Lights Like Stars (Sans x Reader)

26 - Truth or Dare

In which friendship and affliction are difficult to distinguish from each other.

You

Sans won't let you stay with him. He keeps encouraging you to join Roxy and Papyrus with a mild sort of determination that feels, each time, like a soft shove, gentle attempts to move you to arm's length. You're inclined to ignore these attempts, but you're balanced on the very thin line between nurturing and coddling, and you know Sans needs to feel independent. So after a few minutes of lying next to him, sharing your presence and enjoying his, you release his hand and draw away, and allow yourself to drift downstairs. Sans will follow when he's ready. Right now, your other friends require your attention.

Roxy and Papyrus are preparing to go back outside when you arrive in the living room. The afternoon is waning and it won't be long before the light is too dim to see by. A few blocks away, by the café, the streetlights have already come on, but this house is too far from the last of them to benefit from the light they provide, so you'll have to get your playtime in before dark.

Roxy shouts your name joyously and bounds up to give you a hug.

"HOW IS MY BROTHER?" Papyrus inquires.

"He's okay," you tell them both, pulling your snow boots out of the hall closet. "He's feeling better." You have a sudden, powerfully tactile flashback to the feeling of his bones beneath your lips and your heart stutters. Your stomach twists pleasurably and you turn quickly back to the closet, rummaging for a dry pair of gloves, taking more time than necessary to give your blush time to die down.

"THE NEIGHBOR CHILDREN ARE HAVING A SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Papyrus yells excitedly. "PERHAPS WE CAN JOIN THEM!" He tries to charge for the door, but Roxy grabs him by the scarf and hauls him backwards.

"Coat! You need a coat!" she laughs, and shoves him at the closet. You vacate the spot just in time: another second and Paps would have collided with you. You shrug into your own coat, standing next to Roxy, and chew your thumbnail pensively. Your friend watches you watching Papyrus as he gropes in the closet for his poofy pink jacket, and finally asks, "What's up?"

You huff a small sigh and give Roxy a slightly sad smile. "Paps always wants to play with the neighbor kids, but they run inside when they see him. They're scared of him."

Roxy frowns indignantly. "Well, that's just... they're just..." She struggles to express herself, getting visibly more agitated as she gropes for words. Finally she explodes with a shout of, "Take this, brats!" and charges out the door. You and Papyrus exchange a startled look and then race after her.

Roxy is already hurling snowballs indiscriminately at the kids across the street. The children have forgotten their own little war in the face of this new threat and have banded together to fight as one. As you watch, Roxy takes a snowball to the face and staggers backward, red-cheeked and spluttering. She screams something indistinct that you suspect was, "I'm'a get youuuuu!!!" and scoops up more ammo, but by then, two more snowballs have exploded against her jacket. Papyrus hoots excitedly and quickly grabs a handful of snow, forming it as he runs, long legs carrying him across the yard in seconds. He's thrown three before the children, focused on the strange, silly adult human, notice the new attacker. It's rather an odd oversight, you think to yourself, as Papyrus is not only strange and silly but also seven feet tall. He charges to Roxy's defense, and the bombardment from the children falters; he's caught them in the heat of battle, and they're not in the right state of mind to run away. This causes them a few seconds' confusion as their minds try to catch up to the change in circumstances. Little eyes widen and little bodies tense.