#lostsoulwolf

A brand new year was arriving. Around this time many people make resolutions to better themselves, or maybe to save up money for a big goal, and still some just wish for a brand new, better start. However, far below the ground of Mt. Ebott, there was a population of decent folk who all just shared one dream every passing year: to finally attain their long awaited freedom from the magical barrier that trapped them down here.  

However that didn't stop the monsters from celebrating and welcoming in the New Year.  It was a way to try to keep up their spirits when all else seemed hopeless and grim. Every year was a hope and a dream that maybe this was the year they would gain their freedom. Of course, that didn't mean individual monsters didn't have other dreams. In fact, a short skeleton monster was dreaming of making do by sleeping at his sentry fort. At this point in his life the New Year's celebration meant very little to Sans-- he made more of an effort during Gyftmas, when he played "Sansta Claus" mainly for his brother's happiness, but it didn't really matter to him whether or not the New Year was greeted with celebration. As far as Sans was concerned, they would always be stuck done here.

As he snored away, a wolf-like monster came over, carrying a bunch of echo flowers in her paws.  Her fur was damp up to her elbows, the sleeves of her jacket rolled up.  She must have reached far into the water to gather them.  That wasn’t surprising, considering that whispering one’s New Year’s resolutions or wishes into an echo flower was a tradition, so they were in high demand at the moment.

“Oh Sans, there you are!” she greeted him, a cheerful lilt to her familiar voice.  Sans snorted in his sleep a bit.  He didn’t lift his head, though he was apparently awake enough to mutter a response.  It wasn’t like he could just ignore his best friend.

“mikaela…  i told you, i’m not into the whole new year celebration thing...”  

“Awwh, come on , lazy bones! There has to be SOME holiday spirit, even in you! You had it in you around Gyftmas.” She leaned over his side-- got right in his face-- and flashed him a toothy grin.  “You already called me Mikaela instead of shortening my name to ‘Kay like you usually do.  So see?  You can put in the effort for my sake, at least.  I mean, that’s a whole extra two syllables.”

He stuck his hand in her face, which would have been extremely rude if it wasn’t the kind of silly roughhousing they engaged in all the time.  “that was different, ‘kay.  i only did that for my brother so he wouldn’t lose his holiday spirit like i did.  it’s hard for me to celebrate the new year when i know it’s just gonna be another year of the same, y’know?”

Mikaela stared at him with her hands on her hips for a long moment.  When that didn’t work, she let out a sad whimper. “Sans, come on….don’t make me bring out the big guns.”

“...  no.  oh no, you wouldn’t.” “I would…”

“don’t you dare.”

“You leave me no choice…”

“nooo…” The short skeleton pleaded with her.  “i said….”

But it was too late.  She whimpered some more, bowed her head just enough that she had to look up at him through her eyelashes, angled her ears back and widened her eyes.  She was hitting Sans-- that poor, defenseless little skeleton man-- with the most powerful and skillful puppy dog eyes he had ever seen.  He practically felt his soul melting in his chest, along with a lot of guilt for denying her the holiday cheer she so desperately wanted to see from him.

“nooo…  you stop that, ‘kay! You’re not gonna change my mind!” Sans insisted. But he was wrong…  oh, he was so wrong. The whimper just got louder, it even turned to a whine for a moment, and her eyes grew even more pitiful.  She looked like she could cry.  Stars, he would never forgive himself if he made her cry.  “ugh…  fine… fine.  i just don’t see the point in--”

“Yesss! “ Just like that, she went back to normal, if not even happier than before.  Her ears perked up and her tail began wagging excitedly.  “As per tradition of the New Year, I brought you some echo flowers!  Seeing as how I knew you wouldn’t go out and pick them yourself.”  She began handing them over before noticing he was scratching his ass. “I wish you would stop that.”

“heh.  bit of a waste of one of your new year wishes, i’nnit?  and besides. there’s nothing there but a tail bone.” Sans chuckled before stretching and leaving his post. “you’re lucky we’re such good friends.  do me a favor, though, and don’t ever teach papyrus that trick.  the one with the eyes.  it’s my only weakness and i’m trusting you with that knowledge,”  he quipped as he took the flowers.

“Can skeletons even make a sad puppy face? Eh, guess you never know with Papyrus.  He can be pretty adorable.” Mikaela shrugged.  “So go on then, make a wish! Anything your soul desires.”

“anything, huh?”  Sans’ voice softened.  He traced the tips of his fingers idly over the glowing petals of the echo flower.  “... i guess…  i dunno.  you probably already know my biggest wish.  it’s the one we’ve all made.  year after year after year.  but it’s never enough.  each year we all make a wish to leave this place, but we’re still here.” Sans sighed, frustrated and downtrodden.  “so what difference does it make if i wish for it again?  just one wish in a sea of identical wishes.  and none of ‘em are being heard.  why would mine be?”

“Well…”  Mikaela tapped her thumbs together thoughtfully.  “Well, it’s less about believing that there’s someone or something out there that’ll actually directly grant your wish, and…  more about setting goals and instilling yourself with a sense of hope, I think.  So…  Yeah.  Even though nobody can answer us, we can still keep wishing and keep hoping.  After all, if we all lose hope then we stop trying, am I right?  And trying is what helps us achieve the things that we wish for!”  She smiled at him reassuringly.  “So never stop trying, Sans.  Even if it’s just a little.  It can make all the difference.”

Sans couldn’t help but blush and rub his neck.  She always made him feel like such a loser and a downer…  in the best way possible, of course.  She made him feel like he wanted to better himself.  “yeah.  i know you’re right.  heh, you must have been talking to my brother.  sounds like something he’d say.  well, i guess some of us have to remain strong enough to hold on to what little hope and happiness we have, but…  it’s been really hard for me lately.”  Sans admitted.  He noticed the worried expression on the she-wolf’s face. “but hey!  don’t let me get you down.  what about you?  what’s your wish?  you know, other than the usual?”

Mikaela sighed and smiled sadly.  “My wish is to help make you happy in whatever way I can, big or small.” She admitted.   Hearing that made his soul feel like it was fluttering in his chest.

“‘kay…  you’re too good for me, y’know that?”

She acknowledged his somewhat self-deprecating comment with a slight shake of her head, then continued.  “Isn’t there some other wish you have? Other than the usual?”

Sans shuffled his feet, as if thinking about if he really wanted to tell her. He was so used to being closed-off and secretive, after all.  He never talked about his own problems, his own feelings.  He just supported other people through theirs.  But as had been the case for many months, they were really good friends, so what the hell?  If he had to tell anyone, he’d rather it be her than anyone else.  He gave in.

“well…  there is this one little thing.  i’ve always, y’know, stared at the sparkling rocks in waterfall, but they’re not the same.  my wish is to see the stars.  the real stars, out there, so far away you can hardly comprehend it.  and the moon too.  but that’s not going to happen.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground, but not too quickly to see Mikaela’s face light up with a smile. “Is that so?  Well, Sansy, I may have just the thing. Come on-- I have something to show you!” She latched on to his hand and began tugging him in the direction of Waterfall.

“the thing just for me?” He repeated. “did you catch a bunch of stars? that’d be a paw-some feat.” He chuckled.

“Well you’ll never find out if you don’t move that tail bone of yours!” Mikaela let out.  That finally got Sans to follow her of his own free will.  Appealing to his sense of curiosity never failed.

“fine. but i’m pretty sure it ain’t nothing i haven’t seen before. “ Sans insisted.

“Oh, trust me. I think you’re going to love this! I discovered this ‘paw-some’ thing a few days ago! I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, but…  well, you’ll see.” She promised.

Sans shrugged, letting her pull him along without a fight. He was pretty sure he had seen just about everything there was so see down here…  except, apparently, for a crevice that led into a small cavern.  It was hard to see in the darkness, away from the lanterns and the glowing flowers.  And besides that, the opening had been blocked by a patch of overgrown marsh grass and could easily be missed. “...  okay, i stand corrected.  i guess i haven’t seen everything down here after all.”

“And that’s just the entrance!” Mikaela noted as she continued pulling him along. “I noticed a nice smell coming from inside.  Something I’ve never smelled before in the underground.”

She continued pulling Sans along and around a corner next to the ice cube carrying river, and then she finally stopped. The area didn’t look like much-- just another dark blue rocky walled cave-- until, that was, Sans noticed a tiny bit of light leaking from above.  He glanced up and his pupils widened at the wondrous sight that awaited him overhead.

Way up on this part of the underground, the ceiling had an opening just wide enough to let in a ray of true moonlight and a glimpse of the actual stars themselves.

“Well….what you think??” Mikaela asked.  Her tail made little scuffing noises against the ground as it wagged in anticipation.

Sans remained quiet, staring up at something he never thought he’d see in his lifetime. To him, it was like finding a treasure chest. Suddenly his broken smile didn’t seem so broken.  In fact, it seemed genuine.  If for only a little while, it was a true smile. “...  damn, ‘kay.” He finally let out after a long stretch of silence.  “wow.  i…  i don’t know what to say.  this is amazing.  heh.  i guess… some wishes can come true.”

Her tail began frantically wagging as her toothy grin returned. “Didn’t I tell you?  Isn’t this place magical? Ha, and I guess that means two of our wishes came true! I was able to make you happy again.”

“you’re right about that.  this is a better start to the new year than i could have ever predicted.” Sans smiled back at her. “y’know, i think maybe i can hold on to some hope after all.”

“Make that three wishes coming true, then.  Papyrus’ wish was you finding renewed hope,” Mikaela told him. “Three wishes come true.  Can’t beat that.”

“or maybe you can.”  Mikaela knew that tone.  It was the tone of a man who just had a brilliant, brilliant idea.  “you know…  i’ve heard of a new year’s tradition the humans have up there.  and i know we aren’t exactly buddy-buddy with humans on a lot of matters.  but i think they’ve actually got a pretty good idea here.”

His friend was intrigued, her ears perked up in curiosity.  “Ooh?  And what tradition might that be?”

Sans turned to her and pulled his hands from his pockets. “here, let me borrow this.”  He took one of the glowing echo flowers from her paws and turned away. Quietly he stared at the flower for awhile, as if making his wish in silence, before letting out a big sigh and as loudly as he could, he proclaimed, “i wish for a kiss from my best friend at midnight!  y’know, as per human tradition.”  He shot her a wink…  although it was the most nervous wink of his life.  He felt like his soul was going to explode in those moments awaiting her response.

   “...  Your best friend?” Mikaela didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but they did constantly say that they were each other’s best friends.  

“oh, yeah.  she’s a real gem.  about yea high--” he stretched up and placed the palm of his hand directly on top of her head-- “long hair.  super pretty.  like can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her pretty.  most convincing puppy dog face in the world.  great sense of humor, and, ah…  honestly, she could cheer up a guy who’s so far down in the dumps he’s practically in the bottomless pit below it.  can’t miss her.”

Mikaela’s soul began to pound in her chest.  She knew it.  She knew she hadn’t been imagining something more going on between them.  His lingering touches on her arm whenever they were around each other, the abundance of hugs he liked to give her, the occasional joke that just crossed the line into the realm of the flirtatious… “Well…  If you’re sure, then…  Hell yeah.  Let’s make it four wishes come true, then.”  She was quick to pick him right up off the ground and give him a big kiss, before either of them lost the courage to do so.  He was ready for it, and he held on tight.  Though he couldn’t kiss back without lips, he nuzzled his teeth against her in a way that conveyed the same effect.

They only pulled away from each other when Sans began to laugh against her lips, his soul glowing like a miniature star of their own.  “damn, ‘kay! you really went for it.  you must have been waiting for that almost as long as i was.  there’s just one problem.  uh…”  He scratched the back of his skull. “it’s not midnight yet.”

“Oh dear.  I….  I’m sorry about that.” Mikaela apologized and sat him back down on his own two feet.  Her ears folded back a little and she blushed with embarrassment. “I guess I got a little carried away in the heat of the moment.”

“ ‘eh...but who’s countin’?” Sans shrugged. “you can just give me another one when the time comes.  And another one after that…  some more after that…”  He put his hands on her waist to pull her a little closer, earning a bashful giggle.

“Alright, well don’t get carried away,” she teased him.  “I won’t keep kissing you if you fall asleep on me.”

“dude.  my entire life isn’t about sleeping.  and besides.  humans also have this saying about kisses.  i dunno what they mean by it, but it’s perfect.  y’know what they say?”  He leaned in a little, got up on the tips of his toes, and said it to her in a quiet voice, like a secret: “every kiss begins with ‘kay.”