First Undertale fanfic! And it's totally plotless, go figure. But. I just wanted to post some pointless fluffy platonic love for Singles Awareness Day and this family is too precious to pass up so that's that. Also, for reference, the reader is Frisk, and this takes place at Toriel's house while she's away doing things and the rest of the gang is chilling out with Frisk so they're not home alone. Hope you like it and next time I'll try to include the rest of the goat family, and hopefully Mettaton. Enjoy!

When you wake up from the nightmare, you're panting. It's not the usual kind of fear, where you taste dust in your lungs and ashes in your mouth and your hands are shaking from the memory of a knife in them, but it aches the same way, heavy and dark in your chest. You scrub at your face because you know your cheeks are wet, and you hate that you still care about the memories that come to you sometimes of your life before you fell into Mount Ebott, that you care about anything from before at all. Nothing and nobody had cared for you, and it doesn't seem right that you should give them any unjustified thought but you can't erase them from your mind no matter how much you try.

Your breaths are steadying as you press your face into your knees, but your mind is still screaming far too loudly for you to concentrate, and you dig your fingers into your palms to ground yourself with the slight sting of pain. You're tougher than this, you tell yourself, and you can deal with this on your own, but when twenty minutes pass and you still can't stop thinking of the sound of your parents fighting because of you in your dream, you decide it's time to get some air and see if that will help.

You're silent as you sneak across the living room where all your friends are still lying where they'd fallen asleep in the middle of your Disney marathon, blanket under your arm. Gently, you unlatch the sliding glass door that leads into your backyard and the flower garden there, and you're instantly greeted by a face full of chilly spring air as you slip outside and close the door behind you.

It rained earlier, and the smell is still lingering. You wiggle your toes a bit in the softened dirt and still-wet grass, enjoying the sensation even if it is a bit cold before moving forward, the moonlight glistening on the mist drops and casting shadows along the ground. You follow its lead to the center of the flower garden, where there's a little stone pavilion with benches around the edges, and you tug your blanket around your shoulders as you sit down on the ground and lean your head back against the bench.

The night sky is ink-black flecked with white like splatter paint, the moon hanging like a great pale lamp amidst all the stars. It's a waxing gibbous, you think, remembering your science classes. Soon enough, it will be full, and then it will fade away again like it always does. You think there's something beautiful about the cycle and you always have, though you can't quite place your finger on what exactly it is that you find so alluring.

You bite your lip, taking your gaze away from the moon to look back at the flowers around you, their usual golden colour dyed silver by the moonlight. They make you think of Asriel, still stuck under the mountain, and as you look back to the sky, you wonder if he's looking up through the cracks in the ceiling to see the stars too, or maybe standing in the soil just outside the barrier's mouth and wishing he could come down.

Of all the resets you'd done to make things right and set everyone free, you never were able to save him.

He wouldn't let you, of course, though you'd tried, and you don't think you can really blame yourself for that, but that doesn't make it ache any less. Of all the tragedies in the world, you think the greatest is that he never got to live on the surface, here with the humans and the sun and the stars that shone like the rocks in Waterfall never could. For as much as Chara hated people, hated the world, hated everything, you think Asriel would have liked it here. He would have liked it a lot.

You're no longer thinking of your parents, but you're not sure this is much of an improvement as you tighten the blanket around yourself and sigh. Your mind still isn't quiet, but at least it smells good out here. You think that's good enough, and you shift slightly to rest your chin on your arms when, out of nowhere, there's a shuffling sound to your right and Sans plops down beside you.

You jump slightly at the suddenness of it – you hadn't even heard the door opening, and you're not sure if that means you were just that zoned out or if Sans broke the laws of physics again – but you settle down quickly and return your eyes to the sky when he looks at you. "hey, kiddo," he says, and you wave a bit in greeting without looking at him. "finding what you're looking for out here?"

You shrug slightly. "I wasn't really looking for anything," you mumble quietly into your arms, not entirely sure that Sans will even be able to make out your words.

Apparently, he's able, because he nods. "yeah, makes sense," he says agreeably. "i thought this looked like an impromptu stargazing session. would have been hard for you to planet ahead."

You groan a bit, thinking you should have seen that one coming, but you smile anyway before the smile slips back into a frown. "I didn't wake you up, did I?" you ask.

Sans shrugs. " 's fine," he tells you. "i wasn't really sleeping. i just thought i'd keep you company when you didn't come back in."

You nod. You still feel a bit bad about making him come out here, but you're glad that you at least didn't ruin anybody's sleep. You look over at him, holding out an edge of the blanket in offering for if he wants to join you under it, and Sans seems to contemplate for a moment before taking you up on the offer, grabbing the fabric and scooting closer. Once he pulls the blanket back down, you lean against him, head resting on his ribcage and still looking at the stars. He puts an arm around you and you'd be lying if you said you didn't appreciate it.

The two of you are silent for a little while before Sans speaks. "so, uh, kiddo," he begins, and you bite your lip because you can guess what's coming and you really don't want to talk about this even if you probably should. "wanna tell me why you're so quiet tonight?"

You shrug to avoid giving any kind of official answer. "Not much to say," you tell him.

You feel him nod. "makes sense." He pauses. "still, uh. you don't usually get this absorbed by the skyline. you're not spacing out on me, are you?"

The corners of your mouth twitch up at that one, and you shake your head. "'m fine," you assure him, even though you're pretty sure he can guess that you're not. Sans is a lot more observant than you used to give him credit for. You'd learned the hard way about that. He's gracious enough not to comment on your lie though, and so the silence returns until it's interrupted by the sound of the door opening and someone stepping out.

"SANS?" you hear the whisper, and you smile a bit, because it's obvious Papyrus is trying to be quiet but he's still not much more subtle than the airhorn on your neighbor's bike from when you were growing up. "ARE YOU OUT HERE SOMEWHERE?"

"over here, bro," Sans says, and he lifts up an arm to wave and catch Papyrus's attention.

The taller skeleton sees it immediately and spies you leaned against his brother. His grin broadens. "OH!" he says. "ARE YOU AND FRISK HAVING A SLEEPOVER IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR SLEEPOVER?" Sans nods a bit. "CAN I JOIN YOU?" Another nod, and then Papyrus is tramping energetically across the garden, lanky limbs carrying him over to sit on the other side of you in just a few steps. He stretches his legs out, then follows your gaze up to the sky. "WOWIE," he says, "ARE THESE ALL ROCKS?"

Sans laughs quietly, and you smile. "nah," he tells Papyrus, "those are real stars, remember? they're the ones the rocks were supposed to imitate."

"OH RIGHT," Papyrus says with an energetic nod. "THAT MAKES SENSE. AND SEEMS EASIER. IT WOULD TAKE A LONG TIME TO PUT UP THIS MANY ROCKS." There's a brief silence that Papyrus is quick to end. "SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT THIS SUPER-COOL SLEEPOVER WITHIN THE SLEEPOVER? BECAUSE I CAN'T HELP NOTICING THAT THERE ISN'T MUCH SLEEPING INVOLVED."

You answer this time, nodding at the stars. "We're just looking at the sky," you tell him.

He nods. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?"

You shake your head. "Nothing, really," you admit. "I just like looking."

"OH." There's another second of silence. "UNDYNE TOLD ME ALPHYS TOLD HER THAT HUMANS PUT DRAWINGS IN THE SKY. I DON'T SEE THEM THOUGH."

You frown a bit in confusion, but thankfully, Sans gets it. "those are just constellations," he explains. "they're kind of like connect-the-dot drawings, except with stars. see, that one's a swan." He points to a series of stars, and both you and Papyrus follow his finger, tracing the pattern with your eyes.

"THAT DOESN'T LOOK VERY SWAN-LIKE," Papyrus points out.

Sans nods. "not really," he agrees. "how about a different one? there's an archer," he says, pointing to a different series of stars.

Papyrus blinks. "I DON'T SEE IT."

You see the light in Sans's eyes and can sense the pun coming. Sure enough- "it was worth a shot."

Papyrus groans loudly, and you sigh, shaking your head. "That one was bad."

"they can't all be winners," Sans shrugs, unaffected.

Before you can comment, there's a loud bang as the door is opened with such force that you're surprised the glass doesn't shatter. "M-maybe we shouldn't be so loud-" you hear Alphys murmuring.

Undyne either doesn't hear her or doesn't think loudness really matters at the moment, because when when she speaks, she's yelling. "HEY!" she calls as she steps outside in her pajamas, trailed shortly by Alphys. "What are you punks doing out here? You better not be having fun without us!"

"WE'RE NOT HAVING FUN WITHOUT YOU!" Papyrus assures her hurriedly. "WE'RE HAVING A SLEEPOVER WITHIN A SLEEPOVER, WHICH ACTUALLY INVOLVES VERY LITTLE SLEEPING AND A LOT OF LOOKING AT ROCKS THAT AREN'T ROCKS WHILE SANS TRIES TO CONVINCE US THEY'RE ACTUALLY BIRDS."

"That…" Undyne begins slowly, before her face lights up with a bright grin. "SOUND AWESOME! Come on, Alphys!" Without waiting for a response, she grabs Alphys's hand and drags her along, leaving the door open behind her and hurrying across the stone to sit down beside Papyrus, smiling broadly. "We're joining you, punks!" she grins, and you sit up to make room. She tilts her head back, then blinks in confusion. "Sans, where's the bird at?"

"i dunno," Sans says. "i can't find it anymore. maybe it flew the coop."

Papyrus groans loudly and yells, and you laugh as Undyne's eye twitches and Alphys fails to hide a smile. "I think he's t-talking about Cygnus, the swan constellation," she says helpfully. "It's those stars over there, see?" Once more she points to the series of stars, and once more, you shake your head.

Undyne looks just as confused. "Do human swans really look like that?" she asks. "That looks more like Reaper Bird to me."

Alphys swallows a bit at the name, but shakes her head. "N-no," she says, "it's not supposed to be super accurate. It just looks sort-of like a swan, i-if that makes sense?"

"So the humans have a sort-of swan in the sky?" Undyne clarifies. At Alphys's nod, she blinks. "That's awesome! I bet someone really tough threw it up there!"

"N-no," Alphys says hurriedly, "t-they didn't throw it there, that would have hurt the swan."

"yeah," Sans says, winking at you, "i think the swan would be threw with humanity if that had happened."

"SANS, THAT'S HORRIBLE!" Papyrus announces with a groan as Undyne yells in frustration.

Nonplussed, Sans shrugs. "yeah, you're right, that one was pretty fowl."

"SANS!"

You're laughing too hard by now to even hide it, and Undyne looks like she's contemplating suplexing Sans, and since you're not sure how well that would end, you're thankful when Alphys manages to make herself heard over the minor chaos. "A-actually," she says, "the humans have a story for all the constellations."

"REALLY?" Papyrus says. At Alphys's nod, he bounces excitedly from where he's sitting. "WOWIE, I LOVE STORIES! DO YOU KNOW IT?"

"Y-yeah, I think so," Alphys says uncertainly. "I mean, I might get some of the names wrong, but I think I know most of it…"

Undyne taps Alphys with what's probably supposed to be an affectionate nudge but winds up jostling all five of you with its force. "Then tell it to us already!" she says. "C'mon, we're dying to hear it!"

"yeah," Sans agrees, "i guess you could say we're all really star-ting to get excited."

"PLEASE START TELLING THE STORY BEFORE SANS MAKES ANY MORE PUNS," Papyrus begs while you smile and Undyne twitches.

Alphys nods slowly. "U-um, okay. It's a bit strange, but I'll try." Papyrus shifts expectantly and Undyne leans forward onto her elbows to look at Alphys, so she clears her throat and begins. "S-so, um, once upon a time, there were two humans, Cygnus and Phaeton, and they liked to compete with each other," she explains.

Undyne grins. "Sounds like my kind of humans!" she crows.

Alphys smiles a bit. "Y-yeah, a little," she admits. "Um. One day, they wanted to have a race across the sky, around the sun, and back to Earth to see who was f-fastest, but when they tried to hard to win, they wound up burning their chariots – that was their cars back then, I guess – they burnt their chariots on the sun and fell down."

"guess that heated up quickly," Sans comments. Alphys ignores him entirely while Papyrus groans.

"A-anyway," Alphys continues, "when Cygnus woke up, he found out that Phaeton hadn't survived falling, so h-he asked Zeus – he was a really powerful human, I think - to turn him into a swan so he could reach Phaeton's body and give him a good burial. Zeus let him, but it meant that Cygnus would only live as long as a s-swan, instead of forever. He, um. He buried Phaeton though, so his s-soul could go onto the afterlife, and Zeus thought it was really neat, what Cygnus did, so he p-put him in the sky to honor him." She pauses briefly. "T-that's really it."

There's a temporary silence, then Papyrus sniffles. "THAT ENDING IS EVEN SADDER THAN FLUFFY BUNNY."

"fluffy bunny isn't a sad ending, pap," Sans points out, but Papyrus shakes his head as if in protest.

"Yeah, that ending sucks!" Undyne declares. "Humans are awful at storytelling! They should have just made better chariots and suplexed that bird into the sky! Then Zeus could leave it there as a trophy!"

Alphys blinks. "I don't think they really thought of it like that," she points out.

Undyne roars with indignation. "Well, they should have! I mean, that's a horrible ending, getting turned into a swan! You don't get turned into a swan for friends, you get into swan throwing contests with them!"

"I THINK THAT WOULD STILL HURT THE SWAN," Papyrus points out.

Undyne deflates a bit at the reminder. "Oh yeah." After a moment, she brightens again. "Then how about a race to see who can run their chariot into the sky, put the swan up first, and then get back to the Earth? Then no one gets burned up and no swans get hurt!"

"THAT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA," Papyrus agrees, "AND LIKE A MUCH HAPPIER STORY."

"Y-yeah," Alphys admits. "Maybe you're right."

"I vote we change the story!" Undyne yells. "No more dying friends! Just awesome swan driving races!"

"Y-yeah!" Alphys's voice is stronger now, and she's grinning. "We'd totally race those swans!"

"Damn- I mean, darn right we would!" Undyne yells loudly with a look at you as she corrects her language, and you grin.

Sans nudges you with an elbow. "good thing you live in a pretty isolated space, huh?" he says. "i think the humans around here would be real tired of us waking them up by now if you didn't."

"Probably," you admit as Alphys starts discussing the possibility of using a jet pack to put a swan in the stars with Undyne and Papyrus joins in. "They'd be pretty alarmed by all this yelling waking them up."

Sans chuckles a bit. "nice one, kid," he says, pulling you out of the way as Undyne stands up without any warning and strikes a dramatic pose that almost kicks you in the face, and you smile gratefully at him. His eyes are bright, and it seems a bit more genuine than usual. "you feeling better now?"

You nod, smiling as you press into his ribs for another hug and shift the blanket to cover you again. "Much."