Sans watched, hands in his pockets, from the shelter of the thick fog that always seemed to cover this stretch of road. The warmer water from Waterfall clashed with the cold air of Snowden, causing a thick blanket of mist. He felt that Jude wouldn't do anything to Papyrus, but other kids had made him think that too.

The boy left the home that morning, persistent to find Gyftrott and assure them that he was fine. But now, he was on the way to Waterfall. With only Papyrus in his way.

Jude approached.

Papyrus did his whole spiel. Then their battle began. Jude stood his ground, jumping over the small bones that slid into his path. After the small bones, his SOUL turned blue and the larger ones raced towards him. Those, he wasn't too lucky. He managed to dodge a couple, weaving in between them instead of jumping. A different approach. But not unheard of.

Mid-dodge, Jude's foot slipped on some bare ice. He fell face-first into the snow as an army of bones pelted into his small body. He bit down on his lip, twisting his face downwards as tears threatened to slip through his eyelids. Sans winced.

"Ouch." He muttered, peering through one eye.

After that round ended, Jude managed to stumbled back to his feet. The fog, added to Papyrus's loud monologue, made it difficult for anyone to notice the pain the boy was in. Jude, swaying, was bruised and battered. His sweater once again torn, and…was that blood dripping from his nose? Understandably the boy sniffled.

"AND I WILL BE SUPER POPULAR-!" The sniffle cut Papyrus off. He stared "UH…HUMAN, JUDE, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"

"Oh…" Jude smiled "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Sans snorted. The lights in his eye sockets flickered to his brother, watching him intently. Exasperated, Papyrus threw up his arms with a loud NYEH! With a few steps he was at the child, scooping him up quickly.

"YOU KNOW…" Papyrus started, strolling off back into the direction they came "FOR BARELY KNOWING SANS, YOU ACT A LOT LIKE HIM."

Sans trotted behind them, tilting his head at Papyrus's comment. Jude didn't seem to see him through the fog, and his attention was on the loud rambling skeleton anyway.

Papyrus dropped the pitch of his voice, mimicking Sans's "No Pap, I'm fine, see?" His eye sockets bulged out in the comic way his eyes do "THEN HE FALLS DOWN THE STAIRS BECAUSE HE'S MISSING A FOOT! AND THEN HE'S ALL-"

"Something strange is a-foot?" Jude interrupted with a bit of a giggle. Papyrus's eye sockets narrowed a moment, then he hollered out:

"YES! …HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?"

Jude just shrugged. Papyrus took this as an answer and continued to carry the boy back to their house. Jude was even more of a mess than before. His sweater once again being taken to be mended. His arm was still bandaged up, the bruises on his face even more black and blue than before. And now, there were scraps and bumps adding to his accumulation of injuries. Jude hopped back onto the couch, pressing a tissue to his bleeding nose. Sans sat down next to him.

"Heya, kid." He greeted. Jude just smiled and waved. Sans gave him a skeptical look "Hey, why didn't you just say that Pap hurt you? He can't read minds, y'know."

Jude gave him a baffled look. "He was having fun."

Sans twitched, staring at the boy. After several moments of trying to find a response and failing, he gave up. Eventually, Papyrus brought back Jude's Sweater EX. He insisted it would never tear again. Jude just smiled (a tad awkwardly) and thanked him.

"NOW, JUDE…" Papyrus fidgeted "I…. I APOLOGIZE FOR HURTING YOU."

"It's okay." Jude smiled "You didn't mean to."

"YOU'RE RIGHT! FOR I AM FAR TOO AMAZING FOR THAT!" His grin dropped "BUT THE FACT IS I STILL HAVE. AND I'M SORRY."

"I….It's okay." Jude insisted, putting a small hand on his forearm "Here.. how about this? You be my friend, and we'll put all of that behind us."

"WOWIE, WHAT A DEAL!" Papyrus chirped, scooping Jude up in a hug "I ACCEPT!"

Jude laughed "Glad to hear it!"

Sans's grin hitched up a notch. He was still grinning as the boy strolled past his checkpoint. As always, he offered a meal to the kid. And not much changed except one thing. That being, when Sans handed Jude the ketchup, the boy's eyes narrowed at he went to tilt the bottle. Then, he set it back up straight and screwed the cap tight onto the bottle.

So Sans didn't have to give up his meal, which was good.

Afterwards, Jude went about his business in Waterfall. He followed the trends for a while. Befriend MK, had a run-in or two with Undyne. Eventually, Sans found himself waiting for the boy next to the telescope. And waited. And waited.

Sans yawned, drowsily looking down the damp path. With a bit of a sigh, he turned on heel and began a leisurely stroll. Sometimes a kid would get lost. It wasn't uncommon. Maybe a flower bridge puzzle held them up, or maybe they couldn't find the door in the wishing room. Kids taking this long wasn't unheard of. But as he strolled along, his non-existent ears caught on the sound of singing.

Blinking, Sans turned the corner to see Jude squatted next to a row of Echo Flowers, hands cupped around his mouth as he whispered to them. After finishing his sentence, he leaned back and tentavtively touch a blue petal.

"La la la~!" called the echo flower. Jude jumped to his feet, sprinting along with the sounds, his fingers trailing along the edges of more petals. Each picked up the first one's song, passing it along as if it were playing hot potato. But as the song was passed, another layer of distortion was added, and the song became less and less gleeful until it was just a jumbled mess of white noise. This didn't seem to damper the boy's spirits, as he laughed softly when he was done panting. Then he ran up to the first flower again.

"Uh…heya, kid." Sans said, trotting up behind him. Jude jumped, almost toppling into the flower he was speaking to.

"H-hi, Mr. Sans." He greeted.

"'Mister'?" Sans repeated, raising a bone brow. "Er…a'right. What're you doing?"

"Oh…uh…" Jude fidgeted with the hem of his sweater, a light blush gracing his cheeks "I was just….uh….playing."

"Playing the Echo Flower?" Sans said "A fine choice of instrument."

"These flowers are instruments?" Jude exclaimed, eyes wide "Wow!"

Sans snickered, tugging at his sweater collar. "Er…yeah. Anyway…."

He hadn't really planned on what he was going to say next. Jude stared at him a moment, bronze eyes burrowing into the skeleton's SOUL. Then, suddenly, he gave a soft smile.

"Want to make the flowers sing again?" he offered.

Sans shrugged "Nah kid, seems like too much running." As the child's expression dropped, Sans piped back up "But hey, I'll stand here and listen to whatever you happen to compose, kay?"

"O-okay!" Jude sputtered, his smile growing wider. "I'll try to come up with something really nice for you!"

"Heheh." Sans chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair "Thanks." The child was staring up at him again, his eyes wide and glimmering. Sans blinked, startled "Uh…something up…?"

"You ruffled my hair." Jude observed. Sans tilted his skull.

"Sorry kid, not comfortable with that?"

"Oh- oh no! It's okay!" Jude said frantically, waving his hands in the air. His fingers ended up clasp about each other as he looked away bashfully "Just, no one's…."

Sans blinked. Jude shook his head, that soft smile back on his face "It's nothing." He turned and ran off to a flower, skidding to his knees in front of it to lean in, whispering. Sans watched him, head cocked, hands in pockets, thoughts a-racing.

Jude smiled at him, stumbled to his feet, and touched the Echo Flower's petal.

"Laaa laaa laaaa laaaaaaaaa~!"