#meowren

Every night,long ago while she was still living in the Underground, she would tuck in thechildren every night (be it Chara, Asriel, or both) and stay right by theirbedsides, running her large paw over their foreheads until sleep crept up onthem and their eyes gently shut.  Eventhen, she would refrain from leaving the room until making absolutely sure bothchildren were going to stay asleep before joining Asgore back in their bedroom.

And fromthere, she would wait until he too was asleep. It was a nightly ritual of sorts, and it was a comforting solution toher insatiable motherly desires.  And intruth, it was nice.  That is, until sheran outside to catch a last glimpse of what once was Asriel, Chara’s body inhis arms, their unmoving form the only thing left before he could even hit theground.  It all happened so fast, andtime stopped for her then and there.

Of course,it picked up again quite some time later, with steady breaths and a patched-upsoul.

When Friskfell into the Underground, she had no idea what wonders the small child wouldhold for the future of monsterkind and humanity alike.  Though, after all too brief a meeting andmany (painfully) ignored phone calls, she found herself emerging once again tothe sight and the sensation of the sunset, bright and brilliant and warming tothe very core.  The air felt fresh, thesky was so expansive and wide, and everything was how it used to be, so longago, sending her back many more years still.

Stars, shewas old.  But she was healing, and thatwas what mattered.

Fast forwardanother few months.  The Surface hadtreated monsters well, with any scuffles quickly resolved and put behindthem.  They had places to stay now(Toriel had forgotten how much humans cherished precious metals) and they wereall staying together as a tightly knit community, staying close together andfostering friendships formed by the events of the Underground.  And it was a beautiful thing, to be able towatch the sunrise again each morning, and to be able to tuck in Frisk the sameway she did Chara and Asriel.

Then therewas the fact that Sans had asked if he could stay with her.

There wasobviously history behind their relationship, but Toriel never thought anythingof it due to the lax nature of it all. Jokes told behind closed doors were now told face-to-face, idiotic (buthysterical) puns exchanged on the daily, whenever comedic inspiration hit eitherof them.  She was quite proud of herselffor some of the plays on words she’d come up with on her own, without Sans’help, and judging by his reaction, he was tickled as well.  And about a month of this passed byfantastically, until he came to her door without a joke, unprepared and alittle jittery, and asked if he could “bum around” with her for a while.  To get out of his brother’s hair, hereasoned, expecting immediate interrogation.

How couldshe refuse such a bluntly honest request from a dear friend?

Anothermonth went by and life got adjusted to fit the three of them in the littlehousehold.  Sans had his own room now(Toriel kept it clean), he would contribute when he felt like it, and he onlyoccasionally went out to visit Grillby when night fell.  Frisk had been enrolled in school (finally)and every school night without fail, Sans would help them out with science andmathematics.  Toriel found the effortendearing, and tended to eavesdrop when they would diverge from their homeworksituation and have a full-blown conversation about the stars and the nightsky.  Sans would become so animated, hiseyes lit up and his tiny hands flying with grand gestures of constellations orplanets that existed somewhere in the sky, farther away from here than could becomprehended.

It was thisenthusiasm, this break in his usual laid back personality, that caused Torielto realize that maybe, just maybe, she felt the smallest little smidge ofattraction.

And as timewent on, that smidge grew into a touch, and a tad, and so forth until her soulfelt like an overfilled mixing bowl, brimming with six to eight heaping cupfulsof absolute infatuation.  And judging bySans’ streak of stuttering and messing up a punchline, she thought that perhapshe felt something for her as well.

It came assuch a shock when Sans was the one to ask her on a date.  His cheeks were lit up a faint blue, hissmile looking more genuine today and his pupils a little brighter thanusual.  She nodded with a quirky grin andwide eyes once the situation settled in. The date went fantastically, a picnic in the park as the sun started toset, and they both enjoyed it wholeheartedly, all dumb giggles and sharedgrins.  The walk home, they held handsfor the first time, and souls were absolutely fluttering in their chests.  Toriel felt at least five thousand yearsyounger.  Sans felt at least fivethousand pounds lighter.

It wasn’tanother few dates until they worked up to a kiss, and even then, they found itdifficult with Sans’ lack of lips in the first place, but they made do.  Eskimo kisses were just as nice.  That, and it was fantastic to watch Sans’face light up cyan upon kissing him – he’d always pull his hood up to retreatinto an even smaller form, his bright pupils dilating at the gesture.  He was hopeless, they both were.

Fast forwardanother two months, to the present day.

Toriel stilldidn’t understand sleep, and would still spend a very long while tucking Friskin and making sure they were asleep before coming back down the hallway, andpeeking into Sans’ room to make sure he was asleep as well, the old habit neverquite disappearing.  To her surprise,though, he blinked himself awake at the quiet intrusion, and met Toriel’sgaze.  He offered a little smile, andToriel found herself walking towards him, kneeling next to his bedside andsmiling warmly down at him with everything she had.

She reachedout a hand and placed it on Sans’ right cheekbone, and he returned the gesture,reaching upwards and cupping her cheek before moving to stroke the fur on herear.  It was softest there, he’dproclaimed at one point, and they were just one of his favorite parts of her.

There theysat in silence for quite a while, maybe a half hour of simply stroking cheeksand contented breathing, the quiet around them comforting and warm andloving.  Sans’ eyelids had begun to fallshut just a little bit, his pupils beginning to dim in sleep-dustedhappiness.  He withdrew his hand, andplaced it over Toriel’s, shutting his eyes and nestling against it.

“knockknock.”

She felt thevibration of his voice in her palm as he spoke, soft and deep.  Of course it was a joke at a time likethis.  She smiled.

“Who isthere?”

“olive.”

She hadheard this one before, and her smile softened as she brushed her thumb acrosshis face as gently as she could manage. He hummed quietly in response, before opening his eyes and glancing backup at her again in as close to a pout as one could manage, sans flesh.  (Hee hee.)

“c’mon, don’tleave me hangin’…”

Shesnickered.

“Olive who?”

He shut hiseyes again, any traces of stress gone from his body and his soul in that onelittle moment as he exhaled, real slow.  Theanswer came in a tone Toriel had never heard before from him.  It was warm, it was confident, and it washappy.

“i love you.”

Shebrightened right up, and gave his cheek a very light kiss.

“I love youtoo, sleepybones.”

His smilequirked up at that, his soul glowing faintly blue from behind his chest andunder the sheets.  And Toriel stayed therewith him as his body relaxed, his hand fell from atop Toriel’s, and his headlolled to the side in sleep.