Before the Storm ( Sans x Reader )

3. Why Hotdogs Taste Awful

You found yourself alone.

Not completely alone, you reminded yourself. The shortest of the two skeletons sat on the opposing side of the cell, content to stray within his thoughts than engage in social habits. But like you, the vitality and hope had long since been drained from his very bones with no end in sight, no end to the constant agony and torture that was forced upon you day by day.

The silence was mind-numbing, the way it could isolate you even if you weren't completely alone. It allowed you to look inward rather than gaze at the world around you, make it so that you were combing through your thoughts of despair rather than losing yourself amongst the trifling happenings of other things. You wondered if this was going through the other skeleton's mind, the desperation that the green tiled walls were closing in, ready to suffocate you at a moment's notice.

Papyrus seemed to be the catalyst between the two of you, the keystone in the bridge that linked you to his brother. Without the younger skeleton's presence, you and Sans were content with silence even if the two of you hated it all the same, each too hating of the world and the unfair situation you were in to converse with one another. You did not hate Sans himself. You think you pitied him and his brother alike, that they too had been forced to endure the world that you had known for years and years, a world full of pain and torture without end.

But the tallest of the two skeleton brothers had been whisked away by the scientist for some experiment unknown, the two of you unsure of when he would return, how long it would be before life and conversation would once more enter the cell. Admittedly, neither you nor Sans had spoken since the dream incident, one of the few conversations you had had with him at all.

Your hands played and danced across the surface of a multi-coloured cube, though you weren't sure where it had come from. Papyrus had said that he had found it outside of the entrance to the cell a few days ago, insisting that perhaps it had been a gift of kindness from the scientist, but you nor Sans would admit to the fact that there was even a shred of kindness inside your imprisoner. Besides, why would he go through all of these lengths to cut you and make you bleed only to display a random act of generosity the next day? If he really wanted to be kind, he could open the door and let the three of you walk away from the torture and suffering.

Besides pondering your thoughts, the cube was the one source of entertainment that even existed inside your prison. It had been challenging at first, trying to identify a pattern that would allow all the cubes of the same colour to move to their individual sides, but it eventually became easy, small, hidden details that were once indistinguishable more prominent the harder you had studied the cube. In a flurry of movement, you mixed and reassembled the puzzle in under a minute.

"That's a new record!" You declared in triumph, dropping the cube to the floor, admiring at the handiwork that you had put into it. Sans seemed to jump at your sudden exclamation, having been used to the icy silence. It was strange, you noted, how empty the two skeleton brothers seemed to be with out each other. They both seemed like halves of a puzzle, the picture not complete if one was missing. Without Papyrus, Sans seemed emotionless, detached to everything and anyone around him.

You wondered if that was part of his condition. From what you could tell from the scientist's ramblings time and time again, something had gone wrong with Sans that had not happened with his brother, something that had made him more fragile and more susceptible to injury. You couldn't help but wonder if that was the reason behind his emotional isolation as well, the way he seemed to never be living in the present, though you didn't really understand what would be so appealing about living in the past or the future. The world you lived in promised a painful past and an even more tortuous tomorrow.