#sansblook

There was a sudden knocking and Napstablook let out a quiet, startled ‘eep!’. A glance at the clock told them it’s probably just Sans, arriving vaguely close to the time he was supposed to be there. Sans never gave a specific time, or arrived on time if he did.

“knock knock,” Sans called from the other side of the door.

“Who’s there?” Napstablook responded automatically.

“cash.”

“Cash who?”

“no thanks, i prefer peanuts.”

Napstablook giggled and pulled the door open. Sans grinned up at where they were floating as he strolled in, hands in pockets as always. He immediately flopped down on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Napstablook stayed floating near the door, wondering what they should say. They considered ‘What’s up?’, ‘Want to do anything?’, ‘Thanks for the nice comments.’, ‘Why are you even paying attention to me?’, and ‘What do you want to listen to?’. They decided either the first or last ones were the safest option.

Then their mouth betrayed them by saying something else entirely. “i got you some nice cream,” they blurted. Well, that sounded weird and pathetic.

Sans looked like he would be raising an eyebrow if he had one. “really?”

“oh, uh, yes. i did.” Napstablook drifted to the fridge door and pulled it open, revealing the interior. It was empty aside from the Nice Creams. “i thought i’d, um, get some solid food for you to eat when you’re here.”

“sweet, thanks.” Sans stood back up and examined the assortment of treats.

They reached into the freezer and moved them all around so all the different flavors were visible. “i got one of every flavor, i think. all that they had at the time. so, i hope you like them?” They were about to devolve into more ‘oh no’s and apologize for how awkward this was, but when they turned back around they found Sans smiling at them. Sans was always smiling, obviously, but it was easy to tell when his smile was more genuine. It wasn’t a ‘laughing at your expense’ or ‘im just humoring you’ smile, but kinder. He looked actually happy and not annoyed at their fumbling at all. He was staring and smiling and for some reason didn’t think they were a complete loser.

Napstablook calmed and handed him a vanilla and fudge Nice Cream. Sans kept on smiling, took it, and returned to his spot on the floor. Now Napstablook joined him. “Did you want to watch the tv or something? Do something more entertaining than just listen to my music…”

“hey, your music’s plenty entertaining,” Sans said seriously, though he we focused on opening the Nice Cream carefully so as not to destroy the message inside. “we can watch tv if you want, though.”

What kind of answer was that? Do they watch tv or not? Oh gosh, having friends can be hard. Napstablook thought for a second, then worried that their extended silence was making things awkward. They decisively flicked on the tv to the first MTT show that was on. “Oh, this one’s pretty good. It’s my fifth favorite of his shows.”

Sans shifted his position so he was facing the tv. “heh, papyrus likes this one too. didn’t know you were an mtt fan.”

“Well, I guess there was a pretty big chance of me being a fan of his, considering, he’s the only one ever on tv.”

“heh, true.”

“Oh, but I do think Mettaton is pretty cool,” Napstablook explained. “He always has so much confidence. And he can dance. And sing. I really like his musical shows. They remind me of when I used to play with my cousin.”

“your cousin?” Sans asked.

“Yes, Happstablook. Well, I had a lot of cousins, but they all moved out.” Napstablook frowned. The farm was a lot quieter nowadays. When was the last time they had even talked to a member of their family?

“is happstablook the one that owns the house next to yours?”

“Yes.” Napstablook turned back to the tv.

Sans finished unwrapping his nice cream and laughed at the wrapper. “there’s a spelling error in it,” he explained when Napsta looked curious. He turned the wrapper so they could see.

“Have a ‘nic’ day?” they asked, giggling.

“i hope you have a really nic day, naps,” Sans said seriously, then started laughing again. Napstablook couldn’t help but giggle more.

“Oh gosh, the nice cream man must be so embarrassed. I think he handwrites all these,” they said.

“nah, he’d find it funny too.” Sans makes a movement like he’s about to pat Napstablook on the back, then realizes they’re incorporeal. “one time i got a nice cream with the message ‘learn to laugh at yourself’. great advice, though i responded by laughing in a mirror in front of him.”

“I guess.” Both of their attentions were drawn to the tv as music started emanating from it. Mettaton was holding a microphone up to his screen and singing something about forbidden love as rose petals drifted down from the ceiling.

“so, why does this remind you of your cousin?” Sans asked.

Napstablook’s mind travelled back to when Happstablook was around. They smiled a little. “We would put on these silly little performances. They would set up a stage, get a broken microphone from the dump, and sing while I was dj. Our friend, Shyren, would backup sing. Sometimes we could talk our other cousins into helping out, but mostly they just ignored us or thought we were really weird. But I didn’t care, it was pretty fun.”

“sounds fun. where did happstablook go, if you don’t mind me asking? their house sure doesn’t look. well, lived in.”

“oh… they disappeared a few years ago. I don’t know why, they just didn’t come back. They left a note that they’d found a body to possess, but they didn’t say where they went.” Napstablook felt their eyes tearing up a bit and they looked down at the floor. “i really thought they’d stay after Madsta and Calmsta left… the snails miss them. there haven’t been any customers to keep them company recently either…”

Sans shifted very quickly and held a hand out to touch Napstablook before he seemed to remember they were incorporeal again. “oh, geez, uh, I didn’t mean to make you sad, bud.”

“oh no, i’m fine,” Napstablook floated up a bit and wiped away their tears.

Sans frowned with his eyes. He thought for a second, then said, “how about we go visit the snails? if they’re lonely, i can keep ‘em company.”

“oh, really? Do you want to meet them all?” Napstablook soul lightened; the snails were so sad lately with no one but them to talk to.

“sure. snails are cool.”

“Oh, great!” Napstablook flew towards the door. “You’re going to love Deucalion, he’s kinda weird but he loves weird foods and sleeps a lot.”

“heh. sounds nice.”

“… You mean, sounds ‘nic’.”

           Why, Napstablook wondered, is someone as cool as Sans wasting his time hanging out with me? The ghost was staring down at their phone, where a text from Sans inquired whether or not he could drop by today. Of course, in the two weeks since the skeleton has returned their cd player he had stopped by a few times. Mostly the two of them would listen to music and not talk much, and when they did talk it was mostly about the music itself or something silly Papyrus had done. The two of them had exchanged numbers, even though Sans’ phone was rarely on or charged, so he could warn the ghost when he might show up.

           Napstablook appreciated having time to prepare themself for talking to someone, but they just didn’t get it. Did Sans really like hanging out in this small, boring house with no chairs and nothing to do but listen to music? They didn’t even have any non-ghost food to offer him. They were so rude, weren’t they? Not coming up with something for him to eat when he came by.

           They stared around their barren house. It was boring. Nothing to entertain guests at all. They didn’t know why Sans liked hanging out here, but they guessed if he was going to they should get something for him to do.

           After all, maybe he wouldn’t keep coming back if there was nothing there for him. They weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not. They enjoyed his company, but he made them nervous. It would be less stressful for them if they could hide away and not have to worry about talking to Sans or anyone again.

Then they remembered watching him tell jokes through the door. The relaxed way he talked, the way his grin changed to an even cheesier one after a punchline, and his stupid jokes. No, they should try to keep him around. They couldn’t forgive themself if they offended him or bored him or anything.

           But the question became; how to entertain Sans? What does he even like to do, other than sleep and tell jokes? They wondered. Does he even like to do anything else? Oh gosh, he must like to do something. Read? Watch TV? They didn’t remember Sans ever mentioning any of his interests. Oh no. Napstablook must be a terrible friend, if they had no clue about any of Sans’ interests. That’s, like, the most basic thing you can know about someone. They should ask him what he likes when he shows up.

           Back to the food idea. That’s one thing they knew Sans liked, other than bad puns and avoiding work: food. What kind of food should they get? It’d be pointless to get food from Snowdin, since Sans probably that stuff all the time. Hotland was too expensive for them, and much too crowded. They would need a lot more time to psyche themself up before they could face the crowd of monsters that would be filling every store, beside the fact everything in Hotland was expensive and MTT-branded. They could get something from the spider bakesale, but to be honest that spider lady scared them to death (ehehehe, maybe I should tell Sans that one). One time they had tried to buy a donut to show their support. The spider lady had somehow talked them into buying twenty and, lacking in money, they had made her a song in exchange. It was great that their music had value, but Muffet’s threatening eight-eyed stare when the ghost had claimed they couldn’t afford that much was not something they wanted to experience again. They also then had twenty donuts they couldn’t even eat, because they weren’t ghost donuts.

           Maybe something they could buy in Waterfall? They immediately dismissed the idea; the Temmies only sold temmie flakes, and Gerson only sold crab apples and sea tea. Temmie flakes were tasteless (or so they’d heard. Again, not ghost food.), just getting some tea and not any food sounded like a stupid idea, and crab apples seemed a little… cheap? They were more of a healthy snack, and that didn’t seem like the type of thing Sans would enjoy. So, they were stuck again.

           But wait, there are always the time-honored tradition of getting someone ice cream as a treat! Or, really, nice cream. Napstablook had never seen someone selling normal ice cream, but they had seen a rabbit monster in Snowdin selling ice cream bars with nice things written on the wrappers. Sure, Sans lived in Snowdin and probably ate nice cream all the time, but it was a nice treat he would probably appreciate either way.

           Right?

           Hopefully.

               After a quick run (or, rather, float) to Snowdin, about half an hour of hovering out of sight and practicing what they were going to say to the vendor, somehow still stumbling over their words when they finally mustered the confidence to talk to the vendor (“how much ice cream? oh, i meant… i meant how does it cost… oh no”), nearly dropping the nice cream twelve times as they lost focus (as demonstrated previously with the cd player, Napstablook tends to drop corporeal things a lot when they’re not focusing all their attention to being just solid enough to hold it), and a constant worried repetition in their mind of whether they were making a fool of themselves for doing this, Napstablook had the nice cream bars tucked safely away in their freezer. Having friends is hard.

           While they’re at it, they should probably buy a blanket or a pillow or something so the two of them have something to lay on other than the floor. Napsta had never worried about it before; ghosts didn’t really worry about back problems or being comfortable, since they don’t have backs and can’t really feel anything. But, that would have to wait. Until next time at least. Until then they floated in front of their computer and tried to psyche themself up for having company again.

Their notifications on their music sharing forum were full; apparently they had suddenly gotten a few comments from someone with the username ‘sans’. They giggled a little at how little thought or effort was put into that username, then checked what the comments said.

Oh jeez, they were really nice comments.

They sat and read the comments over and over again. Wow. The praise made them want to hide their face in a pillow and cry tears of joy. They saved screenshots of the comments, but didn’t respond. They didn’t know what to say, other thank ‘thank you so much’ over and over again, which was lame and probably wouldn’t be appreciated.