#safrisk

“Ta dah!!” Frisk said, throwing her arms in the air for dramatic effect. “What do you think? I found it the other day!”

Sans blinked twice, still taking it all in. “Hm, this doesn’t look like any of the other houses in New Home,”

“I know right?” Frisk replied, trotting over to a nearby bookshelf and picking up a book from one of the stacks. “Most of the books are written in Monster language though, so I can’t understand any of them. So are the labels of the jars next door and even that sign over there,”

“And you brought me here to try and translate for you?” Sans raised at eyebrow at her. “Buddy, I’m flattered that you’d think I’m a smart guy, but why didn’t you want Tori or Alphys to come with you instead?”

“They’re busy on the surface! Also, you need to move around more,” She protested, her hands holding her book tightly. “You always stay at home like a bag of lazybones!”

He snickered at her pun. “Well if you say so. Also what that sign says is a little interesting,”

Her eyes lit up at that. “You can read it?”

He nodded, walking towards the sign at the far end of the room. “It says, For thou does not need magic to make things happen / Thou only requires determination’,” His eyes looked around the bookshelves. “Most of the books here have titles that include the word, ‘potion’ too,”

She gasped in surprise. “Determination… Does that mean that I can make magical potions?!”

“Can’t be sure about that,” He said, turning back around. “But it doesn’t hurt to try. Plus, I’m curious about this stuff too,”

The skeleton walked back to the human girl, who had her eyes wide open as she flipped through the book in her hands. “Tell you what Frisk,” He ruffled her hair affectionately. “I’ll be your translator and the apothecary and you’ll be the little witch watching over the cauldron, alright?”

She nodded, excited to start making some potions.

~~~~~~

Back on the surface, the sun had begun to set but Frisk and Sans were still in the mysterious house in New Home, mixing and grinding ingredients to make more potions. During the course of the whole afternoon, the duo had made a jump potion, a flying potion, a potion that makes horns grow out of your head and many more. The ingredients that were in the jars didn’t seem to run out either and once they lit the fire under the cauldron, it never went out. Sans eventually concluded that the house was enchanted.

“Enchanted?” Frisk mused, tossing a cup of crushed lavender petals into the cauldron. “Does it mean that the house has a mind of its own?”

Sans shook his head, taking back the empty cup from Frisk. “Not necessarily. A monster must’ve used magic a lot in this house, so it might’ve leaked out into the house itself. Either that, or the monster casted a special spell on the house,”

Frisk bit her bottom lip. “You don’t think that the owner still lives here, do you?”

“Nah, i checked upstairs already, the place is deserted,” Sans confirmed, giving her a smile to reassure her. “The ingredients might’ve just replenished itself on its own,” He turned back to the ingredients on the cart he found in the other room. “What’s left?”

“A cup of rose petals and three tablespoons of vanilla essence,” Frisk read from the list beside her, which was a translated copy of the next potion’s recipe from the book.

“Sheesh, are we making a potion or a cake?” Sans joked, passing the said ingredients to the human girl. “Speaking of which, what are you making, kiddo?”

“It’s a secret!” She whispered to him, giggling a little after that. “Either way, you’ll find out tomorrow morning. It’s gonna take all night for it to boil,”

“All night?”

“What were you expecting from a potion that doesn’t require determination?”

“Fair enough,” Sans yawned in response. “Welp, time for us to sleep then,” He wheeled the cart back to the other room. “There are some bed upstairs so I’m gonna hit the sack. You coming, Frisk?”

“In a minute,” She called back to him. “I’m gonna stir the mixture a bit for a while,”

“Sure thing. Goodnight, kiddo,”

Frisk continued to stir the cauldron as the monster climbed up the stairs. After she hear light snores coming from upstairs, Frisk let out a soft giggle, stopped stirring the mixture and took a ketchup bottle out of her backpack.

“I sure hope this love potion works…” She muttered to herself as she slowly fell asleep.

~~~~~~

A few hours had passed before Frisk woke up again, getting ready for the final stage of her master plan. When they had first arrived at the house, she had picked up a book from the bookshelf, and on one of the few last pages, she found a recipe which had some hearts drawn on it. To confirm her thoughts, she pulled out a sheet of blank paper and wrote down the first word of the potion’s name, asking Sans to translate it afterward. True enough, the first word was ‘love’.

“I’m not too sure how much of this potion I should add, but I’m guessing that a cup will be enough,” Frisk murmured to herself, dumping out some of the ketchup bottle’s contents and replacing it with a cup of the potion, which had a pinkish hue. She closed the cap and gave the bottle a little shake to mix the potion with ketchup.

“Perfect,” She said, smiling at herself. She blushed at the thought of Sans falling instantly in love with her after drinking all the contents of the ketchup bottle. Okay, she will admit that she was kind of forcing this on him, but after what Papyrus had told her the other day (“HUMAN! I’M NOT SURE WHY, SANS HAD BEEN CALLING OUT YOUR NAME IN HIS SLEEP FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS NOW, AND HIS CHEEKS ARE ALWAYS BLUE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!”), she couldn’t stop thinking about him falling in love with her.

Her cheeks were flushed red as she climbed up the stairs, soon finding Sans sleeping on a bed in the corner. The human girl laughed again, clutching the ketchup bottle in her hands tightly as she sauntered over to the sleeping skeleton, poking his neck a little.

“Sans, wake up!” She said, poking him even more when he did not stir.

It was a while before Sans woke up, lazily sitting up as he rubbed his eye sockets. “KId, what’s up? It’s a little too early for you to be-”

“Here you go!” She cut him off, thrusting the ketchup bottle into his bony hands. She quickly retracted her hands as the skeleton stared at the item in his hands. “Ketchup? What’s this about, kiddo?”

“It’s for you!” She grinned gleefully. “As a thank-you for coming down here with me and making all those potions with me. I.. I really enjoyed my afternoon yesterday, Sans,”

Sans stood still for a moment before he smiled back. “No problem, Frisk. I, liked making potions with you too,” He replied, his cheeks slightly blue.

So Papyrus really wasn’t lying…

The silence between them was interrupted by a loud growl. Along with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Oops, looks like even skeletons can get hungry too,” Sans remarked, opening the cap of the ketchup bottle. “You want any?”

“No thanks. It’s all for you anyway,” Frisk politely declined. “Bone appetit,”

Sans laughed at her pun again before drinking the contents of the bottle, and Frisk watched in anticipation as he completed the whole bottle in one big gulp. After he finished the bottle, he shut his eye sockets.

The silence between them was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

Then, as he opened his eyes again, Frisk could see a small pink glint sparkle in his pupils. “Sans?” She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?

As soon as the skeleton turned to her, his cheeks turned blue in mere milliseconds. His eyes were locked onto hers, and Frisk had to swallow her saliva as he stared at her intensely.

Did it work? Was the only question in her mind.

Her question was soon answered when he grabbed onto her shoulders and pulled her towards him, perching his teeth on her lips, giving her a deep, deep kiss. At first, she was startled, but soon relaxed and deepened the kiss between them, wrapping her arms around his neck as his hands coiled around her waist.

They just stayed there for many minutes before Frisk tried to break away from the kiss. However, Sans wouldn’t allow it and held tightly to her waist, refusing to break the kiss. Soon, she could feel her soul being pulled towards Sans as she toppled on top of him, their lips still connected. As soon as Sans was lying down on the bed again, he wrapped a hand around her head, pushing her face closer to him to keep kissing her again, and again, and again. Frisk couldn’t do a single thing to stop him, Sans was way too strong…

It felt like it had been hours before Sans finally broke the kiss between them, leaving Frisk with a full-blown red face as her small figure fell on top of the skeleton, her breaths heavy.

Sans was panting as well, but there was a wide smirk on his face. “Nice try, kiddo,” He said teasingly.

“But that potion didn’t work on me,”

Her eyes instantly widened. “What? But then, all that-”

“Was all by me and me alone,” Sans finished, flashing her his cheeky grin. “Didja really think that I didn’t read the book? I knew you had something in mind when you asked me to translate the word ‘love’,”

At that, Frisk let out an embarrassed squeal, quickly covering her face with her hands. Sans chortled at the adorable sight, slowly turning over so that Frisk was resting on the bed as well. He brushed a few strands of hair behind her ears before leaning close to her. “I love you, Frisk,” He murmured to her. “And I don’t need a love potion to make me love you either,”

The human girl shyly leaned closer to him, burying her face into his chest. “I-I love you too!” She replied, her face still as red as a tomato.

She had been cornered by another mercenary, a fast one, she would add. Someone who was cunning and smart enough to drive her into a cave. She blamed her bad luck for stepping on a loose stone and falling deep into a crevasse. At least there was somewhat of an air pocket in there, and she still had some kindle and matches in her bag, along with a torch, to make a fire to keep herself warm. In fact, there was a lit torch at her feet, ignited merely seconds ago.

But the minute she strike her match against the wood, she heard the nearby sound of footsteps. It was faint and very quick, only lasting for a few seconds, but she could still hear it from a mile away. It was one of her special skills. As soon as she heard the foreign sound, she unsheathed her sword and shield, looking around very cautiously. Her brown eyes darted left and right every few seconds, her mind alert for any other sudden sounds and movements.

Soon enough, the sound of footsteps returned, sounding faint and faraway. This time, however, they were slow and steady, almost as if someone was wandering around the small cave as well. As the footsteps approached her, she adopted a defensive stance, holding her shield in front of her body and her sword above her head.

Before long, she could catch a glimpse of the person even in those weak rays of light coming from the torch. The figure in front of her was about the same height as her, and as he stepped closer to her, she could see that the figure wore a white tank top underneath a blue jacket with its sleeves ripped off, a pair of ripped jeans and hiking boots. In his shaggy snowy white hair was a navy blue bandana and he wore black half finger gloves. Around his waist was a scabbard for a curved sword, a holder for a slingshot and a pocket for what she would assume to be rocks as ammunition.

He had the appearance and the demeanor of a thief, if she were to be very honest with herself.

“What’cha up to, little girl?” He slurred his words, staring at her with mischievous and cheeky eyes, his hands in his jacket pockets. “Lost your way, huh?”

The female warrior gritted her teeth. “No, I think the proper words should be ‘you cornered me to this crevasse’,” She spat at him, her voice laced with sarcasm.

The boy laughed in amusement, his face sporting a wide grin. “Sucks to be you then,” He spoke, not even answering her words. “Either way, we’re both stuck here, in this cave,” He continued in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Great,” She muttered under her breath before facing him again, pointing her sword at his face before he could take another step forward. “Don’t even try to rob me and beat me up, you bandit. I am NOT as weak as you think I am,”

Her words sounded as if they could pierce through stone and her tone could have made knees crumble and shiver. But deep down inside, she was rather scared. And this thief could tell.

He took a step forward despite the fact that a sword was pointed at his face. Out of instinct, she took a step back, clearly intimidated by his bold act. “Look, there isn’t a reason for us to be at each other’s throats, yeah? We don’t have to fight like savages-”

“Says the man who chased me into this damn cave!” She snapped at him, cutting him off. “If you hadn’t, maybe I would spare you from your tomfoolery,”

He laughed again. “Tomfoolery? Is that what you think I am? A thief?”

How the hell did he know what I was thinking?! Perhaps this was a special skill that thieves had, a way to interpret language and classify it under a category. Whatever it was, he was good at it.

He stepped closer to her and she stepped back again, the torch no longer at her feet but at his. “Well, if you must really know why I was chasing you into this cave, I’ll tell ya,” He said before narrowing his eyes at her. Any traces of a jokester in him had disappeared in an instant.

“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you, little girl?”

She was baffled. “What?”

“You know what I mean, swordswoman,” He continued, trudging footsteps closer to her, not stopping after a single step this time, and the girl had no choice but to step backwards every time he came near her. Soon enough, the fire from the lit torch was about a metre away and she was almost cornered to the walls of the crevasse.

Meanwhile, he had kept talking. “Or should I call you, ‘Frisk’?”

She hitched a small gasp in shock and surprise. “How do you know my-”

“Name? Heh,” He clicked his tongue as his hands were removed from his pockets. “Let’s just say that I have my sources,” He replied, a smirk on his face once more.

As soon as her back hit the wall, she knew that she was in for a bad time. Before she could react, his lightning fast hands had grabbed her arms and ripped her shield and sword out of her hands. It wasn’t very helpful that her hands were in cold sweat too, probably because the cave was cold as hell. In fact, now she couldn’t help but wonder, how could this boy wear clothing without sleeves and still have warm hands?

As soon as she was disarmed, the boy planted his hands on the wall, right next to the girl’s head, to support himself as he leaned in closer to her. A few minutes ago, she wasn’t afraid of this boy at all. But now…

“Who are you?” She asked timidly, half expecting an answer, half afraid of receiving it. “What do you want from me?”

His sky blue eyes bore into her brown ones as he dipped his head to her neck, his hot breath against her skin sending shivers down her spine. She shut her eyes tightly, frightened for her life.

There was a silence in the cave that seemed to last for ages. Until…

“Knock knock,”

At this, her eyes snapped open, a flabbergasted expression on her face. She felt inclined to not answer, but she figured out that the choice to do so was not smart. She wasn’t armed, and he was.

“Uh… Who’s there?” She just replied, uncertainty in her voice.

“Dishes,”

“Dishes… who?”

“Dishes a bad joke,” He finished his joke with a hearty laugh, and at that she could feel the gears in her head turning. This joke… I’ve heard of it before… !

“S-Sans?” She murmured to herself, her eyes widened in shock. “Is that… you?”

He stepped away from the wall, stuffing his hands into his pockets again. “The one and only,” He proclaimed proudly, winking at her. “Didja really think that you could hide your ‘little secret’ from me, sweetie?”

She bit her bottom lip while smiling, an embarrassed, shy look on her face, but she felt much more relaxed now. “Maybe…?”

“Right,” He looked at her with a knowing face before staring at her at eye-level. “Gonna have to work on those skills, kiddo. It ain’t working on me-”

He didn’t have time to finish before she leaned in and pecked his lips, holding it there for a long while. Slowly, she wrapped her hands around his neck and tilted her head to the side in order to deepen the kiss. Soon, he coiled his arms around her figure as well and closed his eyes as he enjoyed every second of the kiss.

As they broke away, Frisk winked at him. “You know I think it’ll be a lot better if I kiss you in real life, Sans,”

Sans nodded back in reply. “Sure, little girl. Anything you want,”

~~~~~~

In the real world, Frisk slowly took off the VR headset on her head, shaking her head slightly to readjust herself back to the real world, to remind herself that she was not in a cave but in her own room, on her comfy bed. As the seconds ticked by, she raised her fingers to her lips, gently touching them as she remembered the incident that had occured merely moments before.

Just then, the door opened and a familiar grinning skeleton sauntered into the room, sporting a cheeky yet caring smile.

“You didn’t tell me that you started playing Delta Kingdom, Frisky,” He smirked at her, a knowing look written all over his face.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” She replied, as sly as a fox. “But you just had to go change your appearance and ruin it like that,” She complained, though she was smiling.

The skeleton strolled over to her bed and sat down, crawling to the teenage girl’s side. He wrapped his left arm around her petite figure while his free hand rested on her chin, cueing her to turn and face him. “Aw, I’m sorry for ruining the surprise,” He chuckled before leaning closer to her. “Mind if I make it up to you?”

Frisk had attempted to pull of a pouty face at him, but she was silenced as soon as he leaned in closer to her. She sighed softly as her cheeks turned beet red. “You’d better,” She giggled as she closed her eyes and felt his lips against hers for the second time that day. It felt as if hours had passed before they pulled away from each other.

There was a glint of excitement in her eyes, and a bit of competitive spirit in his.

How it started was a lot simpler than what you’d expect. Neither Sans nor Frisk had asked each other out. In fact, it was one of Sans’ monster friends who asked one of Frisk’s human friends out, and they were just tagging along. Little did they know that the monster and human couple already knew about Frisk and Sans’ ‘relationship’, and they were dragging those two along with their date just so that the oblivious couple would go on a date as well.

Just as both Eliats and Chisara had expected, both Sans and Frisk were dressed well. Frisk was wearing a dark fuschia party dress, a sweet violet cardigan and a pair of black Mary Jane shoes. She had a pink handbag next to her, and her long hair was tied up in a pretty bun. Likewise, Sans had a much dapper outfit himself. He was wearing a navy blue jacket over a white collar shirt, black pants and brown loafers. No hoodies, no slippers, heck he didn’t even smell like ketchup at all. Instead, an aroma of cologne wafted through the air around him (it was all Eliats’ idea, Sans didn’t even know what he sprayed on him).

As soon as the two of them met each other at the entrance of the Waterfall, they had small, faint blushes on their cheeks. Soon after the date started, Eliats and Chisara decided to move ahead to the MTT Resort, leaving the other two behind. Now here they are, walking sedately, not bothering to catch up (since Frisk couldn’t afford to ruin her dress and Sans… was just too lazy to bother).

“I wonder where Chisara is,” Frisk remarked, looking ahead at the end of the road. “You think she’s having a good time with Eliats?”

The monster shrugged. “Probably, I just hope that the guy doesn’t get drunk or anything like that. He had low alcohol tolerance, as far as I am concerned,”

“Speak for yourself!” Frisk replied, grinning from ear to ear. “I found you in the bar last week with your cheeks all flushed blue and a empty ketchup bottle in your hand! And Grillby told me that that bottle was your third one!”

“He… what?”

“Why were you drinking that much anyway? Got something on your mind?” She asked, her voice filled with concern, and some mischief as well.

“Kid, I’m a skeleton. Anything that I encounters just goes right through me,” He winked at his infamously bad pun as Frisk giggled again. Although it was rather old and had been reused a number of times, this course of action was necessary, he had decided.

After all, how would she react if he said that the reason he was drinking was because of her? Heh, Sans would rather not find out.

Instead, he asked, “So, speaking of the lovesick couple that are up ahead,” He turned to her, meeting her chocolate-brown eyes at eye level. In fact, he realised that it was surprising that she had not grown at all since the barrier broke, she was almost as tall as he was. “Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, do you… have anyone in mind?”

He knew it was a stupid question, a really really stupid question, especially considering how fast his soul was pounding in his chest. But despite of his feelings for her, he had to know. If there really was anyone else that Frisk liked, he thought that then he could finally face reality. After all, what would she ever see in a bag of lazybones like him?

Although it would be a bittersweet ending, if he could get some assurance that Frisk didn’t like him back, maybe he could finally move on with his own life. Making puzzles with Papyrus, pulling off bad puns that made everyone laugh, lazing around like the same skeleton he had been for years…

… Having Frisk sleep with him when he had a nightmare, hanging out with Frisk at Grillby’s, Frisk allowing him to hug her tightly in the fear of losing her, having Frisk listening to him rant and mumble every time he had a nightmare of a corrupted timeline, having Frisk as a close and very good friend…

… Crap. When did he not realise that Frisk was already part of his life.

Her answer didn’t really help him either.

“Well, there is someone, but I’ve yet to ask him about it,” She said quickly.

At that moment, Sans felt like his soul had broken into two. So she did have a special someone in mind. Who would have thought.

“I think you should go for it, kiddo,” Sans replied, looking down in hopes of hiding his hurt expression. “Find someone to love, someone to take care of, someone to… be with you for the rest of your life,” He was praying that his voice did not sound shaky or broken. Then again, if he had been hiding his true feelings from everyone he knew, why would this be any different?

“What about you, Sans? Do you have anyone to love?”

The skeleton monster could feel his footsteps slowing down. “No, I don’t,” He lied monotonously. “Like I said, anything I encounter just goes right through me, heh heh… ”

At this point, he had stopped completely, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his head hung low. When Frisk noticed this, she immediately spun around. “Sans?”

“Besides, even if I do have someone to love, I don’t have the guts to say it, heh heh… ”

“Sans-”

“I’m probably better off alone anyway, no one wants to be around this lazybone all the time, amirite?”

“Sans-”

“I mean, I barely get any work done, I don’t put any backbone in anything, do I?”

“Sans-”

“So what would anyone see in a bag of bones like me?”

He was close to tears, clenching his teeth tightly in an attempt to not cry. Saying that it was easier said than done, was very true. His tears threatened to fall, and his hands in his pockets were clenched into fists. He could not bare to look at Frisk, his best friend, his crush, his sweet angel that liberated him from his world of darkness. Dramatic or not, it was truly how he felt. And yet…

“ … I see kindness,”

Those words that came out of her mouth sounded like gospel to him, he raised his head, meeting her eyes again. Those same, sweet, comforting eyes that he had seen millions of times. “What?” He whispered almost inaudibly.

“I, I see kindness in you,” She repeated slowly, reaching for his left hand and holding it tightly. “The kind of kindness that I always see when you give me encouragement whenever I needed it, whether it was related to my work or my social life,”

Sans made no reply, only bearing a surprised expression on his face as Frisk continued.

“I also see patience,” She said, smiling warmly at him. “I see it every time you’re listening to me, whenever I tell you about my worries in the present or those for the future,”

“I know you won’t agree with this one, but I can see a caring heart in you too,” She grimaced for a moment. “I know that in some other runs, I was merciless and I killed every monster I saw, and I know that you remember,” She frowned at this, looking down for a few seconds. Sans was going to ask her if she was okay before she continued.

“But you still comfort me whenever I have a nightmare about it. You could have ignored my shouts at night, and you could have left me to deal with them on my own, but you didn’t… Instead, you comfort me and make sure that I stop crying before putting me back to sleep…”

Sans just kept looking at her, tears already flowing out of his eye sockets and staining his jacket, his cheeks slightly blue. Meanwhile, there was a small scarlet hue on the human girl’s cheeks. In fact, with her averting eyes and her biting on her bottom lip, she almost looked like she was embarrassed to say the next sentence. But she stayed determined…

“I see… I see love in you, Sans,” She bravely admitted, her eyes looking away from him as she spoke. “You always hold me close to you whenever I have a nightmare or I’m crying in my room. You would never ask why I was crying, only asking how you could help me, and every time I would throw my arms around you and sob endlessly,”

“But you didn’t care,” She said, giving him a grateful smile. “You would pick me up in your arms and carry me to my bed, laying me down first before crawling next to me and patting my head until the nightmare passed, and you would stay there until the morning came…” She let go of his hand, letting it swing back to its original position by Sans’ side.

At this point, Sans was blushing wildly. Was she fully aware of the things that he did around her when she was asleep or in a nightmare? He had no clue.

“Sans… I have a question for you,” She timidly asked, twiddling her thumbs and shifting her feet a little. “I know that just now, you asked me whether I liked someone, right?”

“Well,” She gulped, clearly nervous. “That person that I mentioned…”

“That person was you.”

“But I know, you just said that you didn’t find anyone to love, so it’s okay if you don’t love me or anything like that…” She trailed off, refusing to look at him in the eye now that she had confessed her love to the skeleton monster.

With his eye sockets opened wide and the blush across his cheeks deepening, he replied. “I lied to you,”

“Wha-?” She had turned to face him in shock, but was cut off when he leaned in close to her and perched his teeth onto her lips, keeping his eyes shut as the kiss lasted for minutes. The human girl had no idea on how to react at first, staying completely still. But as he snaked his hands around her head and her waist, pulling her closer to him, she instinctively reached out for his neck, tilting her head to the side to deepen their long kiss.

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the waterfalls in that cave.

Then as they broke away from each other, Frisk found herself leaning into Sans’ embrace, the warmth of his chest comforting her. The skeleton raised his hand to pet Frisk’s head rhythmically, softly chuckling to himself. “Heh, you have no idea on how long I wanted to do that, Frisk…”

She smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his body, hugging him tightly. “Same with me,” She murmured. “Sans, I don’t want anyone hearing you use those terrible puns again, I know that you’re nothing like what you said,”

He chuckled again. “Wrong usage, huh?” He was replied by a quick nod, before laying a sweet kiss on her forehead. “Gotcha, my little angel. I love you,”