At first, he wasn’t sure what or who he was looking at, the other drastically different from himself. An open neon pink sleeveless jacket hung off his shoulders, bright and colorful compared to his stale white lab coat. A black leather choker around his neck and a black deep v-neck crop top far less modest than his bright blue turtleneck rested on his shoulders. Black tights and bright neon blue boots, not unlike the ones that his brother Papyrus always talked about having, adorned his legs and feet while he simply wore slacks and sneakers. 

Even his magic color was different, sleek winged eyeliner traced sockets holding amethyst purple lights stared back at his own glass wearing sapphire blue eyes. They both also had the same body, small round face, wide sockets, short chubby body. Although the copy was more fit and thin than he was.

The other skeleton was careful to explain things to him, that the theorem of a multiverse was true, that he was one of many versions of himself, sadly not even the original Sans, although close. Not one of the first Alternate Universes, or AUs, but one of the first timelines of the original.

Even now, as he walked down the hall to his lab, months after the unexpected meeting, it was a crazy thought.

“Morning, Sci.” his guest spoke when he opened the door, sitting on one of his lab counters with a book of notes in hand and a steaming cup in the other. He hummed back morning in reply as he switched his hoodie out with his lab coat. “Come on, thought I’d get a little more than that.”

“Good morning, Lust.” He rolled his eyes, the other skeleton’s skull lit up with a smile. “Any new information? Or breakthroughs?”

“Mmm, not that I can think of, I only got here a few minutes ago.”

After Lust had abruptly shown up and explained that there was a whole multiverse out there he began to talk about why he came to Sci’s timeline. Lust’s world is filled with a life-altering sickness, as he put it, an injection that was supposed to help them move past a tragedy and in a way did, but didn’t help them with anything else.

Thankfully, the sickness isn’t contagious, but the rest of the multiverse looks down upon Lust’s world, not wanting anything to do with any of them. For a while, Lust was okay with living with the sickness, until the humans began passing through the underground, and finally, the seventh human came through.

The seventh human, or Ace as Lust calls them, managed to break the barrier, but they met unexpected issues after reaching the surface. The humans want nothing to do with any of the monsters until their sickness is cured, so despite the barrier being broken, everyone is still stuck underground. Ace is the only one allowed to leave, mainly to slowly work through the issues and stereotypes humanity has on monsters so that when the monsters are finally allowed above ground everyone can intermingle safely.

Lust bringing up the fact that there was a large cultural difference between the two species as well. With the sickness came a feverish heat that never seemed to give out, causing culture even in snowdin to have more summer fitting clothes. Hence his crop top and thin tights.

Lust held back any more information than that, merely stating that he was afraid if Sci knew all of it that he would back out of helping with the cure. Although he was adamant that it didn’t impact anything.

With none of the multiverse wanting to help, Lust’s only choice was to find a timeline close by that was unaware of the multiverse. Sci’s timeline happened to fit that description.

Good morning, all. His colleague came walking in, signing to both of them in Wingdings. A nearly lost language that only three in his underground understood, himself included. But, thankfully one Lust was fluent in.

“Morning Doc’.” He waved before looking over his notes on the sickness and cure again.

“Morning, Doctor Gaster.” Lust politely called, legs swinging as he lounged, sipping at a cup of iced tea.

Gaster was another skeleton, the Royal Scientist and his father. A tall man with a long cracked face, a crack running down to his right eye coupled with another crack running up to his left eye, scars from the war the locked monsterkind underground-leaving only one of his eyes working. He also had holes in the metacarpals of his hands, said to also be scars from the war. He wore a plain white turtleneck underneath his long black trench coat, the coat a gift from Sci and his brother Papyrus years ago, but cherished nonetheless.

Gaster was Sci’s inspiration to join the field of Science, always intrigued by his old man’s experiments as a child and having a gift for it like his father. Papyrus also working towards the science field but wanting to achieve what’s currently impossible, being an Astronaut and venturing into the stars. The most Gaster and Sci could do at the moment is to push him towards other hobbies, ones that don’t need them to be broken out of the underground to be achieved.

The room went contently silent as everyone focused back on the notes, Gaster or Sci chatting with Lust to clarify something or other on notes. Hours passed in quick succession, soon enough Gaster signed that he was leaving for lunch, and Lust had draped himself over Sci’s shoulders.

“Shouldn’t you get some lunch too, Darling?” Lusts arms wrapped loosely around his neck, head resting next to his own.

“Shouldn’t you, eye strain?” The other chuckled at that, “I’ll get something to eat in a few, feeling close to a breakthrough...” He circled a few things lightly in his notes before focusing back on his computer.

“If you’re that close, I can wait another hour to be cured. We may be skeletons but we gotta eat, don’t want Paps to think you missed a meal.”

“I think you’re getting to know me too well...” He could feel Lust’s smile against his cheek, he sighed, “Alright, I’ll go get some lunch. Make sure you eat too.”

“I will, Ace and their Mom planned some big meal for everyone, so I’ll have plenty to eat.” Sci hummed, hugging the arms slung around him for a moment before letting Lust pull away, both of them getting up.

They cleaned up their work areas for a moment before switching out their lab coats for their outerwear, Lust and his open jacket, Sci and his hoodie.

They shared another quiet hug, then Lust left through a purple portal and Sci turned off the light before heading out of the Core.

The walk home wasn’t all too long, going through a few halls and passing the throne room, two young children jumped out.

One was a goat monster with white fur and dark eyes wearing a lime green and buttermilk yellow striped sweater, dark pants, and a golden heart necklace. One of the children of the Dreemurrs, Asriel. A good kid but a downright rascal when he was with his sibling. 

The other was a human, the first fallen and the hope of the underground, Chara. They had pale skin from being in the underground for so long with them, and dark eyes-looking nearly scarlet red in the right lighting peeked out from syrup brown hair. Matching with their brother, they also wore a striped sweater with the same colors and a golden heart necklace, but unlike Asriel, they wore mocha brown pants.

“BOO!” They yelled out, “Did we scare you?”

“Right out of my skin, pipsqueaks.” He ruffled their hair, “Shouldn’t you Royals be in the dining hall with your parents?”

“But we wanted to see our favorite punny Uncle!” Chara argued, whining slightly, “We haven’t sawed you much- not after the new project.” Sci chuckled at the mispronunciation, both of them still oh so young.

“Sorry kiddos,” Sci spoke, kneeling to their height, “It takes a lot of my time-”

“Like a lover?” Chara teased, Asriel chuckling.

“...Something like that.” His socket twitched, the human always seemed to get right to his soul.

“Who is it? Who is it?!” Asriel chanted, jumping up and down impatiently. Sci tried to protest, “Come on! We runned all the way over here, we know it’s gotta be someone!”

“When you’re older I’ll say, how about that?” The Royals pouted, “Now hurry to lunch, don’t want you two getting in trouble for running off without supervision now, do we?”

The Prince and the Royal wisely ran back through the throne room and out through another doorway. Once he was sure they were out of his sight and heading to where they were supposed to be, he continued his journey.

A few elevator lifts and he was already in New Home, not far from his family's small townhouse. Opening the door, kicking off his sneakers, and slipping on his slippers he walked into the kitchen.

“I’m home!”

Welcome, Sans. His father signed at him, sitting at a small table centered in their kitchen. I was wondering when you would show.

“Welcome Home Brother!” Papyrus spoke confidently, flipping a grilled cheese.

Papyrus was also tall with a longer face like his father, despite being younger than Sci, still in high school, although today was a weekend for him. Papyrus happily wore a tank top with a fun slogan on it and some athletic pants, clothes that he found in the dump that Sci had helped him fix-up.

He let his lazy grin show off now that he wasn’t at work or the Castle, relaxing as his brother dished him and his Dad some sandwiches.

He closed his eyes as he ate. Enjoying the taste, but excited to get back to the lab, the image of Lust’s playful smile playing in his head.

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