Sans gasped loudly, sitting up abruptly in his messy bed. Drops of sweat littered his face and body, and glowing cyan tears pricked away at the corner of his eye sockets. 'It was just another nightmare, it's not real. Not real at all.' Sans assured himself, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. Even though Frisk promised to never reset the timeline again, Sans was still terrified that they'd suddenly change their mind and bring everyone back to square one. His nightmares still occurred almost daily, resulting in him looking absolutely exhausted all the time. It was troubling and quite annoying, he used to love sleep so much and now he could barely ever get any without having a bad dream and waking up in tears. It sucked. A lot.

"SANS? ARE YOU AWAKE?" Papyrus' loud voice echoed from downstairs, probably attempting to make breakfast for the day. That was always appreciated, as Sans liked to do as little work as possible. After all this time, he was still a lazy ass skeleton.

"yea, i'll be downstairs in a few." Sans responded quickly, taking a few more moments to savor the comfort that was his bed. He wanted to go back to sleep so badly, but knew that he couldn't considering that he did have a job. The small skeleton dragged himself out of bed and got out of his pajamas, trading them clothing that would be barely acceptable for work attire. He worked as a scientist alongside Alphys and was mainly a physicist, however, on the side he secretly continued his research on anomalies and the time-space continuum.

Sans dragged himself downstairs, not ready to put his facade of happiness on yet. It was extremely draining to have to smile and joke around all the time when all you wanted to do was cry and just be by yourself. He huffed, stopping for a moment before entering the kitchen, he needed a moment to compose himself before greeting his brother. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to his brother considering that the loud skeleton always caused him to be in a better mood. He just needed a moment, already being able to tell that today was going to be a bad day. How lovely. "hey, bro." Sans greeted nonchalantly with a smile plastered onto his face once he was ready to walk into the kitchen.

"GOOD MORNING, BROTHER. YOU SLEPT IN LATE FOR A WORK DAY TODAY, YOU LAZYBONES." Papyrus chided lightly, although Sans knew that his younger brother wasn't actually mad at him. Sans couldn't help but sleep a lot, it just came so easily to him (well, that hasn't been the case lately considering his constant nightmares). If he hadn't had the issue of nightmares, Papyrus would've probably had to drag him out of bed himself.

"what can i say? i'm just so good at sleep that i could probably do it with my eyes closed." He joked, ignoring the overbearing thought in his mind that most of last night was spent tossing and turning relentlessly trying to actually get to sleep. Papyrus didn't even bother replying to his brother's bad pun, just rolling his eyes jokingly before turning back to the stove to continue making whatever he was cooking. "ah, c'mon, bro. that was a good one and you know it," Sans complained lightly, leaning against one of counters and crossing his arms.

"IT WAS NOT! IT WAS VERY BAD." Papyrus responded in his usual cheery, loud voice. Sans chuckled before turning on his heel to head back out into the living area.

"whatever ya say, paps. you're just jealous that you didn't think of it yourself," He said cheekily as he flopped down on the couch. He sighed comfortably, leaning into the worn cushions. The two brothers definitely didn't have the best furniture, but Sans personally thought that what they did have was pretty great. Especially the couch, it's perfect for naps. Being so exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before, Sans began to drift off into a light sleep. He was almost out before Papyrus' loud voice startled him awake.

"WAKE UP AND COME EAT, BREAKFAST IS READY." Papyrus informed, and all Sans could do was nod as he was still in a slight shock from being awoken so quickly. He practically dragged himself off the couch, stretching as if he had just gotten up from a long night's sleep. Heading over to their small table, Sans noticed the two plates of spaghetti already placed in front of their seats. Papyrus had gotten tremendously better at cooking compared to when Undyne first started giving him cooking lessons back in the Underground. He was actually going to cooking school currently, since he could no longer join the Royal Guard anymore (as it was disbanded a year ago) he took up cooking as an actual job possibility. It was nice not having to pretend that Papyrus' meals tasted good just for his younger brother's sake and actually enjoying them.

"ya know, paps. i wouldn't exactly call spaghetti breakfast." Sans joked around, although he really didn't care what they ate for each meal. Food was food, and Sans would probably enjoy it as long as it tasted good. He could hear Papyrus' fake offended gasp coming from the kitchen before he emerged, carrying forks and napkins. /p

"AND? WHAT IS YOUR POINT?" Papyrus responded, sitting down in his respective seat, Sans across from him with a amused grin glued onto his face. He handed Sans a napkin and a fork, who took the two objects quickly.

"well, damn. you got me there." Sans chuckled, actually not feeling too bad in that moment. He normally felt pretty emotionally stable when his brother was around. He had this way of cheering Sans up without even knowing that the smaller skeleton was suffering. Papyrus smiled triumphantly once Sans admitted to him being right and then began to eat. Sans did as well, enjoying that his brother's food actually tasted edible now. Back then, it all tasted like someone tried to make food, burnt it, and then let their dog take a crap on it. Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration. The point was that it tasted bad, period. The two ate their breakfast in content silence, and every now and then a small conversation ensued. Sans lost track of time and the next time he glanced at his phone that he didn't even remember bringing downstairs with him, it was already time to go to work. "crap, i've gotta go. see ya later, bro!" Sans jumped up from his seat and began to head to the door. As much as he'd love to miss work and laze around all day, he knew Alphys would not be happy about that unless he was sick.

"SANS! WHAT ABOUT YOUR PLATE?" Papyrus complained, his eyes staring intently at the dirty plate Sans had left sitting on the table. How typical of him. He couldn't expect much more from his brother, though. He had always been messy, and Papyrus had a feeling that wouldn't change for a long time, if not ever.

"i'll clean it up later!" Sans promised, but both of them knew very well that he wasn't going to be cleaning it up anytime soon. Even if he planned on it, he'd probably forget about it ever being left on the table sooner or later. Sans then waved one last goodbye for the day and headed outside, closing the door behind him. Glancing at the clock on his phone, he knew he wouldn't make it by walking. Thank the stars that he could just teleport there instead. That made his life a lot easier and saved unnecessary explanations to his boss as of why he was late. Within moments, he was outside the lab he worked at. Taking a moment to steady himself, as teleportation always seemed to make him the slightest bit dizzy.

Walking inside the large building, the stark white lobby almost hurt his eyes. Everything was so clean and crisp, with splashes of color thanks to framed pictures/paintings on the wall and a couple of other small objects. There really wasn't any need for the lobby other than a place for employees to sign in, since visitors weren't exactly expected at a place like this. Sans headed up to the front desk and showed his work I.D to the lady working behind it. She simply looked at it for a few moments before nodding and logging him into the system. The woman wasn't exactly one for words, and the only reason that Sans knew her name was because of the name tag on her coat.

Sans walked into the next room, and his work day began. It went by excruciatingly slow for some reason, possibly because there wasn't much to be done. Well, that was a lie. There was a lot of filling out paperwork, and Sans definitely did not like filling out papers. It was a lot of work, and quite overwhelming considering his lazy tendencies. He couldn't help but look at the small clock on the computer next to him often, wanting his shift to be over already.

As the time for his day to be over came closer, the slower it seemed to go. He was still filling out papers, taking well deserved 'breaks' often which was really just him using his phone for thirty minutes or so. Finally, after what felt like forever, the day was over. The moment he saw the time was at 4:00 PM, he shoved all of the papers into a messy pile and stood up from the office chair he'd been stuck in for most of the day. He made sure he had everything and walked back out into the lobby to sign out. He was practically itching to get home, and the thought of taking a nap on the couch was suddenly very appealing to him. Sans once again headed up to the front desk like he had that same morning, and showed the worker (who's name was Anna, according to the name tag) his I.D. It wasn't like he really needed to, since he was already in the system for the day so Anna could easily find him and sign him out. It was most likely out of habit, as he had to do it for the first couple of months when nobody really knew him. He waved bye before walking out of the large building and sighing loudly. It was Friday, he had just realized which meant he had the entire weekend to himself. Well, maybe not to himself but he did have lots of extra time to sit around and worry about literally everything.

Sans decided that it wasn't worth walking home, as that took way too much effort on his part. He teleported home, reappearing inside the living room that he had slowly grown accustomed too. Papyrus would still be at work (well, it was more like a school) for about two more hours, he didn't have to go in until about an hour after Sans' shift started which of course the short skeleton was jealous of. Before doing anything, he walked upstairs and into his bedroom to change. The clothing he was wearing just wasn't really his thing. He stripped of everything he would only wear to work and put on a worn out white t-shirt and a pair of loose black sweatpants. To top it off, he put on the blue hoodie that he was almost never seen without it on unless he was at work. He thought for a moment before flopping down onto his bed instead of the couch like he had thought of doing while signing out at the lab. It was just too far, and teleporting downstairs just seemed like overkill.

It wasn't very long until he felt his eyes growing heavy, and he fell into a light sleep, sprawled out on his mattress comfortably.