#valleytale

 It had been an excessively rainy day. Things were already incredibly shitty, but Sans had decided that with how shitty everything already is, a rainstorm would be an improvement. Grillby and his daughter were under a balcony of sorts, protected. Things were finally looking up, and his daughter was excitedly chatting about how lovely the rain looked, and how even though they were trapped, everything was going to be okay. Sans couldn't bring himself to be located too far off. After all, he had a pretty good idea where every monster in the valley was. Undyne was the most obvious- her grunting and yelling during practicing with her spar was easy to notice. It turned out the topside wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Heh. Cracked. Sans absentmindedly held his hand to the slowly growing fracture starting at the base of his skull. He didn't regret what he did. Papyrus was okay. Toriel would take care of him. Toriel did her best to take care of everybody, and Pap would be with Frisk after all. That kid was way to stubborn to let anything happen to his brother... Sans drifted off into sleep laying in the rain, listening to the crackle of his old friend and happy chatting of his daughter.

He woke up to screaming. Groggy and unfocused, Sans shot up, glancing around to see what was the matter. Huh. The water rose a lot. His skeletoes were already submerged in water, gently tugged at by the current.  Was there a stream or lake nearby? How long did he sleep? Sans shook his head, trying to send himself out of the sleepy haze. He glanced up to look for where Grillby was sitting, but he was gone. "G-Grillby?" A charred stick he used as a cane was the only thing left. Water was way higher than it should have been "Shit."

…

Grillby was never a loud man. Even when the humans attacked him, he stood in front of his daughter and took every blow without so much as a grunt. Sans faintly remembered only a small fistful of times when he was too drunk to walk and Grillby called his brother in a hushed, calm voice. It was as warm and inviting as himself. He was almost extinguished from the humans, and never fully recovered. He was getting better, slowly, slowly. He wasn't even able to walk when he first arrived to the Valley. However, Sans watched with horrified eyes as he grabbed his daughter's arm, screaming, sobbing, pleading- trying to pull her up from the current. He never fully recovered. Without a moment's hesitation, Sans's eye began to glow and he pulled her out of the once-calm river. Where was Undyne when they needed her? Grillby was still sobbing, begging for his daughter to respond. He let go as her arm crumpled to dust.