No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

26 ~ Hope Lost

For a long time, everyone just stares at the wreckage of the machine. Then, slowly, slowly, Sans turns to you.

"frisk." His voice is barely audible. "reset."

You just nod, and reach for the button.

But when you race into the basement again, the machine is already destroyed. Sans stands again in the middle of the room, slightly to the side, while everyone else looks confused.

"What..." Papyrus begins slowly. "What happened to the machine?"

You look at him for a long moment. "... Dr. Gaster said that no matter what happens, someone falls into the Void. So he destroyed the machine to stop us."

As Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus murmur amongst themselves, Sans slowly sinks to his knees, wrapping his arms around himself in a tight hug. As he settles on the floor, head bowed and shoulders hunched, you can actually see him shaking.

And then you hear him let out a muffled sob.

You've seen Sans sad. You've seen him depressed and tired. You've seen him scared, rigid with fear.

But never, never have you actually seen him cry.

At the strangled sound of Sans' voice, Papyrus immediately detaches from the group and strides over to his collapsed brother. "Sans...!"

But when he reaches to set a hand on Sans' shoulder, Sans flinches away.

That shocks you. You don't think you've ever seen Sans reject anything from Papyrus, much less a comforting gesture.

Papyrus seems just a surprised. "Sans...?" He whispers, voice barely audible, as he himself sinks to the floor beside the smaller skeleton.

Sans makes no response but to clutch at his jacket, hugging himself tighter, his shoulders hunching higher. He's rocking a little on his knees, now.

You can't even see his face, but he just seems absolutely miserable. Just despondent.

"Sans..." Papyrus tries again, reaching out to set a hand on Sans' shoulder. This time, Sans flinches, but doesn't pull away. "Sans, come on. Let's... let's go upstairs. We can... we can get some hot chocolate or something. You'll feel better after that. Come on."

Sans takes a bit to respond. "... y-... yeah... okay...."

Papyrus slowly stands, then, in turn, helps Sans to his feet. Papyrus gently grabs Sans' shoulders and guides his older brother towards the door.

You notice the way Sans pointedly avoids looking at any of the wreckage.

You yourself avoid looking at the wet tracks down Sans' face, avoid looking at the water pooling at the bottom of his eyesockets.

The brothers make it to the door, and then suddenly, Sans lurches forward, slipping away from Papyrus. You hear Papyrus shouting as he runs out the door after Sans, "Sans, Sans! No, Sans-- don't- SANS! NO, DON'T--" and then silence.

You only glance at Undyne and Alphys before the three of you are bolting for the door. You find Papyrus, standing alone, staring ahead with a most un-Papyrus-like expression on his face. Sans is nowhere to be found.

"W-where's Sans?" Alphys asks.

Papyrus gestures helplessly. "He-... he did that thing."

Undyne frowns. "What thing?"

Papyrus gestures more. "That thing where he's one place, and then he's not."

"L-like teleporting?"

"No..." Papyrus shakes his head. "Sans says it's not teleporting. It's..." And then his expression changes to one of realization. "We have to find him!" Everyone else is totally surprised by the change of topic, but Papyrus continues. "He could accidentally hurt himself, and I need to be with him! He needs me! Come on, let's go!"

And he takes off running.

The three of you share a glance, then chase after him.

But Sans is nowhere to be found. He's not in the house, nor any of his common spots around the surrounding woods. The four of you head into town, as well as call Asgore and Toriel and get them involved in the search. But Sans isn't in town, not at Grillby's or the park, nowhere.

Finally, you suggest, "Maybe he's in the Underground?"

Papyrus latches onto the idea immediately, and soon enough, you're all in the car, on your way up Mt. Ebbot.

Searching the Underground takes a while. You all start together in New Home, Papyrus leading the group of you to check a number of Sans' old hot dog haunts, as well as the brothers' old apartment (it's even smaller than you expected.) When Sans doesn't show, you continue on to Hotland, when Alphys leads you all through the True Lab, as you all now know that Sans used to work there. But still he remains unfound. So Undyne guides you all through Waterfall, but you still can't find Sans. And when you get to Snowdin, and he's not in his old house, the old basement, or the abandoned Grillby's, you start to worry maybe you were wrong.

But then you find him.

As the others all hunt around Papyrus's puzzles, you carry on, across the bridge and through the trees...

Sans is at the door to the Ruins. He's sitting on the ground, back to the door, hood pulled up, head lolling slightly. His hood casts a shadow, so that all you can see of his face is his wide, frozen grin.

"Sans?" You call softly, stepping forward.

He doesn't even move.

"Sans?" You try again. "Are you okay?"

He still doesn't respond.

"Please don't... don't take another shortcut away, okay?" You move towards him. He could almost be a normal, non-living skeleton for as still as he is. "We're all really worried about you, Sans. You scared us when you left. We-... We just want to help you. Okay?"

He still doesn't respond in the slightest. You're getting a little worried now.

Well. A little more worried.

"I'm gonna go get Papyrus, okay? Just-... just don't go anywhere, alright? Please?"

You wait only a moment for a response that never comes, before turning back to run to get Papyrus.

When you charge up to the group, you need only to give a small nod before Papyrus is racing off, faster than you knew he could go, in the direction you came from.

By the time you and everyone else makes it back to the Ruins door, Papyrus is already at Sans' side, scooping up his brother in a tight hug. You can't quite hear Papyrus's words, but his tone is full of relief and love and worry for Sans.

Sans is just completely limp in Papyrus's arms, but for one hand, which he slowly lifts to grab at Papyrus's scarf.

As Papyrus starts to carry Sans away, quietly murmuring to him that everything will be alright, Sans sets his head on Papyrus's shoulder. His hood is still up, still casting that shadow over his face.

And still, all you can see is that fake, stuck grin, hiding Sans's loss of hope.

§

A/N

Anyone who can figure out why Sans went to the Ruins door and not somewhere else gets a cookie.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!