For the LOVE

Chapter 8: Heart in my hands and I can't decide

[The Lab]

"twenty years it a long fucking time to wait frisk…" Sans mumbled into her chest.

She had laid back on the pillows after her crying session and had dragged Sans with her, not willing to let him go now that she had him.

"Chara is dead." She leaned back against the pillows and sighed. "If it could've been done earlier, I would've, believe me Sans…"

He gripped her tighter, not willing to let the moment go.

"what now?" he mumbled. He was at a loss. What do they do next? Talk about everything? He didn't have the stomach for that right now, fuck you very much.

"Well, as much as I would love to keep doing this, it sounds like someone knows I am awake…" she pressed her lips to the crown of his skull as he realized there was banging and shaking of the door before it broke open and flew off it's hinges into the room.

Undyne was the first in the room, spear in hand and rage in her one good eye. At the sight of the two of them on the bed she lost all her steam and blushed.

"Oh…. Well shit, that's why the door was locked…." She mumbled.

Frisk laughed, shaking Sans as she tried to catch her breath.

"You never fucking change do you Undyne? This is almost as bad as when we caught your house on fire trying to cook!" Frisk had let go of Sans only to have to hold her sides as tears ran down her face, this time from laughing.

"We…never…. HOLY MOTHER OF ASGORE!" Sans watched as a lightbulb went off in Undyne's head. The fish woman was beside them in an instant, gaping as she looked down at the human on the bed.

The rest of their friends seemed to trickle in as Sans go off the bed and stood to Frisk's right, watching each of them look from Undyne to Frisk and back again.

Grillby and Liz seemed the last to arrive and Alphys moved around the monitors to check her patient.

"A-are you felling ok?" Alphys muttered as she grabbed Frisk's left wrist to take her pulse.

"Other than a wicked headache, I'm fine Alphys…. Probably better than I've ever been." Frisk turned to look at Sans on her right. He couldn't stop himself from grabbing her right hand and threading his fingers in between hers.

"Well, thank fuck…" Liz exhaled. "Now I can take care of that fucking storage unit…"

Sans chuckled as the rest of the group made more and more confused faces.

"I believe we are out of the loop on this…" Asgore muttered, looking straight at Sans.

Well, shit. How to explain this?

Alphys seemed to take the lead at this, still checking all the monitors.

"T-that's why I called you a-all here. Lauren IS Frisk. I-I had to run a DNA test on them t-to be sure but it had j-just come back." Alphys squeezed Frisk's shoulder before turning to the group and blushing. "I-it took a few weeks for it to come back b-but…" she mumbled off blushing as all the eyes in the room turned to her.

More than one of them had their mouths agape but it was Toriel who broke first.

"M-My child? Is it really you?" She left Asgore at the foot of the bed and moved beside Sans, who let go of Frisk's hand and stepped back toward to wall.

"Hi Mom… I would say you should hit me for disappearing like that but I don't want anything happening to my siblings…" Sans could see her smile from behind Toriel and felt the warmth of it hit his chest like a spotlight.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by with hugs and tears from all their friends, even a smile in his direction from Liz. Frisk promised that she would explain later but really wanted to get out of the bed and go home as soon as she could. Alphys really didn't have any discharge papers but stressed that she should call if she felt anything painful.

Sans was happy just to take her home and as they walked though his dimension door he pulled her close.

The stumbled into his room, both unwilling to let the other go and flopped onto the bed. The fear and trauma of the last few days seemed to settle into him as they lay there, both slightly shaking.

"I can't reset anymore Sans. We're safe. It's all fucking over." She mumbled into his jacket.

He shuddered one last time before he fell asleep, his snores the only sound in the room.

[Two Weeks Later]

Asgore was still letting me rest, my time in the Void with Gaster seemed to such all of the energy out of me so I could only be awake for a few hours at a time. Sans had kept everything as safe as he could, sleeping with me when he was home, going to work at a normal time and feeding me when I was awake enough to eat.

Sans was making breakfast in the kitchen and I was watching from the table when I finally got the courage to talk.

"Gaster pulled me into the void that day. I was dying. I had shattered my soul and run the entire timeline to free everyone but I was going to die. He had been watching… Watching all of us… He pulled me into the void and used pieces of his soul to keep me from dying. It felt like years but when he got me out, only a year had passed. I don't know if it was the trauma of the void or the spot weld on my soul that took the memories for so long but I was alive. For the first few years he was like and imaginary friend and then I seemed to just let everything slid by. I had nightmares but I could never see anything or totally hear anything. Somethings would trigger episode, like Chara was trying to gain control again but each time, I would just come out of it." I looked at him. He had finished cooking and had set all the pans aside to cool. He was in the process of putting everything on the table as I continued but he still didn't look at me.

"I… I should've known it wouldn't be that easy and I guess Chara's name was a trigger for me. I got pulled into the Void again. That space between worlds and Chara was waiting for me. WE fought with all the strength I had but it wasn't enough. I was going to die again." I grabbed the cup of hot tea in front of me. "I knew I would have just enough strength to reset…." I looked up at him.

His eyes had gone dark and he seemed frozen, hands on either side of his coffee mug as she sat across from me at the little round table.

"But I couldn't do that to you. Not again. Not after all the bullshit I had put you through when I had lost control. The worst part was… I felt like I wouldn't get to say goodbye…" I started to cy but I kne I had to finish it.

"So I gave up… Until Gaster showed up… we ripped out the shards of my soul that I was missing… and he put them back where they belonged…" I cried.

"But I'm still missing one piece…" I placed my mug on the table and dropped my head into my hands and sobbed.

I heard Sans chair scrap against the floor as he stood and walked toward me. I cringed, waiting to die. Waiting for a bone or a blaster to come and kill me as he stood beside me. Instead he wrapped his arms around me and let me cry into his shirt.

"i know…" He mumbled. "i know… i looked.. i couldn't help myself…" He rubbed my back and hummed a bit as I clutched the bottom of his spine.

"but i think i found it…" he whispered into my ear.

I could feel him teleport us to his bedroom and I felt myself sink in the edge of the bed. Slowly he peeled my shirt off from my back and motioned for me to lie back as he pulled off his jacket and shirt.

We were both dressed in sleep pants and I had neglected to put on a bra that morning but I laid back as he asked. He joined me a second later flopping backward, causing me to bounce a little. He took his hand and guided my chin in his direction so I was looking at him. We hadn't been together since before the episode so I blushed a little when he ran his hand down the front of my chest and placed his hand on my mating mark.

"i have it… and you have a piece of mine…" he pulled my soul out slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.

Curiosity won out and I turned my head to look at my soul again. The piece that I though had been missing was there, a bright blue sliver down the center. It filled all the nooks and crannies along the way. I placed my hand underneath it and scooted back on the bed until my back met the wall. Sans did the same, pulling his own soul out in the process. His looked like mine had but instead of blue filling the gaps, it was red.

We sat in silence, both of our souls glowing in the dim light of the room. They slowly turned toward each other, the gold stings connecting once again and dragging each other closer. This time Sans leaned into me, pushing his soul forward, and grabbing my right hand, intertwining his fingers with mine, our souls trapped in the palms of our hands. The was another flash and Sans used this and his magic to pull me on top of him.

"i forgave you years ago kiddo…" preferring his nickname for me.

I laid my head against his chest, our fingers still intertwined and fell asleep again.

There were no better dreams than the one I was in.

[One year later]

He was going to fuck this up somehow… He knew it. He had planned a nice dinner out for them last month and had forgotten the ring at home and just last week he had chickened out as they watched fireworks. How Pap had convinced him to do it in the old Judgement Hall, he would never know.

Frisk was talking a walk with the others through their times in the Underground. Everyone had thought it was a great idea to show Valen and Lyra where their little family had come from and Liz had even tagged along with Grillby to see the sights. The kids were only a year old but monster children seemed to grow quickly so although they couldn't talk in intelligible sentences, they were already up and running with everyone else.

Sans has told everyone he was too tired but Papyrus had clued them all into the plan and as their voices started to ring through the halls, they all stayed back.

It was like waiting for a nightmare to become a dream as Frisk walked through the large double doors, alone.

Seeing him peel away from one of the columns, she froze.

"hey kiddo…" He stopped. He had had a speech planned. Something witty. But it all went out the window when he saw her.

She was wearing an old purple and blue sweater with high waist skinny jeans and a pair of hiking boots. She had chopped all her hair off and now it seemed to curl around her face, gently brushing her chin. He walked forward, closer than he ever had before and stood in front of her.

"i've got a question for you…" Even the question slipped his mind. Something about change and being a better person. Instead he settled into what he knew best.

"knock knock…"

"That's not a question but…Who's there?"

"mary…"

"Mary who?

He got down on one kneecap, his right hand coming out of his pocket to produce a small blue box. He opened it and looked up at her. Her eyes had returned to their original green after everything and she was stunning in the golden light. It took him a second before he remembered what he was going to say.

"Marry me?"

He felt more than saw her drop to her knees and hug him.

"Oh Sans… Yes. I will totally marry you! But did you have to use a knock-knock joke?" She laughed into his shoulder.

"kinda forgot what i was gonna say so, yeah…" He used his left hand to scratch his head before he hugged her back.

Papyrus was the first to run from where the group had been standing in the open door watching to hug the couple on the floor.

"WOWIE! NOW I HAVE YOU AS A SISTER, HUMAN! NYEH HEHEH!" Papyrus leaned back as Sans took the ring out of the box and placed it on her left ring finger.

He had toiled over the design of the ring for months with Grillby before deciding on a blue, heart shaped diamond on a simple gold band. One he had finished placing the ring on her finger, she kissed him on the teeth and helped him stand back up as the rest of their friends came forward.

Alphys was pregnant now so Undyne was carrying her with all the love and attention the fish woman had. Toriel and Asgore held their children's hands and Mettaton came to stand by Papyrus. Grillby and Liz were last to stroll in, hand in hand, his fire crackling brighter as they moved to congratulate the couple.

Sans watched his friends and family fawn over the ring as he leaned against a nearby pillar. Things couldn't get any better than this.