Before the Storm ( Sans x Reader )

14. And So the World Turns

"You'll get the hang of it, you just have to put a little more effort into it!"

"I am trying!" Sans protested as he narrowed his eyesockets in concentration, mustering every ounce of his will power and focus on this single bone, willing it to move upright in the air. A wavering blue aura of magic surrounded it, lifting it a few feet above the ground before the skeleton once more broke concentration and it once more came back crashing to the ground, bound again by the laws of gravity and space-time.

You watched in humoured fascination as Papyrus continued to instruct his brother on the fine art of magic. It was curious how easy it was for Papyrus to summon forth magic with a mere flicker of thought whilst it took his brother several strained efforts to even lift a bone from the ground. You couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with Sans' condition, the strange and unexplained part of the short skeleton where his health was abnormally low, so low in fact that even the slightest touch could cause him to wither into ash and dust.

The easiest enemy.

"It's not fair," Sans mumbled and sat down on the ground, kicking the bone in the midst of his frustration. "It's not fair how you or (Y/n) can summon magic on a whim, how easy it is for the both of you. I could die at the slightest touch, I can barely even use magic to defend myself should I need it, so then what's the point of me? Why am I even here? I'm obviously the weakest and most expendable of the three of us, so what's the point in keeping me here? I'm sure the scientist could have just as much fun torturing the two of you without me being here."

"Don't say that brother!" Papyrus exclaimed, looking horrified by his brother's words. "You're not a mistake or a reject, you're the best thing that's happened down here! Just because you don't get it the first time doesn't mean you won't be able to one day. Sometimes you have to fall down a lot before you can walk."

"Where did you get that from?" Sans asked, awed by his brother's sudden wisdom.

"From a cat poster in the scientist's office!" Papyrus exclaimed, looking very pleased with himself.

As a second-hand observer, you were often fascinated with how different the two of them were. Papyrus was determined to find the smallest ounce of positivity in anything handed to him and would latch onto it for the end of time. Sans, however, seemed to match more of your attitude when it came to both your imprisonment and the scientist, hating the world around you for dealing such a cruel hand of fate.

Papyrus had been insistent that his brother learn how to enhance his abilities in the field of magic, a task that was proving to be rather difficult, though if the tallest of the two skeletons felt any sort of frustration, he was doing a great job in hiding his emotions. You could sympathise with Sans on how aggravating it was to summon forth the needed magic to complete a task. It often took you several agonizing seconds to tap into the strange part of your mind that harboured the strange energy needed to reshape the world around you, a task that would almost certainly prove disastrous against an enemy that was more skilled than you in the field of combat, specifically the scientist. You didn't think he would wait for you to activate your magic before he roasted you to death in a torrent of flame and arcane energy.

"I'll give it one more try," Sans grunted as he got to his feet, sticking out his right hand, the part of his body where he seemed to channel his energy.

He fixated his gaze upon the bone and latched onto some main emotion that was ravaging inside his mind, allowing it to fuel him and thus the magic that constructed every monster, directing the energy towards the bone strewn on the ground. It gave a feeble wobble as a blue aura began to surround it before the bone rocketed from the ground at a speed unimaginable.