#sweetmaple

A Trial Pun-Run

Sans couldn't help but let out a long sigh. The Snowdin station could be boring but this was just ridiculous! He'd been here for over an hour and was completely alone. Not a single person wandering through the snowy woods. No one to joke with. Nobody even looking for hotdogs. Just an hour of blankly staring at the trees.

Oh well, he was never afraid of a little quiet-time. Heck, Papyrus was always getting on his case for getting too-much quiet-time. For now he just tried to be content with propping his head up on the counter and watching snow gently fall. As quiet as it was, Snowdin always did have a beauty to it. A charming town, surrounded by trees and snow. But that didn’t stop things from sometimes getting so calm they became dull.

Honestly if this kept up, Sans was tempted to just skip-out on this post and go hang out with his little knock-knock buddy. He'd been work-shopping some new puns. Ones Sans knew she would appreciate.

He was just about to head over to the secret pass when he heard a rustle from behind him.

"Y'ello?" He asked.

There was no response.

It was probably nothing, Sans tried to reason. The snow could get heavy. Twigs and branches fell all the time. Entire trees on a few occasions. And sometimes they made a sound, but only if Sans was there to hear it. Or however that odd human phrase went...

He was ready to shrug it off as nothing when he heard the rustling noise again.

"Alright." Sans huffed. Leaning back so he could get a better look behind the post. "Who’s out there?"

He swore he saw a shadow behind the trees...

Was that-

"Yip!"

Sans spun around when he heard a tiny bark. And when he looked down, he saw a little white dog poking their head out of the snow.

"Oh!" Sans said with a relieved sigh. "Thought you were someone else. What can I do for ya pal?"

The dog didn't answer. They simply barked some more. Shaking the snow out of their coat as they did so.

Sans had to shield his face, but he smiled as he did so. "Ha, ha! Come on, you're getting ice everywhere! It's snow joke!"

Sans couldn't help but chuckle. The dog just stared up at him innocently.

"Huh, not a fan of snow-puns? Well, I guess frost-impressions can be misleading."

"Yip! Yip! Yip!" The dog yipped loudly at that one.

"Ok, ok, so you do like my jokes? But only the good ones? Good. Cause for a minute there I was afraid you were barking up the wrong tree."

At that, the dog happily wagged its tail and spun in a circle.

Sans suddenly got an idea. "Hey, uh, I was planning on seeing a friend of mine later today. And I got some jokes for her. Can I run them by you?"

"Yip!" The dog barked, it almost looked like he was smiling.

"I think I get it. Barks mean yes, silence means no? Heh, just like a regular audience."

Sans knew he probably looked and sounded nuts. But hey, everyone in the Underground was a little odd, one way or another. Plus it wasn't like he had anything better to do.

"Ok, here we go! What do you get when you cross a bee and a lizard? A blizzard!"

Nothing.

"Yeah, you're right. It's cheap. Barely even makes sense. What about this? My little bro, Papyrus, likes to make houses outta ice! You know how he does it? Igloo-ed them together!"

That got a good reaction from the dog, they barked happily went up on their hind legs. "Yip!"

"Yeah, I liked that one a lot too. And after she makes a good pun here's something I want to say: Icy what you did there!"

That got another great reaction from the dog. "Yip yip!"

"Haha! And here's another response I wanna try: You came up with that all by yourself? Snow way!"

The dog didn't bark that time. But their tail was still wagging. Sans looked over the dog, bringing a finger to his chin as he thought.

"Hmmm, I'll take that as a maybe. Save it for the back burner just in case I start running dry on puns."

"Yip!"

"Oh, I didn’t make a joke there buddy."

"Yip! Yip! Yip!" The dog barked again. Even more excitedly.

It was then that sans realized something. This entire time he’d been talking… He had been holding a hot dog in his left hand. A real one.

He forgot he had that...

Deadpanning, he turned back to the dog.

"You... you're just here for this, aren't you?"

As he waved the hot dog in the little dog's face they began barking excitedly.

"Yip yip!"

Sans must have been waving his hand around subconsciously as he talked… The little guy probably had no clue what he was even saying. This had all been a big waste of time.

Sans just shrugged. "Alright. You've been real patient, I think you earned this. Here ya go!"

Sans tossed his hot dog into the air. The dog jumped up to catch it. But he missed, and it toppled into the snow.

"Five second rule." Sans couldn't help but say. And he waved goodbye as the dog scooped up his snack and trotted off happily into the woods.

As Sans watched the puppy wander off he tried not to feel too bitter. Who knows? Maybe it wasn’t all for not. Maybe when he was telling the jokes he was more-confident in, he’d waved his hands around more. And that had gotten a bigger reaction from the dog.

At least he could hope so.

As Sans sat there though, he could still feel a chill crawl up his spine.

He was still being watched.

Slowly, San's peaceful smile fell off his face and he leaned back to look behind the post again.

"You aren't gonna tell anyone about this, right?" Sans asked a figure hiding in the shadows.

It had never left.

And it didn't say anything.

"What am I saying, you've always been a quiet guy. Even, uh, even before everything..."

The figure just stood in the background, quietly watching.

Just like they always did.

Sans huffed. "Will you at least tell me what you think of my puns?"

Sans swore he saw the shadows shrug.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Puns were always more of my thing..."

At some point waiting to see his pun-buddy had turned into procrastination. So Sans, hefted himself off his seat and began heading towards the mountains where they'd always meet.

Before he left though, he turned to look back at the shadows, one more time.

"Well. It's been a real gas. But I got places to be. Catch ya later."

With that, Sans pulled up his hoody and trudged into the snow.