Late Night on the Training Grounds
The moon hung low, silver light casting long shadows across the empty sparring yard. The party was over. Most of the estate had long since gone to sleep.
But Sans stood alone in the dirt, one hand in his hoodie pocket, the other lazily spinning a glowing blue bone between his fingers like a baton. He wasn't really practicing. Just... thinking.
He didn't turn when he felt Ghislaine approach.
"quiet night," he murmured.
"Not for me," she replied. "Not when a girl I helped raise starts smiling after putting a man in the dirt."
Sans chuckled faintly. "that one was askin' for it."
"I didn't say I disagreed," Ghislaine said. Her tone was low and even. "But I recognize what's happening."
Sans's eye flickered. "oh?"
"She's starting to fight like you. Think like you. Ruthless. Unpredictable. Scary."
Sans stopped spinning the bone.
"is that a problem?"
"No" Ghislaine said. "But it might become one."
The Warning
Ghislaine crossed her arms, muscles tensed, eyes glinting in the moonlight.
"She's always had the fire. But you've stoked it. Taught her to use it."
"someone had to" Sans said. "kid wanted to make sure she never felt powerless again."
"She's not wrong to want that" Ghislaine admitted. "But power without grounding? Without someone to keep her from going too far?"
Sans was quiet for a long moment. Then:
"...you think i'm gonna turn her into a monster."
"No" Ghislaine said. "I think you already are one. And she adores you for it."
She stepped forward, not threatening, just firm.
"She listens to you. You say 'jump,' she says 'how high.' That means it's your job to teach her when not to jump too."
Sans looked down at the glowing bone. It faded from his hand like mist.
"...yeah."
A Promise in the Dark
"She's a good kid," Ghislaine added softly. "Rough edges. Bad temper. But a good heart. Don't break it."
Sans didn't answer right away.
Then, barely above a whisper:
"wouldn't be the first heart i broke."
Ghislaine frowned, but said nothing more. She nodded once, and walked away, leaving him alone beneath the stars.
...
The morning sun cast soft gold over Roa's stone streets. Bells rang from distant towers, and the market was already alive with smells of spice bread, grilled meat, and perfume-soaked nobles.
Sans wasn't supposed to be here.
Neither was Eris.
But somehow, here they were: Sans, Eris, Rudy, and Ghislaine, walking together like the weirdest family on the continent.
The Morning Market
"Bread first," Rudy said, holding a list Zenith had sent via magic letter. "Then we need firewood, thread, candles, ink-"
Sans grabbed the list. "boring. boring. boring... ooh, mysterious crate marked 'do not open'? now that's an errand."
"It's not on the list."
"yet."
Eris was already chasing a merchant's cart, yelling about sword polish.
Ghislaine groaned. "I feel like the babysitter."
Sans gave her a deadpan look. "and i feel like the old guy who just wants his coffee and silence."
Rudy blinked. "You're, like, ten."
"internally? somewhere between ancient cryptid and burnt-out librarian."
Chaos, Naturally
A street magician was juggling glowing orbs. Eris heckled him until he challenged her to a duel of illusions. She accepted.
It went poorly.
She threw a tomato. He turned it into a dove.
She threw him. He hit a cabbage stand.
Everyone scattered.
Meanwhile, Sans found a stall selling soul-crystal trinkets. The vendor tried to scam him.
Bad idea.
Two minutes later, the vendor was paying Sans to leave after a floating bone nearly impaled his sign.
"heh. bone business practices."
Ghislaine dragged them to a swordsmith's after that. Eris got a new dagger. Sans got a weird, ancient pendant that "sang" when he held it.
Rudy just tried to keep everyone from being arrested.
A Quiet Lunch
They ended up on a hillside just outside the city walls, picnic-style, looking out at the distant trees.
Eris sprawled in the grass. Rudy practiced drawing sigils in the dirt.
Ghislaine meditated nearby, one eye open.
And Sans?
He just lay there, hands behind his head, watching clouds.
"y'know," he said, "for a bunch of weirdos, we make a decent group."
Eris snorted. "You like us."
"wouldn't go that far" he replied. "but i'd definitely avenge your deaths if you were tragically murdered."
"Aw" Rudy said. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to us."
They all laughed.
But behind the smile, behind the jokes... Sans felt something shifting.
Something wrong, distant but creeping closer.
Like a clock ticking toward zero.
A Promise at Sunset
As the sun began to dip below the horizon, they walked home through the quieter back alleys of Roa.
Eris and Rudy bickered over who won the earlier duel. Ghislaine listened with a tolerant smirk.
Sans lagged behind for a second.
He looked up at the sky.
A tiny ripple, barely visible, shivered in the air above the city.
Time hiccupped.
Just for a second.
He felt it. Deep in his bones.
"...damn," he muttered.
Then he turned and jogged to catch up.
"hey, rudy."
Rudy turned. "Yeah?"
Sans stuffed his hands in his hoodie. "you're gonna be alright. just remember what i told you about barriers. and keep an eye on eris."
Rudy blinked. "Why are you being all... weirdly wise and emotional?"
"no reason....." Sans said quickly. "just... y'know. fresh air. getting to me."
...
The Secret Plan
The Boreas estate was humming with poorly concealed chaos.
Maids whispering.
Rudy sneaking around with cake frosting in his hair.
Eris loudly pretending not to know anything.
Ghislaine barking orders like a military commander behind the scenes.
It was a covert op run by amateurs, and... Sans noticed everything.
He noticed Rudy disappearing right before meals.
He noticed Eris trying too hard not to mention dates.
He noticed Ghislaine refusing to spar today.
And he noticed the kitchen staff stockpiling way too many eggs.
So he knew. Of course he knew.
But he said nothing.
The Fake Errand
Ghislaine cornered Sans in the hallway, arms crossed.
"Hey. You and Rudy, go into town. Get some parchment. And stay gone until sunset."
Sans raised an imaginary eyebrow. "wow. subtle."
Ghislaine just grunted.
"Don't ruin this."
"wouldn't dream of it."
So he and Rudy wandered Roa, like they had the day before. Sans made dumb jokes. Rudy nervously double-checked his watch-like sun-tracker.
And all the while, Sans just... watched.
The streets. The people.
The sky.
He felt it again. The faint ripple in the air. Wrongness under the surface.
But he kept smiling. Just a little.
For Rudy.
The Surprise Party
They came home to candlelight and chaos.
"SURPRISE!!"
Balloons. Cake. Confetti. Bad music. Eris tripping over the decorations.
Everyone cheered.
Rudy lit up with joy.
And Sans?
He blinked once, then smirked.
"you all really think i didn't know?"
A chorus of groans.
Eris threw a pillow at him.
The Gifts
Rudy got spell scrolls and a pocket wand engraved with the Greyrat crest, a wand too, big ass wand.
Eris gave him a hand-stitched scarf. Ghislaine handed him a training dagger.
Sans, too, got presents, though fewer.
Eris gave him a black charmstone with a fire rune embedded in it.
Rudy gave him a crudely drawn family portrait. Everyone was lopsided. Sans's eye glowed blue in the picture.
"nice. i look like a haunted turnip."
Rudy grinned. "That means you love it."
He kept it. Quietly. Carefully.
One Last Moment
That night, after everyone had gone to bed, Sans sat alone in the courtyard.
Stars above. Cool breeze.
He turned the charmstone in his fingers. Then the picture.
His soul ached.
"...damn it," he whispered.
He wasn't supposed to care.
He wasn't supposed to stay.
And yet, he'd let them in.
He looked up at the sky again.
And felt it.
That tear in space.
Growing louder.
He stood.
"happy birthday, bonehead."
And then he walked inside.
Tomorrow, the world would end.
But tonight... he had family.
Wait a minute....the night is still young, and the party is still going right?
.
.
.
The manor had finally quieted.
It had taken hours.
The celebration for Rudy's and his own birthday had gone well, fancy nobles, overly dramatic servants, a string quartet playing tunes Sans swore he'd heard in three different timelines, and a cake so large it could've housed a small family of goblins.
He didn't complain. It was a decent party. Not his thing, but decent. He kept his distance, lurking near the wine table while the kids danced and the adults exchanged social jabs disguised as compliments.
But now, the music was gone. The lanterns were dim. The whole estate had sunk into that late-night silence only noble homes ever seemed to manage, still and unnaturally clean, like a theater stage after the audience had gone home.
Sans sat on the stone railing of a second-floor balcony, hood pulled over his head. The cool night air ruffled his hair.
Below, the courtyard glistened under the stars. From this vantage point, he could see the guest wing hallway clearly.
He wasn't watching for anything.
At least, that's what he told himself.
Then, movement. Quiet, fast.
Eris.
She stepped out of her room, barefoot, wrapped in a pale nightgown that shimmered in the moonlight. Her hair was down.
She looked both determined and hesitant, a strange contradiction that made Sans arch a brow.
She walked briskly toward Rudy's room.
Didn't knock. Didn't hesitate.
She slipped inside, and the door closed behind her.
Sans blinked slowly. Then he sighed.
"Well," he murmured, "that's new."
He didn't move. Just stayed perched up high like some lazy gargoyle with good posture and better eyesight.
No glowing eyes. No wisecracks. Just a quiet hum in the back of his mind that didn't feel quite like peace.
Two hours passed.
Two.
He counted them by the way the stars moved. The occasional footsteps of patrolling servants. A cough from the kitchen wing. A door creaking far off in the halls.
Then, at last, Rudy.
The kid stepped into the hallway from the sitting room, rubbing the back of his head like he was lost in thought, then approached his own room with the careful, quiet steps of someone who knew something important was about to happen.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Sans exhaled. "annnnd there it is."
He hopped down from the railing and landed on the grass below without a sound. His steps were slow as he wandered through the empty courtyard, hands in his pockets, head tilted back to watch the stars.
He stopped by the fountain and sat on the edge, letting the night settle around him like an old, familiar blanket.
"So... cousins, huh," he muttered, mostly to himself.
He leaned forward, elbows on knees.
"not gonna lie... kinda weird. definitely not skeleton-in-your-closet levels of weird, but still. first life in this world, and already i'm watchin' my little brother maybe-kinda-sorta fall into bed with his noble cousin."
He let that hang there for a second. Then shook his head.
"wonder if there's a family tree somewhere. probably looks more like a cactus. full of pricks and everyone's a little too close."
He didn't laugh at his own joke. Just stared at his reflection in the water, faint and vague under the moonlight.
It rippled as a breeze passed, and for a second, his face almost looked like the skull beneath. The one that didn't belong in this world.
"does he even know what he's doin'?"
That question lingered longer.
Sans didn't pretend to be an expert on romance. He'd seen it, felt it secondhand, understood the parts that didn't involve soul-level connections or love that burned too bright and faded too fast.
He never wanted it for himself. Not anymore. Not after everything. And he's too lazy for romance anyway.
But Rudy?
He was different. Still young. Still figuring things out.
Still hurting, even if he didn't realize it.
Sans leaned back, lying across the fountain's rim, one leg hanging over the edge. He stared at the stars above, eyes half-lidded.
"i ain't judging," he said softly. "but man... you really pick the hard paths, huh."
He thought back to earlier. The way Eris looked at Rudy. Like she didn't know whether to punch him or hold his hand.
The way Rudy blushed when she got too close. It wasn't fake. That part he could tell. But was it real for the right reasons?
Was anything ever?
"five years," he muttered again. "long time to wait for anything... especially when you're already dragging a whole other lifetime behind you."
He thought about saying something. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe drop a joke. Maybe sit Rudy down and ask him if he even knew what it meant to love someone again, to promise something that heavy.
Maybe.
But not tonight.
Tonight, he'd let it be.
He closed his eyes, listened to the quiet hum of the manor breathing in its sleep.
And whispered, barely audible,
"don't screw it up, kid."
Then he drifted off for a bit, half-dozing under the stars, the moonlight catching the faint curve of a tired smile on his face.