Toriel stood behind a tree, her red eyes fixed on the snowed path, leading to the door of her ruins. She had no doubt that he would take this route again. Oh, he'd probably told himself that he shouldn't, that it wasn't worth it, that he would just get hurt again - but in the end he would come as he always did. And she would be waiting.

The former queen didn't have to wait long. Roughly a moment after she finished her thoughts, she heard the sounds of footsteps in the snow. Toriel didn't even have to peek out from her hiding place to know it was him. Sans' steps were easily recognizable to her by now. Fast, strong, almost pounding, but also hesitant, as if he didn't really want to go. Toriel wondered if she should tell him how traitorous his footsteps were, but she decided against it. Maybe another day. If she used all of her ammunition at once, she would run out of ways to play with her little toy, after all. And then she would quickly get bored. Oh, and what horrible things she could be capable of when she was bored!

He was standing in front of her door now. His hands were stowed away in the pockets of his black sweatshirt and he seemed even more nervous than he had been when she last left him. Which might have had something to do with the fact that the door to the ruins was open. Not fully just a little creaked, more than enough to make him uncomfortable. Toriel suppressed a snicker. It was always hilarious how predictable Sans could be. The small skeletons head whirled left and right, looking for a sign, a trail of footsteps, anything that could tell him where she could have disappeared too. It was almost heartwarming how worried he looked. Or was that fear? Either way it made her chuckle.

The sound of her voice would give her away she knew, but she had planned on revealing herself now anyway. Sans turned around hastily, eyes scanning the path before him. "T-Toriel?" he asked.

The former queen smiled and stepped out of her hiding place behind the trees. Sans flinched when he saw her. She had cut off his only way to run and that was unsettling to him. Which was exactly what Toriel had intended. "Hello Sans." she said, smiling. Sans took a tiny step back, sweating nervously.

"Why aren't you-?"

"In there?" Toriel finished his sentence for him, pointing at the massive door. "Well, I felt the sudden urge to go out and see the world. Even if there is not much to see. Why are you asking? Do you think I'm obligated to wait behind that door until you decide to show up?" She took a step towards him, the oh-so-friendly smile still on her face. Sans noticed and took another step back.

"What? No, it's just you...you're usually behind that door and you only ever come out when...when..." Sans was sweating bullets by now, desperately trying to find a proper ending for his sentence.

Toriel's smile widened and she continued closing in on him, making him retreat more and more towards the door to the ruins. "I wanted to try something different today." she mused, enjoying the slight glimmer of fright in his glowing red eyes. "I get bored so quickly." With a last step, she had Sans cornered against the door. His eyes went to the door behind him and back to her. He was trapped and he knew it.

Toriel pouted and put a hand to her chest in mock hurt. "Oh Sans, I am disappointed. I thought we had a connection, but here you are, trying to avoid me. Do you hate me that much?" The skeleton just stared at her seemingly unable to move.

"Stay away!" he said suddenly. He tried to sound threatening, Toriel could tell, but his voice was shaking. Her smile turned cruel all of a sudden.

"And why, pray tell, should I do that? I just want to talk Sans." Another step closer. "That is what you are here for, is it not? Talking." There were barely a few meters between them. "That is what we have been doing since you found my door. Talking about you. And your job. Your hopes. Your dreams. You told it all to a stranger behind a door. Without hesitation. But once that stranger decided to show herself to you, you suddenly get so rude."

"I-I said stay away!" Sans said. One of his hands came out of his pocket and a giant Gaster Blaster appeared behind him, ready to fire.

Toriel raised an eyebrow. Interesting. This was the first time he actually decided to take action against her. It was not bad, actually. Seeing him this tense and aggressive but scared of her all the same. Scared of what she could do to him. Toriel chuckled internally. Well if he was going all out, she would, too.

"Oh come now, Sans. I know you will not use that" she pointed at the Gaster Blaster, "against me. Because if you do that...you will be truly alone." Sans was shaking all over. His magic was destabilizing and he was fighting to keep it together.

"I'm not alone!" he talked back. "I-I have Papyrus!"

Toriel broke out into a fit of cold, heartless laughter. "Oh yes, your dear brother. Does he not love you all so much? So much that he frequently uses his magic against you, even though he knows that you have only one hitpoint? So much that he locks you in your room for days, should you ever upset him? Because he knows you can't do anything about it. That you are no match for him, no matter how hard you try. Oh, but that's not true, isn't it? In reality, you are much more powerful than that. You could smash him like a nasty bug beneath your feet. You could tear him apart and throw him into the Snowdin river."

Sans eyes shook at her words. "S-Stop..."

"But you would never do that. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how long you have to stay in the dark until he decides to let you out again," Toriel continued in a nonchalant tone, stepping closer to him once again. "Because you have this adorable hope that maybe one day, he will see how much he is hurting you. And then he will stop and you two will be real brothers again. Like in the old times, when you were young."

"Stop, please." he begged. The spell holding the blaster upright was slowly dissolving into nothing, Toriel could see it. She looked at him with nothing but amusement.

"That is what makes you so precious Sans," she smiled, slowly bowing down to his eye level. "You are so desperate for someone, anyone to distract you from the pain. So much that you even told all of you secrets, dreams and fears to a random woman behind a door. And even as I revealed myself you kept coming back like a lost puppy. You need me Sans."

She cupped his head in her hands and kissed him, slowly, gently. Sans made a surprised sound and tried to get away, but she had him right there and she wasn't going to let him leave. With a final, chaste lick over his teeth, Toriel finally released her victim. Sans slumped down on his knees, tears coming out of his eye-sockets and shaking like crazy.

Toriel looked at her work, a feeling of satisfaction forming inside her head. She stroked his boney cheek, smiling ever so softly. "I am the only one you have in this sad, cruel world we live in."