DystopianTale (Undertale AU)

~Chapter 10~

Sans groaned as he scribbled out another equation, a headache beginning to pound at his temples. He'd been at this for hours now, crumpled up papers and messy notes spread out on the kitchen table around him. He knew he had told Ink and Error he'd figure this out for them, and he certainly still wanted to help, but he sure as hell didn't realize it would be this hard. Whoever had first figured out how to make an actual medicine to help Ink had to have been a genius.

Setting down his pen, Sans reached for his - thankfully still full - cup of coffee, sipping the lukewarm liquid as his eyelights scanned the few notes he'd been able to make. Ink's soul was still healthy, and the few resent cracks he had seen all looked to be healing properly, so at least they didn't have to worry about shattering the small heart (Though, if Sans fucked up enough that very well could still be a possibility, but he was confident that he was smart enough not to let that happen). There were the twins to consider too, so injecting anything directly into Ink's soul was out of the question - such a direct change could either severely damage the still growing souls or straight up kill them. Ideally, Sans should be able to make something similar to what Ink had before: medicine in syrup form or swallowable tablets.

Keyword being "ideally".

Making medication that can affect the soul and not harm it was a difficult thing to do: souls were fragil and finicky, not to mention that everyone's soul was unique.

A fuzzy hand pressed against Sans shoulder, the skeleton's hand immediately coming up to cover Ink's medical documents. "What's all this?"

"Hm? Oh, just some stuff I'm helping some friends with." Sans started pulling his notes into a neat stack, doing his best to keep any private information hidden - sure, his father wouldn't intentionally snoop but everyone's eyes wander sometimes. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were awake." His eye lights flickered to the window, the sun rising behind the blinds, silently cursing himself for losing track of time. No wonder he had a headache.

"Have you been up all night?" Asgore asked, his deep voice coated in concern as he sank into the wooden seat next to Sans.

"No, just woke up early; that's all." A complete lie, he had definitely tried to sleep when he got home around 2am, but hadn't even lasted an hour before being woken up by a nightmare. He'd been awake since then, and he was sure his father knew he was lying. The bags under his eye sockets were a dead give away.

"... these friends, have I met them?"

"No, they're good people though. Real cute couple."

"You should invite them over for dinner sometime." The older goat monster suggested as Sans finished the last of his coffee. "I mean, I'm guessing they're the reason you haven't been home recently, and it'd be nice to know who you've been hanging out with." A pang of guilt hit Sans like a ton of bricks. He'd been aware that his family would recognize how often he was away, but it had slipped his mind how it would affect them, especially his dad.

He knew how scared Asgore was about losing one of them. Toriel's death had nearly killed him - a mix of their bond snapping and the grief. Sans could still remember how tired the goat monster had looked after losing their mother, his soulmate. He'd never quite been the same monster as he once was before the accident.

"Dad-"

"I'm not upset." Asgore waved a hand, stopping his son before he couldn't even start apologizing, an easy smile on his lips. "I'm happy you have friends, you've been spending for too much time worrying about all of us and not yourself. I do wish you wouldn't stay out so late though."

"... Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, I've just been...busy."

Asgore hummed, patting Sans's hand with his larger paw. "It's alright Sans, just remember that you don't need to hide anything from us, we're all family." There was that guilt again, a reminder that though his father would tell him that statement hundreds of times, there was no way he could tell them what he was really doing when he left the house. It was just too dangerous. He was still mad at himself for letting Chara find out about the rebellion.