San's P.O.V.

My one glowing eye stares through Frisk's smug expression. The longer I hold onto their gaze, the more damned giggles come out of their mouth. They're not the least bit intimidated by me. They're not about to apologize for threatening their friends and family. What's going on with this kid?

It's as if they're an entirely different person right now.

Is this their true character? Were all those acts of mercy just for show? I never imagined the kid would hurt somebody. True, I thought they would reset. But that's something completely different than this.

Their empty grin remains sprawled across their lips. Something about that smile is completely wrong. It's not something that belongs on Frisk's face. The human that spared everyone, including the king of all monsters, is now grinning like an evil child. Something is very wrong here.

I take in a breath. There's no point trying to figure them out. The only thing I can do now is damage control. I'm dealing with a ticking bomb here. The last thing I need to do is to provoke them. So instead of mentioning the threats, I decide to focus on another topic.

"Are you going to tell Tory or do I need to?" I ask them.

Frisk knits their brows in confusion, yet the smile stays.

"Tell her what, Uncle Sans?" they ask in mocked affection.

"That you can talk. I'm not keeping this from her and you're not either. So either you go up to her and admit it or I'll tell her for you."

Frisk giggles. I glare when the laughter reaches my meatuses. I guess that's my answer then. I exit the room and make my way downstairs. Toriel is seeing Asgore off at the front door. It looks like leaving is the last thing that Asgore wants to do.

He shuffles his feet, "Well, I guess I'll see all of you later then. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Don't come until you've been invited, Asgore," Toriel orders.

"...Okay..."

Toriel sucks in a deep breath. Asgore's pitiful acts are finally getting to her. She offers a pleasant smile in an attempt to be a little nicer to him.

"Have a nice day," she says kindly, then promptly shuts the door.

She turns to me, her expression going sour. It's little wonder that she's unhappy with me. I did make her human child cry, after all.

"Tory, I need you to come with me."

Confused, her face softens. "What for?"

"I need to show you something."

I head back upstairs, making sure that she is following. When we reach Frisk's room, the child is still smiling blankly at the door. They look more like a motionless doll than a human. Toriel stops in her tracks when she sees them.

I cross my arms as I give Frisk my most determined look.

"What do you gotta say for yourself?"

Frisk continues to smile. They're not uttering a word. I guess it's up to me.

I glance at the stunned woman, "I heard them talk."

Toriel, still in a trance by how creepy her own child looks right now, barely registers that I spoke. She blinks a bit until what I said clicks in her brain. She turns to me with wide eyes.

"What?"

"Frisk talked to me," I explain, "Like they actually talked. They never needed to use sign language at all. I figured you should know."

Toriel inspects my face for any hint that I'm joking around, then she turns to look at Frisk.

"Is this true, my child?"

Dead grin still intact, Frisk raises their hand to perform sign language.

I don't know what Uncle Sans is talking about. He's acting funny, Mommy.

I glower at them. Toriel crosses her arms at me.

"Are you drunk again?" she accuses. My jaw goes slack.

"What? No! They're lying to you. Frisk and I were having a discussion when all of the sudden they started talking. They even told me that they were always able to talk."

Toriel looks at Frisk for clarification. Frisk merely shrugs their shoulders with a bemused smile. I want to slap that kid. They have no idea how much wrong they're doing to Toriel.

"Frisk!" I scream, "You better fess up to her now or I'll-"

"Sans, can I talk to you? Alone?" Toriel doesn't wait for me to answer. She heads outside. Gulping, I follow the goat monster downstairs. She doesn't stop until we reach the kitchen. I guess she really wants to make sure that Frisk doesn't overhear us. She looks pointedly at me, her arms crossed in anger.

"Now what was that about?" she asks.

My voice gets trapped in my throat. What can I say? Frisk was able to convince her that I was lying, so anything I say can be held against me.

To my relief, Toriel's expression softens. The woman exhales slowly.

"I think you need to rest in your room," it's a simple suggestion, but still makes me feel like a child. She's basically asking me to take a nap because she thinks I'm throwing a tantrum.

I feel like a Royal Guard with its tail between its legs. I'm too ashamed to look at her as I leave.

Frisk might have beaten me today. But tomorrow, I'll prove to Toriel what kind of person they really are.

I pull myself out of my slumber. Groggy, my head lifts up to look out the window. It's so early that it's still dark outside. Not even the birds are up yet. I rub my sockets, then throw myself out of bed. Now that I'm rested, I can ponder my options.

Maybe Frisk didn't mean anything they said. Maybe they were just upset with me for making them cry. That makes sense. They only said those awful things to get a reaction out of me.

I decide that I would give them one more chance. I was rude to them last night, so it makes sense that they would say such cruel things. Besides, they wouldn't actually hurt anybody. Right?

This is the same kid that traveled the entire underground without raising their fist a single time. Their philosophy had always been to use kindness against violence. I can't believe that they would suddenly change their mind for no reason.

Once I assured myself of this, I head to the kitchen for some coffee. To my surprise, Toriel is there. She's wearing a baby blue robe complete with slippers made of fake fur. She has custom-made rubber gloves over her hands and is currently washing a bowl of blueberries over the sink. She turns and smiles at me, looking more like a mother than usual. I quickly get over my shock.

"You're up kind of early," I say.

"I need to make the pie beforehand. So that it can set in the fridge for a few hours," she explains, "It will taste better that way."

I smile, "So it's going to be an apple blueberry pie, then?"

"How did you know?" she is shocked until I point to the bag of apples across from her. Then she laughs, "Oh. Right. How silly of me."

"You are acting kind of fruity," I agree with a large smile.

She responds, "I guess I'm berry out of it today."

We share a laugh after that. The genuine puns send a wave of endorphins through me. I feel so alive. So filled with determination. Thanks to this old lady, I could handle another day. It's like we hadn't fought yesterday.

Toriel reaches for something, blinks once and looks at where her hand is. It's like she's seen a ghost.

I frown, "Something wrong?"

She turns to me.

"That's odd," she says, "The drawer is empty. But I'm sure this is where I keep all my knives."

I approach the desk. Like she said, it's completely empty. I glance up at her concern face before rushing to the dishwasher and opening it. My heart sinks to find it empty as well.

"Maybe I misplaced them," she proposes.

But I have a sinking feeling that it's not that simple. And I think Toriel has a bad feeling too. Something is off about this. Knives don't go running away on their own.

Papyrus suddenly enters the room looking like he's about to fall over. The state of my brother takes my mind off the knives.

"What happened to you? You look like you didn't get a wink of sleep last night."

Papyrus averts his gaze so that he's not looking directly into my eye sockets. He mumbles something.

I hold in a sigh, "I can't hear you, bro. Is everything okay?"

"Eh...yes. I just got back home, actually," Papyrus says more clearly.

Wha...wait a minute.

"What do you mean you just got back? Where've you been? Undyne doesn't make you train all night," my protective side is starting to show. But for once, I don't care. After what happened with Frisk, I'm not about to let my guard down.

"Oh...well...I was...looking for a job. Not that I have one yet. I'm still looking."

"Bro, not many places hand out applications at three in the morning."

Papyrus continues to flash a guilty grin, "Well I found a few that did."

I slap my forehead and take in a deep breath. The fleeting happiness I felt a few seconds ago is already gone. Replaced by worry and slight anger. It takes a lot for me to get angry at my brother, but Papyrus is pushing his luck. How many times do I got to tell him to stop before it gets through his thick skull?

"So no one hired you yet?"

"Erm...no."

"Good. I'll go talk to some of the folks at the underground. Maybe they'll be willing to hire you."

I'm about to leave but Papyrus stops me. His face is pleading.

"Um...but..."

"...But?"

"These humans don't take our G. I...I need to make human currency."

"Why do you need to buy anything from them?" I have a feeling that I already know the answer.

Papyrus doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to. I want to brush it off with a smile like I always do. But considering everything that happened, I'm not in the mood to play nice guy.

I glare at him. I actually glare at my brother. Papyrus takes a step back, clearly not expecting that kind of reaction from me.

"I told you a million times. I. Have. It. Under. Control. I don't need your help."

"Sans!" Toriel exclaims. But I'm not done.

"If you need to buy things, just buy it from monsters."

"But G is starting to lose all value," Papyrus argues.

"Then take advantage of it while you can. But you are not working with humans."

"What's wrong with working with humans?" my brother asks.

"They hate us!"

My scream echoes against the walls. Toriel has a hand over her mouth and her eyes are as wide as dinner plates. A soft shuffling breaks the tense silence, and we all turn to see Frisk rubbing their eyes. They glance at Toriel.

What's for breakfast?

"My child! It's too early to wake up. You've only gotten six hours of sleep. You need at least two more," Toriel goes full on mother mode. She approaches the kid and rubs her hand across their hair. They smile.

Sans woke me up.

Crap. Toriel glares at me. I swallow. Something catches my eye. I turn to look at Frisk's finger.

"Where'd you get that cut?" I ask partly out of genuine curiosity and partly to turn the attention off me.

Toriel gasps when she sees it. She inspects their finger before picking them up and carrying to the sink.

"How in the world did that happen? It's such a long cut. It couldn't have been from a stick," she continues to clean the wound as she says this. Frisk just shrugs, unhelpfully.

Suddenly I have a thought. I turn to Papyrus.

"We'll talk about this later."

"Sans-" Papyrus begins but I'm already out the room.

I rush upstairs as quickly as my bony legs could take me. I don't stop to take a breath. When I reach Frisk's room, I tear open the door and begin my frantic search. It takes a few minutes of tossing everything in the room until-

"Oh my God."

When I pull over their feather pillow, two knives greet me. Both very sharp. Both very long. One of them with a small splatter of blood on it. My heart stops at the sight of it. I could barely breathe for a moment.

"What are you doing, Uncle Sans?" Frisk's voice pulls me away from my trance. I look at the kid that I barely recognize.

Frisk really is like a completely different person. They glower at me with hate filled eyes, yet somehow keep their ugly smile intact. Their eyes are wide open, examining me with brown red orbs that seem to stare through me. The grin on their face doesn't hide the fact that they're very angry.

It's a disturbing sight, but I refuse to show any hint of fear. That's exactly what they want to see on my face. I give them a hard look instead.

"Hey kid," I grumble, "Where'd you get your new toys?"

The child giggled again.

"Aren't you going to be late for work, Uncle Sans?" they point to the clock on their wall.

"I think it will be better if I stay here," I argue.

"You're going to get fired," they say in a sing-songy voice.

That's true. But I can't leave them alone with the others while they're like this. It's the single hardest decision I had to make in a while. I'm going to let myself become jobless in order to protect those I care about.