only because of the memory of Sans’ kiss, but mostly because of how she loved having her kids here with her, laughing and being happy. She nearly lost that.

Alphys entered the room a few seconds after that, probably attracted by the noise, and Callie realised she was in the lab. While Alphys ran a few tests to check on her health, the kids explained her that she had been sleeping for 3 days, and that they had discovered a lot of stuff in that time. The two main informations being that Sans used to be the assistant of the previous royal scientist, and that he stopped because his mentor died. Alphys even showed them the old lab, where they also discovered that Flowey was the result of one of her experience that went wrong. Flowey was actually the prince Asriel, that Alphys tried to bring back to life after he was killed by humans, but he lost his soul in the process, making him what he now was. Toriel and Asgore were not aware of that though, and that whole story broke Callie’s heart. Mina was the only one to not be touched by that story, as she held a strong grudge against Flowey for what he did. And well, nobody could really blame her…

“Don’t you ever do that again” He said, looking at Kyo with a worried face

“That was way more unpleasant for me than it was for you” she mumbled

“What did you do anyway?”

“Well… I tried to save her. Like I did with the timeline? But since Flowey corrupted the timeline we have to, kinda, uncorrupt her..? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain… I just knew I could do it”

Sans sighed. Now, what were they supposed to do? He had no idea. He looked around, trying to figure things out. The place was awfully quiet. The only sound in there was the ones he and the kids were making. Everything around them was blank, and he couldn’t see the end of that place. The only thing in there was a big dome, made of crawling, pulsating vines. They couldn’t see or hear anything that was coming from inside it, but when he looked at the kid, he knew that they were thinking the same as him. Callie was there. And if they wanted to get her back, they would have to get inside that dome.

They all walked toward it carefully, none of them actually knowing what that thing was. Well at least, walking carefully was Sans plan. But of course, Decaîrell had other plans… And so instead of staying with them and think before acting, the horned monster just started running, sword on his hands, ready to cut through the vines. He smacked the sword against the dome, getting immediately thrown back, flying (... well if you could call that flying) a few meter away, crashing miserably headfirst on the floor.

“Damn it kid, are you alright?” Sans asked, rushing to him

“Best plan I ever had, would try again anytime” Decaîrell answered, his face still fusing with the floor, but offering a thumb up to the skeleton

Sans let a small amused sigh and helped the other monster get back on his feet.

“Come on buddy, we have to find something else” He said, looking at the dome.

Spikes had gotten out of the vines, and some of them had started moving around the dome, ready to attack whoever would get too close. Obviously getting into it like that was not an option. Flowey sure had make sure nobody would get close to Callie there. Of course, the flower hadn’t planned that he would be there, and thus could teleport right away inside the dome. The problem was, it was one thing to teleport one person with him, like he did with Callie a while ago, but four? That, he couldn’t do. And he wasn’t really feeling like letting the kids alone there. But in the meantime… He had no idea what was inside that dome. Letting the kids here wasn’t a pleasing idea, but at least if they stayed away from the vines, they should be okay. But inside? Hell, who knew…

He sighed. It’s not like he really had any other choice…

“Come here kids” he said “We can’t go in there like that. Attacking the dome or trying to open it won’t work. And I can’t let you go near that thing, your mom would turn me into doggo snacks if anything happened to you.”

“But… What are we going to do then?” Ellyne asked

“We can’t let Smom here!” Mina added

“I’m going to teleport. Alone” He looked at Mina and cut her before she could complain “I can’t teleport so many people. And inside there? It could be dangerous. You’re safe here. Take care of each others, and I’ll soon be back with Callie, okay?”

“This is such a dumb idea” Mina complained

“Eh. I knew you’d be with me on that, sunshine” Sans shrugged, and Mina frowned

Sans took a few step back to get away from the kids and waved to them before the place disappeared in a blue flash.

He was prepared to find anything in the dome, but hell, he surely hadn’t thought he would end up in a garden. The grass was nicely trimmed, there was a bunch of well maintained flower bed and the whole place was surrounded by a short pretty concrete fence. And there she was. In front of a house, playing with young kids that looked like a younger version of the ones he just left. They were all so small… Mina was still the tallest of course, reaching Callie’s waist, but Decaîrell was barely reaching her knees.... She was laughing with them, beaming like he had never seen her. On the house’s doorway, a woman called everybody for snack, and Callie answered with a “We’re coming, mom”, before the mini-Decaîrell rushed to the woman, asking her “Grandma! Grandma! Did ya made cookiesh? I shmell cookiesh”

Sans stood there, frozen. Holy fuck, getting Callie out of there was going to be way harder than planned… There again, he was ready for anything, but not a perfectly happy Callie reunited with her family…

As the kids ran toward the house, Callie stood there and watched them with a warm smile. She looked so happy that Sans nearly hated himself for breaking that moment, but he had to get her back.

“Callie…?”

The woman tensed when she heard his voice, and she turned to face him with an expression of confusion in her face. She looked at him like if she was a ghost that shouldn’t be there.

“Listen, Cal-”

“No.” She said, starting to shake. “No! You can’t be there. You’re not there. This is just…”

Callie shook her head and turned around, suddenly ignoring Sans, and she started walking toward the house. The skeleton rushed to her, grabbing her arm to prevent her from going any further and forced her to face him. She looked at his hand against her arm in shock, as if she hadn’t been expecting the sudden contact.

“You’re not here! You’re not real!” she said, trying to free herself from his grip.

Sans grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. She looked so scared, so desperate…  Why, oh why did that damn flower had to take her…

“Callie! Look at me, damn it. I am here!”

“No… You can’t…” she said, trying to look away “Monsters are not real…”

“Oh come on, seriously? Have you looked at Decaîrell lately?”

“Deca… He… He’s just a… very special kid…” she mumbled, avoiding Sans unamused stare

“You can’t possibly hope that I’m gonna swallow that. You can’t possibly believe that”

“Of course I-”

“Calliope!”

The woman froze as Sans pronounced her full name. She looked at him, her stare slowly going from panic to anger.

“And even if you were real… Why should I trust you?”

“I… Wait, what?”

“You’ve been studying us! Since the day we met!”

Sans stood there, in shock, suddenly realizing. She knew. She had discovered that he’d been studying the kids. That he’s been studying her. No wonder why she she left without a word! He was so stunned by that realization that he barely noticed that everything around them was starting to get blurry, colors slowly fading away…

“Yeah. I’ve found your notebook. Writing everything, taking pictures… Even using pictures that we took with you! All of that while pretending to be our friends. You’ve done nothing but play with us!” She looked away, tears starting to run on her face “You’ve done nothing but play… with me…”

“Wait, no! I can explain…”

“Don’t bother. I don’t need your explanations. I don’t need you. I have everything I need… Here…”

Callie’s voice broke as she noticed the state of everything around her. She turned toward the house in terror.

“No… Oh no, no, no!”

She started running, calling for the kids. They were nothing but blurry shapes in the porch now. She tried to take them in her arms, but passed right through them. She looked at them in tears and turned toward Sans who had followed her, grabbing his hoodie angrily.

“What have you done?!”

“Wait, me?! I’ve done nothing, Callie! None of this was real, and you know it…”

“Give them back. Sans! Give me my kids back!!”

“You’re kids are outside, waiting for you to come back.”

“No, they’re not. They hate me… There’s nothing for me out there!” She fell on her knees, crying “You have to give them back… Please… Give me back my family…”

“Callie… Look, I know you don’t want to listen to me but…” Sans sighed “I never wanted to hurt you… I… I did studied you. I admit it. I was scared at first, so scared of you all… But… Can you blame me…? Mina, Elly and Deca, they LV was so high… And… Come on, you knew it, our first meeting wasn’t really the most pleasing thing, but I kinda saw myself in you, taking care of those kids like I was taking care of Paps and, I really wanted to trust you all but… The resets were driving me crazy, and somehow I knew one of you was kinda responsible for it, I had to know, I had to understand, but I never, ever played with you or the kids. I loved all those moments I spent with all of you. And as time passed, I started feeling so bad for taking all those notes and… I stopped Callie. I stopped taking notes and studying you a while ago, because I was feeling so bad about it, and I wanted to truly be the friend you deserve because… I loved those moments we spent together. Every single one of them. I can’t spend a day without talking with you anymore. I start smiling like a stupid dork everytime I hear my phone buzzing because you sent me a text. I love how you drive those poor kids crazy with your jokes and your terrible, terrible songs. I love your smile and the way you laugh. And that night at the MTT Resort, I just… I…”

The skeleton looked away, uneasy. Why was it so difficult… He sighed and leaned toward her. Her face was still wet from her tears, despite the fact that she had stopped crying. Apparently she had been listening to him, good… But there was still one thing he had to tell her. Because he had to tell her. It might be the last chance he had to do it. He grabbed her face softly and dived into her grey eyes, taking a deep breath.

“I love you, Calliope” He said, before kissing her.

He wish that this kiss would have lasted. That she would have kissed him back. But the second he met her lips, she vanished in front of him, and he ended up in front of the barrier again, Callie’s soul sending warm pulse in his hands. The kids were back too, a confused look on their face. In front of him, Callie’s body was lying on the floor. He sighed, both sad and relieved. She was safe. He got her. But she would probably not remember anything that just happened. They were only in her subconscious after all… But the fact that he could get her soul meant that she had accepted to go back. He got back on his feet and smiled to the kids. He went near Callie’s body and put her soul back into her chest. She took a deep breathe as her soul went back to her body, but stayed unconscious. He took her in his arms as the kids came running.

“She’s gonna need to rest for a while…” Sans said

“The souls’ container are back, and Flowey is nowhere to be seen” Kyo said “I think… We loaded, right before all of that happened.”

“You think?” The skeleton asked

“I didn’t do it. I think it’s Flowey’s doing. He probably did it when he felt that he was losing Smom’s soul. But… I have no idea where he went.”

Unable to look at the others anymore, Callie focused her sight on Asgore, and she remembered how nice taking the tea with him had been, and how familiar his house was. It looked so much like Toriel’s house. They said they needed to leave. That they had to go home. And maybe… Maybe the only reason they didn’t left her own house like that, was because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. And so, they stayed. Maybe if she hadn’t sheltered them, they would have stayed with Toriel, because she would have been their convenient choice then. She had been so happy to have somebody with her, so happy to not be alone anymore, that she had never considered that it would even be possible, that they were not staying with her, for her, but for the house. For the convenience of having a roof above their head. For the convenience of having someone to make their laundry and cook for them. She had been so happy… As happy… As… Toriel… She was no different from her. And they had left her, tossed her away like she was nothing.

“But you don’t have to leave. I can help you” Flowey vines were crawling around her, slowly coming for her chest as she was trying not to fell on her knees and start screaming in agony because of the horror that was crossing her mind “Show me that pretty soul of yours. Let me use it. And I swear, nobody will have to leave. Nobody will be able to take you away from Sans”

Callie froze when Flowey mentioned Sans. That’s right. The idea of the monsters being killed by the humans was already hard, but him… Sans… She couldn’t bare the idea of putting him in danger like that. Of risking his life just because the kids wanted to leave. The king had no idea what the outside world what. Nobody knew. She couldn’t let the barrier broke. She couldn’t let them die. She couldn’t lose anyone else. Not again. Not again… Not Sans…

She put her hands on her heart and slowly put her soul out, like she had seen the others do it when they realized they could actually put their soul out at will, and its light orange glow tinted her shirt. She looked at it, tears running on her face. Maybe one day, they would understand…

Mina gasped at the sight of Callie’s soul, and the others joined her when Flowey vines rushed through it and started growing inside it. Mina screamed in terror as Callie’s body was absorbed in vines. The last things Callie heard before she lost consciousness was the sound of broken glasses, and Flowey cackle echoing around her…

Mina’s voice broke into her throat. This wasn’t making any sense. This couldn’t be happening. That thing is front of them was crazy.

After Callie was absorbed into Flowey vines, the flower had started to grow into a huge creature, mix of plant, animal and machines. It was held onto the roof by some pipes – some of them were even organics, seeming to pump god knows why from the creature – and two huge spiked vines covered in eyes who seemed to be continuously growing out of him. He’s head was composed by two sideway jaws, directly linked to a pair of eyes and two big nostrils. Tied to that was a TV screen, which contained what appeared to be Flowey’s face. He was looking at them with his red eyes, smiling. Around his head, six pipes were forming petal-like shape, and two of them were filled with eyes. Beside the TV screen, tangled in the pipes of his back, were six glasses tubes containing six colored soul. And above the TV screen, a last tube was holding what looked like Callie’s body, still tangled in vines.

Flowey cackled, and Mina froze, her whole body covered in goosebumps at that sound. He lifted one of the vines that he used as an arm, and crashed it against a button “Save” that just appeared in front of him. Mina heard Kyo gasped, and despite the fact that she couldn’t see her, she knew by her reaction that the fact that Flowey could save was not good…

“Smom… Please! You have to come back!” Ellyne shouted.

“Yeah!” Mina added “Come on Smom you can do it!”

“What… What are you trying to do?!” Flowey said, annoyed

“We’re gonna get our mom back!” Kyo said

“Yeah! And you can’t do anything against it!” Decaîrell added

“No. You have to stop that! You have to…” Flowey smirked “Oh, who am I kidding? Come on kids, go ahead. Try. Call for help!”

“Smom!!” they shouted together

“But. Nobody. Came.” Flowey said, winking and sticking his tongue out while his face on the screen was his usual flower face again. “Golly! That must be so embarrassing for you kids.”

And then, before she could think about anything, a piercing pain crashed through her body and she was in the void with everybody. Well, everybody… Except Callie.

“Kyo…?” She asked “Oh my god I just died didn’t I? I’m so sorry I didn’t see it coming, I...”

“We died” Kyo said “All of us”

“That was... quick. We didn’t have a single chance to react, or even to dodge…” Ellyne added

“I couldn’t even feel pain!” Decaîrell whined

“We have to go back. We have to get Smom out of that thing” Mina said looking at Kyo

Kyo nodded her head and the buttons “Load” and “Reset” appear in front of her. She lends her hand toward the “Load” button, but stopped. She turned her head toward the others and gave her a worried look.

“How are we going to do that, guys…? How can we save Smom? He literally destroyed us in a snap of fingers, and… And even if we do manage to dodge his attack, how… Can we even hit him without hurting her…? And he can save, my god!”

“We’ll find a way. We must try” Ellyne said

“And we’re going to make him regret touching our Smom” Mina added.

Ellyne put her hand on Kyo’s and smiled. Mina put her hand on Ellyne’s, and finally, Decaîrell put his hand on Ellyne’s. Together, they pressed the load button, and they were back in front of Flowey. Seeing them, he laughed.

“Back so soon?”

Mina shivered. Flowey was there. He was still there! She hoped that there was a chance the loading would have brought them a bit sooner, that maybe… Maybe they would have time to prevent that from happening! But no… No, he was still there. And they were back right where they were when they died.

“Hey! Big dummy flower!” Decaîrell shouted “Who do you think you are, depriving people from their pain?!!”

Flowey’s eyes grew wide and he laughed.

“Pain? Ooooh baby monster, you want pain?! Because I can give you pain!!!”

“Shit, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut…”

Flowey projected a bunch of vines toward Decaîrell, piercing his body one vine at a time, making the monster screaming in agony in front of his family. When the vines got out of his body, he turned into dust in front of the others. Mina closed her eyes, waiting for Kyo to reset… but the reset never came. When Mina opened her eyes again, Kyo was trembling, her first on the “Load” button, but nothing was happening. They were still there! Decaîrell was still dead! How? How could that happened? And why? It had never happened before!

“Kyo?! What is happening? Why don’t you…?”

“I can’t!” She hit the button again, but the reset still didn’t came. She started looking around, trying to find a reason, an idea to solve that. Her eyes grew wide and she turned toward Mina.

“It’s him. Oh my god it’s him!! He’s the one preventing me to load! It has to be him. When he saved, he must have… I don’t know, corrupted the file? I can’t access to it anymore!”

“But… but… How… what are we gonna do… for Decaîrell…?” Mina asked

Kyo bit her lips and looked around her. Obviously she had no idea what to do… They had never thought about that. Losing Kyo’s power over the save… Never had they thought that it could happen…

“Wait, Mina, I think I have an idea” Kyo said after a while

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell. But you won’t like it…”

“Uh? Kyo what are you-”

Kyo started running toward Flowey, arms opens, and jumped on him. The flower laughed when her feets left the floor and a few seconds later, the place was surrounded by light and all the kids were back, including Decaîrell.

“Oh my god did you… Did you just kill yourself?! Are you crazy?! What if you never came back? If that hadn’t worked, how would we…” Ellyne screamed

“We couldn’t just let Deca like that! Beside, I did it, no? So, it’s all good. Let’s not lose time over this!” Kyo said

“You realize that you coming back is exactly what I want kids? The more you come back, the more I can kill you” Flowey said, cackling.

“We have to find an idea...” Ellyne grumbled

It was the first reset since Callie admitted that Kyo was the one causing them. Sans had been looking for her and the kids since he came back from work, and he had suddenly been thrown back a few minutes in time, and he felt the magic rushing through his bones, because he now knew what that meant. One of them died. The problem is, it happened again a few minutes later. And again. And again. And again, and again, and again. It was like the timeline had hiccup. He reached for his phone and tried to call Callie, but he ended up on her voicemail. He felt shivers going through his spine. This was not good. This was not good at all. He tried called Mina, and she answered after a few seconds

“Sans!!”

“Mina what the fuck is happening?!”

“The barrier! Quick!!”

A huge crack was heard on the other side of the phone, and there was another reset, as Sans realised what just happened. He heard Mina die. Without thinking more about it, blue flames wrapped him and he was by the barrier, facing the the most atrocious thing he ever saw in his life. He barely had the time to throw himself at Ellyne to push her out of the way as a vine crashed on the floor where she was a few seconds before.

“Are you okay?!”

“For now” Ellyne said “But he’s not leaving us any rest”

“Well if it isn’t the smiley trashbag! If you came to save the day, it’s a bit too late for that” the thing laughed

“Kids what the fuck is happening? Where’s your mom?”

“Oooh you want to save your precious little Callie? I have bad news for you…”

“It’s Flowey!!!” Mina shouted before pointing at the tube where Callie was trapped” “He have smom!”

Flowey? What, that little shit of a flower? How the fuck did… No, that was not important right now. At the sight of Callie on top of that thing, Sans’ magic started crackling around him as he was filled with anger. How dare this fucker hurt her. How dare he hurt the kid. His Gaster Blaster appeared beside him as he woke up, but Mina stopped him before he could make them fire.

“He tied himself to Smom’s soul! We might hurt her if we attack him!”

Sans’ teeth grinded in frustration. That little shit… Flowey laughed, apparently delighted by the whole situation.

“Not so smiling anymore, are you trashbag?”

Before his eyes, what looked like a huge button with the word “Save” appeared and Flowey crashed one of his vine on it, cackling.

“And don’t even think of leaving. Whatever you try, I’ll bring you right back here. So I can kill you all again! And again! And again!!!”

The skeleton looked at Kyo, who shaked her head. There was nothing she could do about it apparently…

“I can only reset back here, and only if I die. Flowey corrupted the timeline” she said

Before he could say anything else, Ellyne was thrown against a wall with a cracking sound that sent a shiver through his whole body. This was even worst than what he ever could have imagined happening to them. He tried running to her, but Flowey prevented him from doing so by smashing a vine in front of him. Damn it!! Was there really nothing he could do to protect them? Behind him, Mina screamed as Flowey sent a spike through her chest, and Decaîrell was pierced by flying pellets as he tried to attack Flowey with his sword in rage. The skeleton rushed to Kyo, using one of his Gaster Blaster as a shield to protect them both. As the skull of the Blaster cracked, he had to restrain a scream of pain. He panted, forcing himself to keep standing as his whole body was pierced by the pain inflicted by the destruction of the Blaster. He couldn’t let Kyo die. She was the last one standing, he couldn’t let her die too. He had to protect the kid for Callie!

He felt her grabbing his arm, and she looked at him with a desperate face.

“Sans, I know how to save Smom”

“What? How?”

“Just trust me!”

Before he could do anything, she ran away from him, throwing herself at Flowey. Sans could only watch as Flowey’s vine crushed her against the floor.

“Meh, not much… A bit of eggs and bacon, and obviously pastas for Paps because if I don’t make pastas for him he’s going to be mad”

“That sound… Eggselent” she said, chuckling

Sans snorted

“You butter stop with the puns before Paps wake up”

“What, orange you glad you got a pun buddy?” she added, trying to not laugh more

“Maybe the kids shouldn’t lettuce stay in the same room”

Both of them started laughing, not able to hold it anymore. Callie even had to sit down on one of the kitchen’s chair because she couldn’t stay up anymore. Sans finally removed the frying pan from the stove and turned to her, smiling. Callie eyes grew wide and she started laughing even more, as he had big eyebrows and a moustache drawn with marker on his face. He grinned.

“Damn, I had forgotten that”

“Oh my god Sans!!” she said

“You have really mischievous kids” Sans said, laughing

“That is SO Mina’s doing” she snorted

“Indeed. And of course Paps helped.”

“And that’s definitely permanent marker”

“WHAT?”

“Don’t worry. I’m on it” she winked “Wait for my here”

Callie woke up and went to the bathroom and get back with a washcloth and some soap. She sat back on her chair and gave a few pats on the one in front of her to tell Sans to come and sit. He shrugged and obeyed, smiling.

“It’s not the first time I have to deal with a permanent marker incident. I’m kinda used to it now. You should have seen Deca on April Fool three years ago… He was a mess. You’re lucky Mina didn’t go that far this time” she said, smiling

“I didn’t give them the time to do so. I think they got some interesting pictures of that”

The young woman got her phone from her pocket. Knowing Mina, if she had taken picture, obviously there were on snapchat by now. Callie’s phone was indeed showing four notification from the said app. She laughed softly and opened the first picture. It was a picture of herself, sleeping in Sans jacket on the couch, with the words “Oh look what we have here” written on it. Callie blushed and tapped on the screen to make the picture disappear right away. The next picture was Sans on the Sofa, his face covered with the marker, eye glowing.

“That is so going to backfire”

“Like I’d do that” Sans chuckled

The next picture was Mina and Papyrus taking a selfie with their masterpiece, but obviously they had just realized Sans wasn’t sleeping, as they were looking slightly anxious while Sans was smiling behind them. The words “Shit we so dead” were written on the picture.

“Did she just flipping swear?” Callie groaned

“You’re missing the fun there girl”

“Ugh, yeah, right…”

The last picture was quite blurry, they were obviously running away - and yet Mina managed to take a snap while doing so - but Callie could easily make out bones coming out of the floor and a Gaster Blaster behind them. This time, Mina had written “WORTH IT XD” on the picture. The woman chuckled.

“What’s the end of the story?”

“They’re kinda grounded into Paps room”

“We’ll have to go get them to eat the breakfast then. But first… Let me remove that from your face.”

Callie put soap on the washcloth and started to rub it on Sans’ face. She managed to remove the most of it, but had to get closer to focus on the last parts. Sans stayed silent during the whole process, and when she was done, she suddenly noted the light blue covering his cheeks. Blue blush! It was so cute! But he was obviously uneasy. She had been too close. She hadn’t thought about how she was invading his personal space.  She backed up, blushing, and laughed nervously.

“Welp, you’re all good, no more marker, haha!”

“Oh, uh thanks” he said, looking away

“Humm, by the way, I should probably… Give that… Back…” she said, removing Sans hoodie “Thank you, it really kept me warm”

“You’re welcome” he said, putting back the hoodie “Wow, he’s so warm. I’m definitely not used to have it like that”

“You, uh… can feel it? The warm?” she asked

“Well, yeah. Not as much as you though, same for the cold, I mean, just look at how Paps dress up. But yeah we can definitely feel the cold and the warm.”

“Is there, like, anything else you can sense? Well, obviously you can see and hear but… Like, can you feel the things you touch?”

“Of course” he put his hand on her cheeks “If I touch you, I can feel your skin, warm and soft against my hand”

The woman blushed deeply at the feeling of the skeletons hand against her skin, trying to not freak out at how deeply he was watching her, or at how close he was, or even at the sight of that adorable blue blush on Sans’ cheeks.

“I can smell your scent on my hoodie too right now, after you’ve worn it the whole night”

“Sorry for that” she mumbled

“Don’t be. I like it. You smell like… cinnamon. With cocoa and… Crispy rice. It’s really pleasing”

He sniffed the fluff of his hoodie and then stopped, the blue on his cheek intensifying as he suddenly looked embarrassed. They both jumped when Callie phone buzzed on the table, and she took it right away, trying to hide how uneasy she was by staring awkwardly at the screen. She opened a new snapchat picture and nearly died when she saw an upside down picture of her and Sans a few seconds before, Sans’ hand on her cheeks sniffing his hoodie while the both of us were blushing like idiots - which was actually the words used by Mina to describe the picture “Look at those two blushing like idiots”. Callie tapped the screen like she would have done to make the picture disappear, but instead saved it discreetly.

“MINA YOU COME HERE THIS INSTANT”

The girl laugh could be heard from upstair, and soon she was with them in the kitchen, a wide grin on her face.

“Sorry, I hope I didn’t interrupt anything” she said

“Actually, we were just talking about your behavior this morning. I thought I grounded you, what are you doing outside?”

“Foolish skeleton, I am ungroundable”

Callie raised an eyebrow, smiling.

“Oh, is that so?”

Suddenly, in a terrible scream, a black shadow fall on Mina, crushing her on the floor. Seating on Mina’s head, Decaîrell crossed his arm.

“I am the only ungroundable child on this house, silly Mina”

As Mina tried to get back on her feet, any sound she could make muffled by Decaîrell’s body, Callie laughed at the sight of her kid. Beside her, Sans smiled softly. Poor guy, they really were causing a fuss in his house. When Mina finally pushed her adoptive brother away, Callie went between the two of them to avoid any fight to start. Not that they would really fight, but she had bad memories of the day Mina ended up on his back, holding to his horn while Decaîrell tried to make her fall, like some kind of mechanical bull. Two chairs and a coffee table were broken that day.

“Congratulation, you’re both grounded.”

“But I didn’t do anything!!” Decaîrell argued

“Buddy, you could have injured Mina pretty bad there”

“I barely touched her”

“You crushed me!” Mina protested

“I did not. And even if I touched you it wouldn’t be much more than that” he said pushing his finger toward Mina

“Do not touch me”

“I’m not touching you yet”

“Yes you are” Mina pleaded

“I’m not” He assured

“He’s touching me!”

“I’m not touching!”

“Look he’s touching!!”

“Not touching!!!”

“KIDS” Callie grunted

Both kids stopped in a “uh oh” as Callie crossed her arms.

“Both of you, go set the table for everybody’s breakfast. And I don’t want to hear another word from you if it’s not something nice”

The kids went to go get the plates while Sans chuckled.

“They sure are a handful to deal with”

“I’m gonna go wake up the others. Do you want me to get Papyrus too?”

“Yeah. I’m keeping an eyes on these two. And thank you for helping me clean Mina’s masterpiece”

“Oh believe me Sans, compared to what she’s done in the past, you were merely a doodle” Callie winked as she left the kitchen

art by @minakatana

“H... Hey..! Wow, I wasn’t expecting… You’re gorgeous.” He managed to mumble

“Thanks, uh… You’re quite good looking too.”

“Ah, uh… I hadn’t really planned to but… You know, Paps… Well, I guess it’s not a bad thing, since you’re so… I mean… I would have looked so lame beside you…”

“What? No! No you’re… never… lame…” she said awkwardly “Though… You might be a bit… Late.”

“Aaah, yeah…” he laughed nervously “Sorry. Like I said, paps… He kinda decided it was the best moment for laundry”

“Well 10pm is obviously the best laundry time” she laughed softly

Sans smiled. She seemed to feel a bit less awkward, good. Next step: stopping himself for being awkward and nervous.

“Well… Let’s go then, I guess? After you, my lady” he said, showing her the way with his hand.

She smiled and started to walk toward the restaurant, but tripped. Sans caught her before she felt. He blushed when he realized he was holding her in his arms and helped her get back on her feet.

“Sorry!” she said, her cheeks getting red again “I… The kids offered these to me today and I’m… I’m so not used to these…”

“Well… Hold on to me then. I’ll help you walk without tripping” He winked at her, trying to hide how nervous he was

She grabbed his arm and they started walking together toward the restaurant. For a moment, it seemed like Callie may be holding his arm a bit tighter than needed, but he wiped that idea away. When they reached the restaurant, the monster at the entrance smiled at Sans and told him he could take his usual table. He helped Callie sit down - despite how much he would have love to keep her holding onto him - and then sat in front of her. The waiter came right away to gave them the menu, and Sans had to restrain him from groaning. Of course it had to be Burgerpants tonight. Why does that little shit had to work extra hours at the restaurant… When he arrived at their table, Burgerpants barely looked at Sans while giving him the menu, and apparently his mind wasn’t working correctly because he didn’t even said anything, while staring insistently at Callie. Damn it, not again…

“Well yeah, go ahead BP, keep staring at her like that, obviously there’s nothing awkward here, right?” Sans said harshly

Burgerpants quickly gave her the menu and started leaving, embarrassed.

“And do not ask us what we wanna drink, yeah, best waiter in the Underground BP, great job here.”

Callie laughed softly as Burgerpant came back, apologizing.

“I’ll take an orange juice for now” she said

“A bottle of ketchup will be fine for me”

Burgerpants rolled his eyes with a smirk and left. They both started looking at the menu and Sans sighed. He usually took the Mettaton Burger - because fancy food was not really his thing and it was the only normal meal from the menu - but with the tuxedo it would probably not be the brightest idea. So… What could he take then? He looked discreetly at Callie over the menu. She was focused on her own menu, playing with a strand of hair nervously, and it was one of the cutest thing he had seen her doing ever. He hoped she would let her hair untied more often… He started blushing when he realizes he was staring and get back to his menu. Ugh. What was wrong with him damn it.

“Thank you Sans, by the way”

“Uh? Why?”

“For coming. I mean, I had just planned to talk a bit to you, and you… You came. Here. In the middle of the night!”

“Oh. That’s nothing, honestly. I just couldn’t leave you alone while you were feeling so down…”

“Well that mean a lot to me. Really. I’m… I’m really glad to have you.” She blushed “As... As a friend, I mean…”

Sans forced himself to smile. Yes, yes, her friend, of course… Why was that sounding so wrong…?

Burgerpants came back a few minutes later with the drinks, and took their order in the same time. Sans asked for roasted duck with fries, and Callie for caramelized salmon. Burgerpants started staring again and Sans hit his leg with his foot from under the table. He left making an obscene gesture toward Sans.

“What is wrong with this guy?” Callie asked

“I have no idea and I don’t give a fuck”

“You’re lucky the kids aren’t here Mister Skeleton”

“You have to admit, not having to think about everything you say is nice from time to time”

“Indeed” she said laughing

“Well, anyway… To a nice night, with a wonderful woman!” Sans said, clinking his ketchup bottle on Callie glass. She blushed and laughed awkwardly.

“And to an awesome skeleton” she added

They both started drinking and Burgerpants went back with the plates.

“Well, that was fast”

“I might be a bit privileged here” Sans winked

Callie smiled and they both started to eat. After a few minutes, since Burgerpants was still there, Sans rolled his eyes, but Callie was faster than him to talk.

“Okay, listen, this is getting really awkward now.”

“Uuh, yes, yes, sorry” he mumbled, leaving

“Well, bone appetite” Sans winked

While Burgerpants was leaving, Callie stared at her plate. Damn it, the cat had kinda broke her good mood with all his awkward staring and stuff. His sole presence was reminding him of her family because of his bad catch up phrase from that afternoon. And not only her blood family, but also the kids. And how each one of them had died countless time since their arrival. She loved the Underground but damn…

“Cal? You’re okay?”

She jumped at the sound of Sans voice. She sighed, realizing she had been lost in her thought again. That happened way too often lately…

“Sorry, I was… thinking.”

“You know you can tell me everything, right?”

“Well…” she bit her lips. Could she really told Sans about Kyo? “You’re probably going to think I’m crazy or something”

“I won’t. I promise” He said, taking her hand “You can trust me”

“Okay…” she sighed “Quite quickly after we felt in the Underground, we’ve discovered that Kyo had… Well… She can do… things? I don’t know how to explain that… She can… Take us back in time, if something… bad… happen…”

“The resets!” Sans said, his eyes growing wide “Oh my god. It’s Kyo? Kyo is responsible for the resets?!”

“Wait, you… Know about that? I thought… I thought monsters couldn’t remember them…?”

“They can’t. But for some reason, I can. So, all those resets, it was Kyo’s doing?” Sans said, his voice getting colder

“Yes…? Oh my god if you were aware of those, it must have been so… so… Weird…”

“Weird? Weird?? Callie do you have any idea how it feels to live the same thing over and over again, without anybody noticing?” Sans asked harshly “Why would you even do that damn it?”

“What? Wait, you think we did that on purpose? That we were, what, making it for fun? We died Sans!”

“You… What?”

“We died! Countless time! And it was so painful, oh my god… Not only dying, but seeing the kids die, and being too weak to protect them. If… If Kyo hadn’t been able to load… Oh my god…”

Callie started crying, overwhelmed by her emotion. She shouldn’t have told Sans. Now he was mad at her, and it was definitely not what she wanted.

“Oh my god, Cal…”

He got up and came to her, pulling her against him, wrapping his hand around her.

“I had no idea… Oh god, you died… You died… I had sworn to protect you and you died! I’m so sorry Callie, I’m so sorry, oh my god…”

Callie shoved her head against his chest, crying in his arms. She held on tight against him, forgetting to restrain herself, but at that moment, she just needed him. She needed to feel him against her, to breath his smell, to forget everything else around her. She just needed him. She’ll start pretending to be just a friend later, but for now she needed that…

She died. Callie. His Callie. She died. Multiple times. And she had to see her kids die too. And he nearly shouted at her because of the resets, not knowing what she was going through. And now… Now he was feeling so bad. He was so angry at the monsters who killed them. So angry at himself, for failing to protect her, to protect them. So angry to have gone mad when she needed his help. And so desperate. She died! She had ceased to exist. Without Kyo, he would have lost her. And that idea was terrifying. Losing her was terrifying. It’s only now that he was realizing how he needed her in his life. Despite how suspicious he had been toward them at first, he had grew fond of them. He might even love Callie way more that he wanted to admit it. And he had hoped so much that he was wrong in the end, that they had nothing to do with all the resets… But not only was he right, but they fucking died. He was so busy worrying about the reset that he never thought that maybe he wasn’t the one suffering the worst from them...

“I’m so sorry I got mad… Really…”

What could he tell… She would be so hurt if he admitted that he had been studying them. That he had been secretly taking notes about them for as long as he had knew them. How could he possibly admit that… But he had to do something… He had to make up for it. There had to be something he could do!

“It hurt so much Sans… I don’t want to die again…” she sobbed “And… And I don’t want the kids to die anymore… That’s why… That’s why I was feeling to bad today because… I really thought I was going to go through this again…”

Sans took her head in his hand, making her look at him.

“Come back to me” he said. Seeing her cheeks getting red, he realized what he’d just said and started to blush too “I mean… with me. Come back with me. You and the kids. At least for a few days? So I could find a way to… avoid you and the kids getting killed again… And you would all be safe during that time.”

“I don’t know Sans” she bit her lips “The kids would probably not be okay with that… They are so eager to leave… And we are… So close… Don’t get me wrong, I would love to come back with you. But… I don’t want the kids to be mad at me…”

“You’re only protecting them. And it would be only for a few days. Beside, they have promised a date to Paps.”

“I guess I could try to talk to them tomorrow…”

“You’re doing that for their own sake. Now. How about we go back to eat before the plate get cold?” He winked

She nodded and gave him a small smile. At least, now he knew what was happening. He could be there if that happened again. He still had no idea how to help them though… Near the middle of the meal, the show ended and was replaced by music. It was kinda nice, not too loud. Sans knew nearly all of them since he spent so much time here. When they were done, Burgerpants came back to take back their plate and take the order for their desserts. Sans took a green tea ice cream and Callie a crème brûlée. When Burgerpants brought the desserts, Sans looked at his ice cream and then at Callie with a huge grin. She smiled.

“Go ahead. Obviously something tickled your funny bone”

“Well you have to admit that it’s an ice way to end a diner”

“Yeah. The coolest”

Oh boy, how was she so perfect… He was about to dip his spoon into the ice when Callie spoon crashed into his cup. She gave him a mischievous smile and his eyes grew wide as she took the spoon back and ate a part of his dessert.

“Did you just steal me a spoon of ice cream?!”

“Who? Me? Nah. Must be Burgerpants”

“He’s too busy staring at you for that”

“What?!”

Callie turned back to check what Burgerpants was doing, and Sans took a spoon of her crème brûlée. When she turned back to him, he smiled.

“Or maybe he just stole a bit of your crème brûlée too”

“Oh, you want to play it like that, uh?” she asked with a smile

She tried to get another spoon of his ice cream, but he used his own spoon to stop her. They tried to steal a bite of each others plate like that for a few minutes, and then started laughing so much that they couldn’t do it properly anymore.

“And I keep telling the kids to not do that kind of stuff. If they could see me now…”

“They would probably find that really funny”

“Definitely”

They finished their dessert, smiling. The restaurant was empty now, and it was getting a bit late, but he knew he could push a bit and stay longer (they weren’t eating anymore anyway, so that was not really a problem for the kitchen). And beside he did not really care about keeping Burgerpants longer. The guy from the entrance put the music volume a bit higher. He smiled when he recognized the song playing and looked at Callie.

Maybe… He could ask her to dance? Friends dance too, right? Asking her to dance wasn’t meaning anything. He got up and went near her, scratching the back of his skull awkwardly and blushing, but offering her a hand.

“So, uh… Wanna dance? We’re nearly alone, beside for BP, and I don’t really mind keeping him here a bit more, but, well… We don’t have to end the date here”

Oookay maybe date wasn’t the word he should have used. But she smiled at him and grabbed her hand, getting back on her feet.

“Oh. Wait.” She sat back and removed her shoes, before getting back up on her bare feet “I’d rather not break an ankle while dancing with you” she giggled

(MOOD SONG)

They walked away from the table, going somewhere with a bit more space. Callie wrapped her arms around his shoulder and he gulped, placing his hands on her waist. Okay now was not the time to start being nervous again. He started moving and she followed him, smiling, her cheeks red. And then… Nothing else mattered. He could have stayed like that for his whole life. Just keeping Callie against him and dancing with her, the world disappearing around them. He could have spent his whole life looking at her smiling like that. He pushed her hairs behind her ear so see her face better, losing himself in her eyes.

(MOOD SONG)

When the song changed, the magic of the moment broke though, as Callie suddenly removed her arms from his neck and started looking around her, a frown on her face. Sans looked at her, a bit concerned, but then realized. Someone was laughing.

“Oh my god I’m gonna kill them”

She headed toward the laugh and suddenly, Ellyne and Mina got out of behind the stage, running away from her. Aw, damn it kids… Sans walked to her, grabbing her hand to keep her here.

“Wait! They’re heading to their room anyway. You can still ground them tomorrow but… How about we don’t end tonight on a bad note, uh? Maybe… Another dance? The last one. Like that... It’s a better ending, no?”

She sighed, but smiled to him.

“Fine. But only because I can’t say no to you. And it’s nice dancing with you.”

(MOOD SONG)

When the next song started, Sans put his hands back on Callie’s waist and she wrapped her arms around her neck again. She relaxed quickly in his arms and he dared holding her a bit tighter - who knows if he could ever dance with her like that again… At least he had gained a few more days with her. He bonked his head against hers with a soft smile.

“I hope you had a nice night”

“Yeah… Thanks you again for coming Sans, really. I’m sorry I bothered you like that”

“You didn’t. You never bother me. Call me, anytime. I’ll be here.”

“You’re the best, Sans…”

She kissed his cheek as the song ended, and Sans went blue. How? How was she so lovely and adorable… How was she so wonderful… She went to get her shoes back and Sans shook his head, trying to get his thought together. Sans went to the reception and paid the bill, not letting Callie a chance to say anything about that. When they got back to the room, the kids were sleeping (or pretending to sleep?) so she did not bother them then - but they would have to give some explanation the next day.

“Thank you Sans. It had really been a wonderful night.”

“You’re welcome. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”

She blushed and sans wrapped himself in blue magic, falling directly onto his bed. Oh boy, what a night…

The second Sans left, Callie rushed to her bed, shoving her head to the pillow to muffle her scream. Oh god, did that really happen…?

art by @minakatana

Knock knock.

Callie looked at the door. So, the kids finally decided to come. They sure had taken their time. She got up, sighing, and went to open the door with a forced smile. The kids did not need to see her like that. She was not expecting what was behind the door though. The kids were all there, smiling, holding a box in their hand.

“Surprise Smom!” they said together

“What the… Kids what are you doing?”

“You seemed a bit down lately Smom. Especially today after what Burgerpants said… So we wanted to do something for you so you would feel better.” Mina said

“We had done this a while ago for you, but we were waiting for the right moment to give it to you…” Ellyne said

“Oh, kids…” she got on her knees and hugged them.

She took the box and opened it, revealing what was inside. It was a wonderful sleeveless night blue dress, with a golden collar. There was a black belt with a golden stripe and a light gold cameo on the center, on which was a gold heart.

“You shouldn’t have! This must have cost you so much!” she said, tears rushing to her eyes

“We didn’t buy it! We made it” Ellyne smiled

“But you still had to bought the fabric and the material to do it”

“Well… let’s just say that Temmie really love to buy junk” Kyo said

“Wait for me here” Callie said with a smile.

She took the dress and went to the bathroom. She went out a few minutes later, wearing the dress. She twirled for the kids who gasped. The dress was reaching her knees in the front, while the back was falling to her ankles.

“It’s so beautiful. I love it kids! Too bad I don’t have more decent shoes to wear with it” She laughed

“Well… actually…” Decaîrell removed his hands from his back, holding her a second box

“This is too much kids… You shouldn’t have!” she got on her knees again and grabbed everyone, pressing them against her, tears running on her face “You shouldn’t have…”

“Smom you haven’t even opened the second box yet!” Mina complained

“Yes, yes, you’re right…” Callie laughed and wiped the tears from her face.

She opened the box, discovering a pair of glazing black heels. Oh boy, were the kids trying to kill her? She really wasn’t sure she could walk with that. But those shoes were so pretty! She removed her baskets and put the heels. They were a bit tight but it would get better with time. The size was perfect though. She tried to walk a bit with them and managed to not fall or break one of her ankles, but this would definitely take time to get use to them.

“Soooo… How do I look?” she asked to the kids, smiling awkwardly.

“You’re so beautiful Smom” Ellyne said

“Yeah! Oh I know a skeleton who won’t be able to resist you in that dress!” Mina said, winking

“What?!” Callie blushed “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, nothing…” Mina said with a mischievous smile

The other kids laughed with Mina while Callie blushed. Mina knew her too much. Way too much. She couldn’t even hide the fact that she had a crush on Sans… How could she hide how bad she was feeling lately then? Sooner or later they would discover the truth. They would know… Mina might already knew. And when they would realize how weak she was… No, no. She shouldn’t think about that. The kids were here with her, and they had just offered her the most beautiful gift ever. So for now… She just wanted to enjoy that time with them.

She grabbed the kids and let herself fall on the bed with them, laughing.

“Thank you so much kids. You’re the bests”

They spent the rest of the evening in Callie’s bed, watching TV and talking about random stuff. The family had started to really like Mettaton TV show (despite the fact that he had tried to kill them three time already…) and they loved watching it together. The kids started getting sleepy around 9:30pm (dealing with Mettaton that afternoon had been quite exhausting) and by 10:00, they were all sleeping in there room. Unfortunately, as soon as she was alone again, Callie’s bad mood was back. She sighed, one hand on her forehead, trying keep things together inside her mind. She was feeling better, damn it. The kids had cheering her, why would she start feeling bad again? Maybe… Maybe she would feel better if she could talk to Sans a bit more today? Of course it was not the same as having him near her but she really wouldn’t mind talking to him. He left so quickly after the meal with the kids… She bit her lips. He might be asleep. She really did not want to bother him… Maybe she could send a text instead of calling him?

Callie : Hey. Already asleep lazybone?

She put her phone back on the nightstand and let herself fall back in the bed. That was stupid. He was probably asleep and would not answer… Or she would have woken him up, and then he would be mad at her. She shouldn’t have done that. She really, really shouldn’t have…

*Ding*

Callie jumped in surprise, grabbing her phone right away. She closed her eyes, hoping it was not an angry text from a moody Sans that she had just awoken, and opened the text.

Sans : Nope, still awake!  You wanted something?

Callie : You’re sure, I didn’t wake you up? It’s not important, if you wanna sleep I can leave you alone…

*Ding*

Sans : Ooookay what’s happening?

Busted.

Callie : What? Why do you believe something’s wrong?

*Ding*

Sans : Come on Cal I know you. Did the flower came back?

Callie : No! No it’s not that, I’m just… Feeling a little down. Burgerpants brought back some bad memories today...

*Ding*

Sans : You wanna talk about it?

Callie : IDK… I just didn’t want to stay alone I guess.

*Ding*

Sans : You’ve eaten yet?

Callie looked at the phone, intrigued. Why would he ask that? Was he trying to change the subject so she wouldn’t think about it anymore..?

Callie : Uuh, no?

*Ding*

Sans : Gimme 10 minutes and I’ll be at the MTT Resort, I’m taking you to the restaurant ;)

Callie : What? No, Sans, that’s not what I meant, don’t feel like you have to

Sans : 9 minutes Cal!

What? What?! Callie grabbed the pillow to muffle a little scream. What the hell Sans! What was he doing! And… Holy fuck nine minutes?! She jumped from the bed and rushed to the bathroom. Okay so, at least she was still wearing the kids’ dress so that was good. And… Maybe Mina would be right? Maybe Sans would love the dress! Callie blushed. Now was not the time to think about that kind of stuff. She looked at her in the mirror. Maybe there was something else she could do, beside the dress? She pinched her cheeks gently to make them a bit more red. Okay, okay, not bad, but there had to be something else to do… Ah!! Yes! She untied her hairs, letting them fall loosely on her shoulders. She brushed them quickly so they wouldn’t be too messy. Okay. That should do! She went out of the room and took her phone.

Callie : Okay, just tell me when you’re here.

“Look at her silly face. I tell you, she’s texting Sans” Mina whispered to Ellyne

“Well at least she seemed a bit better than a few minutes ago” Ellyne answered

A few minutes after Callie had left, thinking everybody was sleeping, Ellyne and Mina had sneak out of the room to spy on their mom, wanting to be sure she was okay, since how down she had been that day. They had thought they would have to go back to her room to cheer her but she had started to text Sans and she already seemed to get better. She suddenly screamed into a pillow and Ellyne looked at Mina with a surprised look.

“What the…?”

Seeing Callie rushing to the bathroom, Mina sneaked inside the room and grabbed the phone. She looked quickly and put the phone back on the bed, coming back to Ellyne quickly. She grabbed her and pulled her in their room, without letting her the time to say anything.

“Oh my gooood we got a code pink!” Mina nearly shouted

“What? What??!!! Oh my god!!!”

Mina grabbed her phone and called Papyrus, hoping he wouldn’t sleep.

“HELLO HUMAN? SHOULDN’T YOU BE ASLEEP NOW?”

“Paps! We got a code pink!” Ellyne took the phone from Mina hand before adding “You gotta make Sans wears the tuxedo and the bowtie!”

“THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ON IT”

“Okay Elly, the second she’s out, we gotta sneak out again”

“Uh? Why?”

“We have to film that” Mina said with a mischievous smile

“Ooooh! Yes!”

Sans : 9 minutes Cal!

Sans got out of his room, looking for Papyrus. He couldn’t leave without saying to his bro where he was going! Poor Paps would worry like crazy if Sans just left without telling him in the middle of the night. When he found him, he was in the kitchen, hanging up his phone.

“Sup bro? Who’s calling so late?”

“OH, THE LITTLE HUMANS WANTED TO SAY GOODNIGHT! BUT IT’S GOOD YOU’RE HERE, I NEED YOUR CLOTHES. YOU’VE BEEN WEARING THEM TOO LONG, IT’S UNHYGIENIC. I MUST WASH THEM”

“Could we do that tomorrow? I was kinda leaving…”

“NO NO NO, IT’S BEEN TOO LONG. GIVE ME YOUR CLOTHES AND I’LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING ELSE TO WEAR”

“Fine” Sans sighed “But you only got, like, 5 minutes, because Callie is waiting for me”

“OH, YOU’RE GONNA SEE CALLIE?”

“Yeah” Sans said, climbing back the stairs to go to his room to remove his clothes “She was feeling a bit down tonight”

“I COME TAKE YOUR CLOTHES IN TWO MINUTES. I’LL BRING YOU SOMETHING ELSE TO WEAR IN THE MEANTIME”

“Got it. Don’t be late!”

“THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NEVER LATE”

Papyrus was knocking on his door a few minutes later. Sans gave him his clothes through the door and took what Papyrus had brought him. … Wait. A… Tuxedo?

“Paps what the flip? I can’t wear that!”

“YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE.”

“Then give me back my clothes!”

“THEY ARE ALREADY IN THE MACHINE”

“Paaaaps damn it! I can’t go like that!!!”

“IT’S THAT OR NOTHING. IF YOU DON’T SPEED UP NOW YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE SANS”

The skeletons groaned, hand on his face. Damn it, he was going to be ridiculous. He sighed. Well at least maybe it would make Callie laugh and she would feel better… But Papyrus was definitely going to pay for that. He put the tuxedo on quickly and looked at him in a mirror. Would Callie like it…? He was feeling so stupid. She was definitely going to make fun of him. Why wouldn’t she? Damn papyrus…

“CAN I ENTER?” Papyrus said behind the door

“Ugh, go ahead, come enjoy the show” Sans said

Papyrus entered the room and smiled at his brother.

“WOWIE!”

“I should really go now Paps…” Sans mumbled

“WAIT! YOU’RE GONNA NEED THIS!”

Papyrus lend Sans a night blue bow tie. He shrugged and took him.

“Whatever, I’ve gone so far, might as well do that too” he sighed, putting the bow tie around his neck.

Papyrus helped him get the bow tie correctly positioned around his neck and smiled.

“OKAY, TIME TO GO NOW, OR YOU’RE GONNA BE LATE”

“Thanks Paps” Sans said, smiling “See you later”

Blue magic surrounded him and a few seconds later, he was at the MTT Resort. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he sent a text to Callie.

They kept whining while climbing the stairs, but gasped again as soon as they arrived upstairs.

“Smom!” Mina shouted

“What, already another place to eat…?”

She sighed deeply while she finished climbing the stairs faster to avoid that the kid start to get too excited, and she froze when she arrived. There was indeed another place to eat, but more than this, Sans was waiting in front of the building, waving at her with a big smile. She felt tears coming to her eyes and she rushed toward him, unable to think again, and she crashed into his arms. He stood there without moving for a while and then wrapped his arms around her and pat her head when he realized she was crying.

“What a tearible way to say hello to a friend” the skeletons said

“Shut up Sans…” she told him, letting out a small muffled laugh

“What happened…?” he asked

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I did not want to-”

“Callie, what happened?”

“We… We nearly died… I couldn’t do anything. If Alphys hadn’t stopped Mettaton’s trap… I couldn’t do anything Sans…”

“Hey kids, why don’t you go wait for us inside, uh? There’re burgers. The meal’s on me.”

Callie heard the kids running pass them screaming in joy. One of them stopped beside her, probably Mina, but Sans nodded and she went inside with the others. He took her chin in his hand and forced Callie to look at him, giving her a soft smile.

“It’s okay Cal. You’re safe. The kids are safe. You can calm down now. Nobody died”

“Not this time…” she mumbled

“What?”

“Nevermind. It’s not… It’s not important. But I can’t protect them Sans… I’m so weak. I can’t take care of them… They deserve so much better than me…”

“Now, now, young lady, you stop that this instant. Did that damn flower came to you again?”

Callie blushed and looked away, ashamed. Of course Flowey had come back. And of course Sans had guessed it right away… He sighed.

“What did I told you? Stop listening to him. You’re a good mom. Don’t you trust me more than him?”

Trust him? Damn she could entrust him with her life. She had really grown to love that skeleton way, way too much... And of course Mina had noticed that, clever girl that she was. Fortunately she seemed to be better around the skeleton now, because it hasn’t always been like that…

“Of course I trust you… Even more than you think.”

“So believe me when I tell you that. You’re an awesome mom. The kids love you, and they are lucky to have you. And you know what?” He pressed his forehead against hers “I’m lucky to have you as a friend. So please. No more tears. Okay?”

He smiled, and she blushed. How was that skeleton so handsome? She gave him a small smile and he put his arm around her shoulders, taking her inside. The place was quite nice, it actually looked like a rather expensive place. Sans showed her a glass door, and she could see the kids behind. She laughed with Sans at the sight of the vendor who looked like he was in over his head because of them. When they entered, Sans let her go with the kids to order, and he went to take a table for everybody.

“Kids!” she said when she was at the counter “Stop bothering the poor guy. Let him do his job.”

“Well hey there, Miss” the vendor said, giving Callie a big charming smile “I’m Barry, how can I help you~?”

“Oh hu, hi Barry? Okay kids, what do you-”

“I WANT A KID MEAL” Mina shouted

Callie slapped her hand on her face.

“Mina, you’re 16” Callie sighed

“I want a kid meal!” she insisted

“Me too!” Decaîrell added

“If they got a kid meal, I want one too!” Ellyne said

“... Okay Barry, make that 5 kid meals please…”

“Only that? Come on, I can’t possibly let a beauty like you starve during my service” Barry winked

Callie’s eyes grew wide. She gave a quick look to Mina, who seemed as surprised as her. She started laughing while Callie stood there in shock. Was that dude hitting on her? For real?

“Err... No, no, it’s okay. I’m not hungry.”

“As you wish, Princess. So, kids, how about you go wait for you mom back there, uh? I’m sure you’ll be more comfy on the chair”

Callie frowned. Okay, that was getting really embarrassing now. The kids were already reaching the table, and she didn’t want to get alone with Barry. At all.

“I didn’t have my toy” Mina said coldly

Callie thanked Mina mentally. Barry sighed, apparently annoyed.

“You’ll get it with your meal” he said

“I want it. Now.”

“Fine” he rolled his eyes and took a toy behind him “Here. Now go away”

Mina looked at Callie, waiting for her to say something, but Callie shrugged, not knowing what to say. She gave her a soft smile and nodded, and Mina went to the table with the others.

“So!” Barry said, putting his charming smile on his face again “I gotta ask, did you dad stole the stars from the sky? Because lady your eyes are sparkling”

He winked at her and she had to force herself to stay there to get the kids’ meal. That was already annoying and embarrassing, but now she was also sad again, great. She was about to answer him something when Sans’ hand crashed against the counter...

The restaurant was nearly empty today. That was not such a bad thing, because Sans was able to find a table right away thanks to that. He let himself fell heavily on the bench, looking at Callie and the kids with a smile. The girl was really something… He looked at Burgerpants, hoping that the guy would not be in a bad day because poor Callie really did not need that. But he seemed to be quite fine for once. Maybe a bit too fine…? That smile was definitely not usual. And… Definitely full of second thought. Sans frowned. What was he thinking?

“Well hey there, Miss” Wow, what the heck was that? “I’m Barry, how can I help you~?” Sans cringed. What the actual fuck. Was he fucking trying to flirt with Callie? Really?

The kids asked for a kid meal before Callie could say anything, making a small smile appeared on the skeletons face. Poor Callie. Living with those kids must be exhausting.

“Only that? Come on, I can’t possibly let a beauty like you starve during my service”

Okay that was getting ridiculous now. He even winked at her for fuck sake. Who did he think he was? Sans tried to force himself to stay seated, because obviously that was none of his business, and hell, it’s not like he was dating Callie or something. Hell no. Not that he would want to. She was her friend. He groaned, still looking at Burgerpants.

“As you wish, Princess. So, kids, how about you go wait for you mom back there, uh? I’m sure you’ll be more comfy on the chair”

Oh come on, kicked the kids out now? What was wrong with that little shit?

“Seriously, you gotta go save her now” Mina said when she reached the table

Sans groaned. He had heard enough of that anyway. He left the table and went toward Callie.

“So! I gotta ask, did you dad stole the stars from the sky? Because lady your eyes are sparkling”

Holy shit that little fucker was dead.

Sans rushed to her and crashed his hand on the counter before that stupid cat had the time to say anything else.

“Heyyy wow you two seems to talk a lot, uh? Sooo… Tell me BP, have you told the lady that funny story of how you became Burgerpants?” He tried to keep a smile on his face, acting like he didn’t care, but man it wasn’t easy.

Burgerpant face darkened and his smile disappeared - great, that face suited him better - and he laughed awkwardly.

“What, that? Psshh, that’s nothing. Not interesting at all. I mean come on who would care aboutthatandhowwillyoulookatthattheburgersareready…”

Burgerpants turned around to go get the kids order, and Sans couldn’t help smiling wide.

“Thanks…” Callie whispered

He looked at her and his smile softened.

“Yeah, you looked like you needed help there”

She laughed

“Yes, obviously. But really. Thanks.”

Callie gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. Sans blushed in surprise. Her own cheeks were slightly red, making her even beautiful than usually.

“Oh, come on!” Burgerpants whined “You could have said it right away and not let me lost my time!”

The cat gave them two plates with the orders, a frown on his face, and went to smoke in the kitchen. Callie chuckled and started to go toward the table. Seeing that Sans wasn’t following, she called him softly.

“Come on now big dummy, the kids are waiting”

Ellyne looked up. Mina and Kyo were running down the stairs with a big smile, Mina holding her phone in her hands.

“You gotta listen to that song!!” Kyo said

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this” Ellyne said

Mina hold her phone in front of them, already giggling with Kyo, and pressed the play button of the video who was already on the screen. The beginning of the video was quite normal, despite being a bit colorful (the woman on it was wearing a dress that normal person would probably not wear), but things went a bit crazy when the song started. It was basically only animals screams and women dressed as chicken, but the song was incredibly catchy. Ellyne laughed at the sight of her sisters singing and making animal noises along the song while doing the chicken dance.

“Wait! That actually remind me of something!!” Ellyne said when the song ended, and then taking Mina’s phone.

She launched “What does the fox say” and observed the girls reaction. She was not disappointed, as they both liked it right away. When that song ended too, they saved both of them on the phone to be able to listen to it at will. The song of the phone was kinda bad though, so it was not super pleasant to listen to anything on it…

“Too bad we don’t have a stereo” Ellyne said “We could have listened to it on high volume”

“Yeah, that’s a shame” Kyo added

“Waiiit… I have an idea!!” Mina said, looking at the skeletons on the sofa

Ellyne looked at Mina, not getting what she had in mind. Sans was just sleeping on the couch, quietly snoring… What was she thin- Oh. OOOOH. Of course. His skull could probably resonate the sound, so, if they managed to put the phone inside his head… Sans would be their stereo. She grabbed the phone and went to put him in his eyes, but Mina stopped her.

“EW, NO DON’T! That’s gross. Not the eye!” She showed the skeleton’s mouth “There! It’ll be easier, we don’t even need to open it”

“Oh, yeah.” Ellyne put the phone inside the skeletons mouth and then pressed the play button.

The three girl’s eyes grew wide and started sparkling when the sound actually came out of Sans’ skull, strong and clear. They screamed in excitement and Kyo started doing the chicken dance again while Mina was making animals noises. Ellyne grabbed her own phone and started filming the whole scene, laughing like crazy.

After a while, the door opened and something black entered and run passed them fast, followed by Callie and Papyrus.

“Deca, damn it!” Callie said

“DON’T WORRY, THEY GREAT AND POWERFUL PAPYRUS WILL CHEER THE LITTLE BUDDY”

Papyrus followed Decaîrell upstair, and Callie let herself fell into the sofa.

“This little fellas is going to kill me” she sighed, before realizing the music “Hey, wow, that song is stupid but the sound is good! Where does it come from?”

The three girls laughed and, while Ellyne was still filming, Kyo and Mina went next to Sans.

“Well this wonderful sound is offered to you by the Skelerio!” Mina said

“The best stereo of this generation! With a sound so clear you won’t believe your ears!” Kyo added

“With the Skelerio, you can forget your old lame stereo!”

“And all of that for only 9999999 gold!”

“A sound so perfect, it’s obviously the Skelerio!”

Callie blinked slowly, trying to let all the informations getting to her brain.

“What the flip are you talking about girls?”

“Well since we didn’t have any stereo, we put Mina’s phone into Sans mouth. And the music is resonating in his head. Pretty cool right?” Ellyne said

“YOU DID WHAT?”

Callie stood up, getting next to Sans, and looked inside his mouth. They really had put a phone inside it!

“Oh my god girls no, this is NOT okay. This is so not okay!!!”

Callie looked around, trying to think about something, but nothing came. She then sighed and carefully put her hand inside Sans’ mouth to get the phone back, hoping the skeleton will stay asleep. This was so stupid. And if Sans was to wake up this would be so, so…

Callie froze as Sans eyes started glowing lightly. He looked at her, then down to her hand, then back at her, confused. Callie face went red.

“Aaahh.. Uuh… The… kids… Music… Their phone… Your mouth… A Skelerio? Oh my god…”

She grabbed the phone and removed it from Sans mouth (along with her hand) and gave it back to Mina, before leaving the house without adding anything. The three girls looked at Sans’ face, then burst into laughter together.

“What the hell just happened…?”

Callie only went back after a whole hour, still red. Sans was probably outside with the kids because the house was empty, but since it was starting to get late, she decided to start preparing the meal right away, so it would be ready when everybody came home.

“So, did the cat gave you back your tongue?”

Callie jumped in surprise and turn around to face Sans. He was laying against the wall, giving her a wide grin. Her cheeks started burning again and she looked away, embarrassed.

“Don’t keep your mouth shut like that, I swear I won’t put my hand or my phone on it”

Callie crashed her hand on her face, trying to hide. Sans laughed and came next to her, removing her hand.

“Come on, I’m messing with you Cal. The girls explained me. They even showed me the vid Ellyne did. Apparently I’m an awesome stereo. And to be honest, your face was priceless.” he winked “Thank you for trying to help. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

She nodded, still unable to talk.

“Now, how about we cook something while Paps is taking care of everyone so they have something to eat when they come back?”

“Oh, hu, yeah! But, you can cook?”

“Young Lady, who do you think used to cook before Undyne started teaching Paps to cook? And despite how much I love my brother, I can’t eat his pastas everyday. I’m planning to stay alive a bit longer”

“Aw come one, Paps pastas are not that terrible…”

“Said the girl who managed to avoid eating them all the time. I think Mina’s the only one who really like them”

“Mina would eat anything as long as it’s food” Callie said, chuckling

“Don’t she ever get sick?”

“All the time!”

“You probably don’t have a lot of time for yourself with such a crazy family, uh?”

“I… I don’t mind. At least I don’t have time to think. That’s not a bad thing”

“You can talk to me, you know? I mean, you’ve told me you did not want to talk about your past for now but…”

Callie looked at Sans and gave him a soft smile. She had been pushing the poor Sans away each time he had tried to know a bit more about them since their arrival. And despite that he still wanted to protect her. He had saved her life. She gave a few pats on one the chairs and sat on the other one. Sans came sitting next to her with a questioning look.

“I think… I think I’ve waited long enough. You’re a good friend. Obviously I can trust you. But… Like I’ve told you Sans, those ain’t nice stories. Not a single one of them.”

Sans nodded and Callie sighed.

“Well… Here we go. I think you’ve guessed it, but the kids are not mine. I’m just… kinda their adoptive mother? Not… legally... But still. I’ve sheltered every single one of them for a few years now.” she laughed “I hadn’t really planned it would get to this. I found Mina in the street and brought her back home for what I thought would be just a few night at first, and she never left. She told me a few months after she started living with me that she had lost her brother. He was killed by two drunk men, nearly in front of her. She…”

Callie put her hand in front of her mouth, uneasy. Mina and Elly… They had done some pretty bad stuff, without really wanting to do it. Would Sans understand that…?

“She… what?” Sans asked

“Okay, look, I’m going to need you to not judge the kids, okay? Some of them… They’ve done bad stuff. They did not want that. And they feel bad, really bad about it. And I need you to not bad mad at them. I need you to not start treating them differently. Sans, please. I need you to promise that what I’m going to tell you know won’t change anything…”

“Callie. You remember when we talked about the souls last time? When I told you about LV and EXP?”

“Uh, yeah? You told me I was LV 1, correct?”

“Yup. And so is Kyo. But I’m afraid you two are the only one at LV1…”

“Oh. Oh… Yeah… I should have thought about that…”

“So yeah… I kinda guessed a while ago that some bad stuff happened. I just don’t know what”

“Mina… she kinda lost it when she saw her dead brother. She killed the two men who were responsible when she understood what they had done. That’s how she gained EXP.”

“Wow…”

“I found her a few years after that. It was raining, she was soaked wet, hungry, cold… I offered her to stay at my house at least until her clothes were dry. I told her that if she wanted to stay longer she was welcome. And well, like I told you, she never left.”

“And… you didn’t freak out when you discovered that?”

“A bit? But she’s not the same person. I know it. I know her.”

“Okay, so… what happened to the others?”

“Deca was the second that we found. Or more, Mina found him while he was wounded and she brought him back home. And oh did I wanted to kick him out at first. I was scared of him. He was so… feral? I don’t know how to define it. I think being trapped for years might have driven him kinda crazy. He’s better now though, but he still doesn’t remember his whole life… So yeah Mina brought him back. Covered in blood. After he tried to attack her. And I adopted him.”

“Seems pretty legit to me”

“I know right?” she laughed “I don't know what is wrong with me.”

“There's nothing wrong with you. I mean yeah maybe you should be a tiny bit more careful, but you just want to take care of the others. That's kinda nice you know?”

“I’m gonna get myself killed one day”

“Nah. You’re still relatively careful with what you do. Mina’s gonna get herself killed if she keeps jumping on every monster she sees”

Callie laughed nervously. Sans had no idea how right he was… The poor Mina already died twice since their arrival. And exactly because of that. Trying to hug everyone without being careful. She shivered at the memory. She had been so scared the first time… Thank God Kyo could load…

“Yeaah lucky us it never happened right? Anyway, the next one was Ellyne. Mina met her in the park where she used to sell her drawings. Ellyne was drawing too and they met there a few days. I met her a week after I think. I was taking Mina home while coming back from work and when I offered to accompany her she started acting weird. I asked her if she actually had anywhere to go, and her silence was the only answer I got. I offered to come with us, and if she didn't really wanted to at first, Mina convinced her. I learned afterward that her father died in a fire and she was placed in a foster home. But they couldn't take care of her and she ran away. She doesn’t talk much about it but she feels responsible for her father's death”

“Why’s that?”

“She might love fire a bit too much… and the fire in which her father died is kinda… because of her…? She didn’t mean to burn the house of course, it was an accident. But if she hadn’t been playing with matches…”

“Don’t get me wrong but you’re a magnet to troubled kids”

“No shit Sherlock”

“So… Okay… that make the 3 kids that aren’t LV1”

“You’re still holding on?”

“That’s a lot to swallow but yeah I can manage”

“Great. So-”

The door suddenly opened, letting the kids and Papyrus entering the house, laughing. Callie looked at the clock. They had already been talking for a whole hour. And… they had totally forgotten to cook anything. She smashed her hand against her forehead.

“Flip, the diner!”

“Hey Smom! We’ve built snow-paps!” Mina said

“Yeah! And mine is the best!!” Kyo added

“No it’s not!” Mina answered

“YOUR SNOWPAPS WERE ALL REALLY GREAT, BUT DEFINITELY NOT AS GREAT AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS”

“Smom look at the super cool glasses I found!” Decaîrell shouted

He rushed to Callie and she laughed at the sight of big pink rave glasses.

“Oh wow, they are awesome” she winked at him

“Smom I’m hungry” Decaîrell added

“Aaah yeahhh… we kinda uh… we forgot to cook?”

The four kids whined.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE MEAL! THE GREAT PAPYRUS-”

“Is taking you to Grillby’s!” Sans said, cutting his brother.

Papyrus was about to protest, but the smiles on the children's faces got the best of him. He then shrugged, sighing, and went back to the door.

“COME ON HUMANS AND MONSTERS BUDDY. LET’S GO!”

The kids grabbed Callie by the arms and started dragging her outside. While getting out, Sans looked at her with a shy smile, but winked. She nodded to him and whispered:

“Aren’t they cute, laughing and playing without you. What a nice little family.”

“Fuck you Flowey”

“Oooh would you believe it, Miss Mommy of the year is swearing!”

“I should rip you out of the floor and make a tea out of you.”

“Such a delicate person. You’re obviously fitted to be a mother. No wonder why they’d rather spend their time with big dummy Papyrus and the Smiley Trashbag”

“They need me.”

“Who are you trying to convince?” Flowey laughed “Me, or you?”

“I… Don’t need to convince myself. Neither do I need to convince you actually, who care what you think?”

“Oh, obviously you care about it. You’re so desperate to do the things right, aren’t you? You so afraid of failing, so afraid to not be enough.”

“Stop it Flowey” she said, putting her hands on her hears to try to muffle his voice

“Come on, who could possibly blame you? Of course you’re afraid, because you know you’re not enough. You will never be their mother. Not really. They stay now because it’s convenient”

Despite how hard she was trying to not hear the flower, she couldn’t muffle the sound enough. She could still hear everything clearly, and it was so painful. She did not want to believe him. She wanted to keep faith in her kids, so, so much. But there was that part of her that could not help but believe him. That part of her filled with doubt and fear.

What if… What if he was right? What if they decided to leave? What if she ended up alone again? She couldn’t keep them with her for eternity of course, but they were still so young… They needed her, right? Yeah, obviously they needed her… But… Did they love her…?

She jumped in surprise when Flowey vines started crawling on her. She tried to remove them, but the more she was pulling and pushing, the more Flowey crawled on her.

“You know, this could be so much easier. So, so much easier…”

Callie started to panic, unable to remove Flowey from her body. She couldn’t even stand up and try to run, as he was keeping her maintained on the floor. She was about to scream, but there again, Flowey prevented it by silencing her with his vines.

“We could do so much together, with- Oh shit!”

Flowey vines suddenly released their grip, and the flower was gone as fast as he appeared. Callie stood where she was in surprise for a few seconds, and then screamed in fear when she felt something on her shoulder. She tried to push away whatever was there with her arms, struggling to get away, but the thing refused to let her go.

“Callie, calm down!”

She froze at the sound of Sans voice and turned to face him. Her whole body soothed at the sight of the skeleton, and she shoved her head in his arms, crying. He holds her against him in silence for a while, patting her back. When she finally stopped crying, Sans gently pushed her away to face her.

“What the hell was that Cal?”

“I… I…” Callie looked away “I don’t really know… I think… It’s a monster?”

“I’m not sure…” Sans said with a concerned face “He looks like one, I guess? But… I don’t know, there’s something off with that guy. I couldn’t see any soul with him. It’s weird, he didn’t really looked like he was going to kill you either, somehow… Do you have any idea what he wants?”

“No… He’s… That stuff… His name is Flowey. He’s the first monster, or whatever the hell he is, that we’ve met in the Underground. That time he tried to killed us, but he seemed to have change his mind, I guess? I don’t know… He’s been following me ever since…”

“But why? What is he doing when he come to you?” Sans asked

Callie bit her lips. She didn’t know why Flowey was acting like that. And she wasn’t really feeling like talking about the stuff he said to her, or about how she was feeling lately, about her fears…

“It’s… Not important…”

“Damn it Callie, of course it is. How can I protect you if I don’t even know what I’m fighting against?”

“P… Protect me?” She asked, blushing

What was he thinking? Why would he protect her? Was he crazy or something? Why would he do that? She had been in the Underground for barely two months, and they had met Sans only a month and a half ago. So why would he care? Sure, she liked him a lot, he was a funny guy, and they had a lot in common, but...

“Yes, protect you. And the kids. Cal, that thing could come for the kids too, do you realize it?”

She froze. The kids. She had never thought… Flowey was after her, right? There was no reason for him to go after the kid…? Though… She didn’t knew what Flowey was after. He might as well be doing the same things he was doing to her. Since the very beginning. She put her hands on her mouth when the terrible realization came.

“Oh my god…” tears started to run on her face again “Oh my god. He’s right. He’s right! I’m a terrible mom! Oh my god…”

“What? No, Callie, that’s not what I meant!”

“But that’s the truth! Flowey’s right! Of course they’re going to leave me, I can’t even take care of them! Why would they stay? They’re going to leave. Oh my god they’re going to leave because I’m a terrible mom, and they’re going to hate me, and-”

Sans grabbed her face in his hand, forcing her to look at him.

“Callie, stop.” He said, giving her a soft smile “You’re not a bad mom. We all make mistakes. Come on, have you seen me with Paps? Like I’m the perfect brother! Don’t listen to that stupid flower. I’m going to take care of that, but you have to focus on your kids. They love you. They’d be devastated if they had to lose you. Believe me. They talk about you so much, and with such kind words. Never doubt them. And never doubt me either young lady, because from now on I’m going to take care of you!”

He winked at her, smiling, and she blushed. She still did not understand why he would do that, but right now, she didn’t care. Sans took her in his arms and hugged her, and she shoved her head against him. She closed her eyes, her cheeks burning. She hadn’t realized it sooner, but Sans was not as cold as she would have thought. He was not as warm as her of course, but still… He was not cold. She smiled. Sans smelled like firewood and snowy weather, but there was also a slight smell of ketchup in it. She didn’t really knew if it was because of all the ketchup he was drinking, but she liked the whole smell anyway. Her cheeks started burning more when she realized she was literally sniffing Sans, and she back up, as red as a tomato, hoping he hadn’t realize it. She laughed nervously.

“Thanks, Sans. I really needed to hear that. I’m sorry, I just… I think I kinda let my emotions get the worse of me.”

“Don’t worry, I know how it’s like. It happened to me too with Paps. But I was alone. You don’t have to be. So. How ‘bout we go back now?”

“Yeah. Just… Sans, could you not talk to the kids about Flowey…? I don’t want them to be scared.”

“I’m going to try, for now. But if I see that the flower try to reach them, we’ll have to explain what’s going on, to avoid them falling for any trick he could use”

“Be careful while getting home tonight Callie” she jumped at the sound of the old Stanley voice “Not only I’m worried because of that monster story, but the guys seemed a bit agitated tonight, I’m afraid they might try something before dawn actually. And since they have drink more than necessary, they might do stupid stuff. So really. Be careful okay?”

“Don’t worry Stan. I’ll take care.” she said, forcing a smile

“Really, Callie.” He put his hand on her shoulder “Your dad would come and haunt me for the rest of my life if you were to join them so soon”

“Way to enlighten the mood, Stan…”

“I’d rather have you sad than dead.”

“Yeah, okay, I got it. I will be cautious Stanley.”

“Say hi to the kids for me”

“Of course”

“And, Callie…” Stan stopped her as she was about to leave “ … Tell Deca I’ll miss him”

Callie opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped. Stan didn’t sounded threatening, just genuinely sad. In the old man eyes, a sparkle of knowing was shining, and she nodded silently before leaving the pub.

Once she was far enough, she started running to get home as fast as possible, trying to find a way to protect her family. She couldn’t let them down. She had to put Decaîrell somewhere safe, so nobody can find him and hurt him, and the others would have nothing to fear. But how… She couldn’t leave him alone, that wasn't an option. But if she had to go take care of him everyday, sooner or later someone would notice it. And human were basically everywhere nowadays. The only place that humans were avoiding was the mount Ebott and it was way too dan…

…

Wait. But of course! Mount Ebott!! Maybe she could bring him back there! That was his first home after all! Maybe the others monsters would take care of him! That was perfect! The kids would probably be sad though… but that was better than having Decaîrell killed and the kids put into foster homes…

While she was running toward her home, she passed by the house of one of the customers from tonight. He was in his garden with friends, charging guns and knifes into his truck. She shivered. She knew it of course, but having the confirmation was twisting her stomach. She started running faster, the guys being too busy with their guns to notice her. While running, she grabbed her phone in her pocket and send a text to her kids. She would usually have send it to Mina only but right now she couldn’t risk her to miss the text…

Callie : Emergency code red. Don’t ask

Code red. The code to tell the girls they needed to put Decaîrell on the travel box. Because the little guy was getting too excited when they had to take the car and he would end up destroying the seats if he wasn’t in the box. And that night, they were going to need the car…

When she finally reached the house, the girls were waiting for her in the porch, Decaîrell groaning in the box. Before they could ask anything, Callie grabbed the box and shoved it into the car.

“Hop in the car girls, quick!”

“Smom, what is happening…?” Mina asked with a worried look as she took place in the car

“This stupid town finally woke up. They are after Deca”

“What?!” Kyo gasped

“Seatbelts! Now!”

Callie started the engine the second she heard the last “click” of the safety belts and she left the house as fast as she could. She heard Decaîrell box roll over in the trunk and she bit her lips.

“Sorry buddy! I promise, you’re going to be fine!”

The monster answered with a muffled groan from the trunk, before the box started rolling again as Callie turned to take another street.

“Smom, what the flip!” Ellyne screamed from the back seat.

“Yeah! Come on, what are you even doing?” Mina asked from the seat beside Callie.

“I’m taking him to Mount Ebott”

“What?!” all the kids asked at once

“It’s the only way! Mount Ebott is the only place where Deca will be safe. He’ll be with the other monsters, and nobody will be able to hurt him.”

“But! No!! We can still hide him! We’ll protect him from people who want to take him away!” Kyo said

“No, kids, you don’t understand.” Callie heard Decaîrell’s box rolling again as she turned in another street “Sorryyyy!!!! They don’t want to take him. They have guns, and knifes, and… Kids… They are planning to kill him.”

“But… But…” Kyo whined

“For flip sake can one of you just hold the flipping box!!!” Callie shouted as the box rolled again

Mina pulled on her belt, making is a bit more loose so she could turn to grab the box and prevent in from rolling again.

“Thanks… Listen, I don’t want Deca to go either but… Even for you kids, if they find him… We’re gonna be in trouble. All of us. People would probably start asking questions about us, about all of you, and this could bring back some ugly stuff. You know it. We can’t risk that. Bringing Decaîrell to Mount Ebott is the safest thing to do, for all of us…”

As Callie kept driving, the kids went silent, apparently slowly starting to realize these were the last moments they were spending with their monster buddy. Callie looked in front of her as she finally left the town, the shapes of Mount Ebott appearing in the light of the moon in front of them. She felt her stomach twitching as the realization slowly hit her too. She was about to lose one of her kids tonight.

When she finally reached the end of the road, she stopped the car and the kids got out quickly, opening the trunk and Decaîrell’s box so he could get out. Callie forced herself to get out of the car too. She wasn’t sure about all of this anymore. But there was no other solution. There was no other way… She launched the flashlight of her phone, quickly followed by the kids, and they all started to walk in the forest to find a way to enter in the mountain.

“Soooo… Do you have any idea where we are supposed to go, buddy?” Callie asked after a few minutes

“Uh? Oh, duh, well obviously I know. I used to leave here, you know?” Decaîrell said

“Okay then, lead the way”

“Oh. Oh, yeah, right. This way”

Decaîrell started walking, followed by the rest of his family. Callie started to worry when he took them out of the path, and she finally understood that he had no idea where he was going when he suggested to go backward. She sighed. She was about to lecture him but she fell a water drop on her face. Then another one, and another, and rain started to fall. She grabbed the kids hands, and they started to run toward a cavern that she had seen a few minutes before.