Cage Of Bones

Chapter 8: Security Breach

Author's Note- I was definitely right. Sans' REM cycles are going to shit.

Trigger warning(s): Uncensored language, reference to depression, a mental health diagnosis, implied PTSD, implications of a past suicide attempt, reference to past character death, a temporary mental breakdown, and racism. Please tread lightly.

(Updated Edits On 12/25/22)

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Knock Knock

Toriel was quick to open the door, a relieved look coming to her face when she saw Grillbz on the doorstep; Sans held firmly in his arms.

"Oh! Grillbz! Fiyoku told me you were coming! Please, come in." she said, opening the door wider for him to enter.

Grillbz smiled as he stepped in.

"Thank you very much Toriel, I appreciate it."

Grillbz set Sans carefully on the couch as Toriel walked in with two mugs of tea.

"You take sugar right?"

Grillbz nodded.

"Thank you." he said as he sat down on the couch next to Sans, swirling a spoon in his drink while Toriel seated herself in an armchair across from him.

"...you were the one to take him home...he hasn't needed that in awhile..." Toriel said before taking a sip of her tea.

Grillbz stared down at his drink before nodding with a contemplating expression.

"Yeah...he hasn't come by in ages...and then suddenly today he showed up and started drinking hot sauce shot after hot sauce shot with his usual ketchup. He hasn't done that in months. Not since that night we left the surface."

Toriel raised an eyebrow at that.

"Any theory as to why?" she asked.

Grillbz gave a shrug.

"Not particularly...and I don't want to go assuming things. I mean, before it was due to a special occasion so it could just be that. But any other time he did that it was usually with shots of whiskey rather than ketchup...and usually it was for...less than positive reasons."

Toriel glanced up with a worried look.

"What do you mean?"

Grillbz set his mug down carefully as he gave a sympathetic look.

"He hasn't really talked to you much about what was going on with him after Gaster passed right?"

Toriel shook her head.

"Not really, no. And considering what happened to my children so soon after, I admittedly wasn't even present for much of it."

Grillbz signed at that.

"I figured as much. Probably didn't want you to feel bad for him. Well... you didn't hear this from me, but it's only so you're aware in case another relapse starts up again."

Toriel's eyes immediately widened at that.

"Relapse?"

Grillbz nodded.

"Yeah...he had shown small hints of it growing up after he and I became friends. It was really small stuff at first. Sometimes he'd get really vivid night terrors, other times he would just get really self-deprecating, and a lot of the time his mood could be turned on its head seemingly out of nowhere without any visible reason or cause. I hadn't drawn much attention to it at first, as at the time I didn't know the full story of what happened to Serif. But as we got older, and even more so after Gaster passed, Sans would wind up having these...funks. Times of feeling too tired and low to get up and do anything. He wouldn't move, wouldn't eat, wouldn't talk to anyone...and if he DID decide to get up and do something...it was usually to contemplate doing something he can't take back...or actually attempt it."