The Time Before (Undertale)

55 ~ A Place to Relax

For the most part, Sans had stopped caring how many times he had done this.

He still kept as best track as he could in the notebook, but, in the end, that didn't really matter. Because regardless of what he did, time would still reset or not reset. He would do the same thing, or he would not. It didn't matter in the end.

So, disregarding the sense of familiarity that seemed to follow him everywhere now, he left his sentry station. He did this occasionally, went for a walk in the woods. He had found a big old door out there a week and some so many resets ago. At first he had just knocked on it out of curiosity, to see if anyone would answer. But no one did, and he felt kinda foolish just standing there waiting for an answer that wasn't coming, so he had covered it up with a knock-knock joke. Of course, you can't just do one knock knock joke then leave, so he had done another. And another. And realized that, the more he did, for just a few minutes, he felt a little less tired, a little less done. So he kept going back.

He kept walking, crossed the bridge over the small gorge. Papyrus was thinking about building a gate over that bridge, in case a human ever fell. But then Papyrus came to the conflict of how would someone else get through

He walked slowly, kicking up little puffs of snow. A few days and however many resets ago, he had stopped wearing sneakers in favor of fluffy pink slippers. They were more comfortable, and, considering the amount of strain on him, every little thing helped.

Eventually, he came to the door. Walked up to it, sat down, leaning against it.

For a moment, he just sat there, breathing. Then he raised a hand, and rapped his knuckles against it. "knock knock."

Then he paused for a second, as if waiting for a response.

Of course, no one answered.

Sans continued, though, as of someone had answered. "canoe."

Still no response.

Now for the punchline. "canoe at least give me a little applause?"

And he laughed, laughed alone at his own joke. Not a lot, just for a few seconds.

It helped.

Then he knocked again. "knock knock."

Again, no response.

"theodore."

Nothing.

"theodore wasn't open, so i knocked!"

And again he laughed, longer this time, the echoes bouncing back to him.

"knock knock."

. . .

"nana."

.  .  .

"nana your business!"

He laughed again, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine the quiet echoes were someone else, laughing alongside him.

He kept this up for an hour or so, just relaxing. Not worrying about timelines or resets or the machine, just... sitting there. Cracking jokes. Closing his eyes, and pretending there was a friend beside him, who saw the desperation in his eyes, heard the exhaustion his voice, and didn't try to tell him it was alright when it wasn't, didn't try to get him to hope when he couldn't. Someone who was just there, who understood his misery, and said it's okay to be tired, sometimes.