Sans x frisk

Part:14

When the tunnel finally, miraculously reached its end, the sky was lightening. Instinctively, Frisk recognized that the sun was just on the brink of rising. The deep purples and blues of night were relenting, bowing the the sun's fiery reign of color. A crisp morning breeze that spoke of springtime tousled them, and she couldn't believe how fresh the air smelled. Forgetting herself for a moment, Frisk sucked in a lungful of it. Wow.

Something new was pumping through her veins as she took it all in. At the same time, the fear was disintegrating in her chest. As it fell away, the new feeling gained strength. It was...exhilaration. This was it; they were really here. There was craggy mountain rock at their feet, a field below them, and endless sky above. And it was all beautiful. Had Frisk really feared it all these years? If she had gone Up on her own, she mused, maybe she still would have.

But she was far from alone now. Sans was still holding her hand, looking around in a daze and blinking just as much as she had done. He looked different in natural light - softer, somehow. Or maybe it was just the look on his face. In all of their years of friendship, Frisk had never seen his expression so awed. For once, he had no quip or clever pun to voice. It was safe to say that Sans' first glimpse of the Surface left him speechless.

Frisk was the one to eventually break the silence. "Do you like it?" That was a dumb question, she knew, but Frisk felt obligated to ask it. Seeing the land she had come from made her want to know his opinion of it. Even though she hadn't called the Aboveground home in a decade, in light of its beauty, she felt proud of it.

"I dunno how to explain it, but... it's so much more than I thought it would be," Sans replied incredulously.

That made her smile. Now that Frisk was seeing it, she remembered. There was so much to the Surface. You could walk for days, for weeks, and see only a tiny portion of what it had to offer. That was what made it both exciting and dangerous.

Sans looked at her after he had answered. "Are you still afraid?"

Frisk considered. Was the thought of encountering other humans still scary to her? Yes. But right now, standing on the edge of here and there with her best friend...she wasn't afraid. She could do this. The part of her that had feared the Surface so badly had already fallen away, a part of the past forever.

"I'm...I'm okay, I think." she told him.

"Let's get moving to the village and see if we can't find that house, then."

As if stepping out of a trance, the pair awoke from marveling the land and set off down the faint path that trailed into a forest, where the settlement waited. The path they trod could hardly be classified as a road, at first - it was just a long stretch leading down where the grass had been tamped flat by footfall for a good mile. Frisk assumed it was that way because many monsters left the Underground, but not many ever returned to visit. Each pair of footprints usually traveled only once, in the direction of the settlement. Except for Toriel, of course. She probably traveled to and fro ten times as much as the average monster.

Frisk thought about her mother as she and Sans made their way further along the path. In a delighted frenzy, Toriel had hastily arrange to make another trip to the Surface upon hearing Frisk's acceptance, even though she had only just returned from a journey there. It was a comfort to Frisk to know that she would be nearby, as well. By the time they hit the forest (Sans muttering aloud how different and cool these trees were from the blackened, gnarly ones that tended to thrive Underground), the sun was making its official debut.

"You melting yet?" Frisk teased as they squinted to look at the bright disc ascending from the horizon.

"Shut up, you." He hip-checked her, eyes still pinned to the blinding light in sheer wonder.