Hybrid

You switch off the TV and take a deep breath. “It’s not as fantastic as you all imagined, hu?”

Sans looked over at you, a serious bend to his smile. “well-”

To say Caroline exploded through the door might be an understatement. She actually did scream at seeing Sans, bouncing on her toes, sending her chest shaking in that perfect way that made you just a little jealous. “Oh. My. Gods!! The door lady wasn’t shittin’ me!” While you genuinely smiled to see her so happy, you could without the banshee screams.

You heaved yourself off the couch with some difficulty in an attempt to calm her. “Care, Sans the skeleton.” The skeleton monster’s eyes were darting between you and Caroline, tiny points of white light reminding you of a startled cat. He had a death grip on your bean bag chair that was only now starting to relax.

“I know who he is silly. He was on TV!” Her stage whisper could use work. and by work you of course meant she could actually whisper. The next few minutes were spent awkwardly presiding over a mundie and monster shaking hands; said monster trying to get a handle on your roommate’s bombastic energy. “Whew, you are so cool.” It seemed that she might actually have stars in her eyes, staring at the Sans’ hand as she shook it.

“heh, well then you should meet my brother.”

“Okay so,” you gently pulled Care away from Sans, his tense grin slackening somewhat. “why don’t you tell me how your day’s been? We can cook lunch together.” You gave Sans a nervous smile, mouthing a sorry while guiding Caroline’s jubilant self into the kitchen area. The judge moved himself to the breakfast counter, keeping an eagle eye on the two of you, especially when you got the knife for vegetables.

Caroline was more than happy to start on food, chattering on about a pair consisting of a cat and an alligator monster, Catty and Bratty. From the way she described them, it seemed she was quite taken. Her fascination with monsters didn’t stop at the oddity of them like most humans’ did; she kept asking Sans about culture, ideals, philosophy. Typical political science major stuff. While he was caught off guard by the all the questions at first, he seemed to be warming up to her very quickly. You could almost ignore the puns he kept throwing at you, probably trying to get you to laugh.

Not going to happen, you stubbornly thought, dicing up a tomato. Oh, that’s right, you still have to yell at Sans for grabbing your ass earlier... You glanced to Caroline, stony walls around your soul practically melting at her glowing smile. You just couldn’t ruin this for her, no matter how stressed you were feeling. You were worried about things that she couldn’t begin to understand.

Sans caught your eye, he had been studying your face for a few seconds, the slight smile you hadn’t noticed getting wiped off as you met his gaze. The skeleton’s lit pupils flicked down to the center of your chest. You knew he was trying to look at you soul, to figure you out. Must be hard to justify a ‘kind soul’ with a cold person. Your heart did skip a beat at the realization. Mage souls were definitely brighter and more vibrant than non-mage souls. It would be obvious for any monster who could see that you were a mage. Sorry, Sans, I’m not going to put everything at risk, I won’t be the person to bring the war back. You crossed your arms over your chest and cocked an eyebrow at him, jaw subtly tightening until your teeth ached. He looked away too quickly.

Once Caroline was satisfied with the tuna fillets she’s been seasoning she slid the tray into the heated oven and leaned against the counter next to you. You glanced at her and she frowned, pulling your belt a little when you went to scraped the salads together. “Hey, something’s up with you.”

“What are you talking about, Care?”

She took the knife from your hand, placing it on the linoleum counter and turned you to face her. Suddenly you were being hugged, verytightly. “Sorry, I didn’t even notice before. Heh, just going on about me and my day without even asking about your’s.”

Your anxiety spiked for a brief second making it a little hard to breath, but this is Caroline. Of course she can read you, you’ve been living together for most of three years. Your arms weakly rest around her ribs and you sigh into her shoulder. “Yeah, sorry. Just had a... an eventful morning. Haven’t really had time to uh, think it all through, I guess.” You let go, she gives you one last squeeze and took a step back. Her hands pinched your cheeks until you were smiling. It hurt a little and you laughed. “Okay, okay.” You pulled her fingers away from you face, thoroughly embarrassed at the low chuckle coming from a certain monster perched on the bar stool to your right.

“you look good when you smile, kid.” Sans had this not-quite-shit-eating grin on his face. “you should do it more.”

“Oh?” C’mon, Sans. Just as I’m getting cheered up?  You were feeling a little better-- no that was a lie, but with Care here... So, trying to be a stoic like your old man isn’t going to work. Besides two can play at his game. “Really? I thought you were already pleased with my assets.”

Sans’ smile dropped slightly and you could practically see the gears turning. He soon went blue in the face, though from mortification or blushing was impossible to tell. “erh, i uh-”

“You’re looking a bit flushed there, Sans. Need an assprin?” You turned fully away from Caroline, hands on hips and a smirk on your face.

“k-kid?”

“I didn’t realize you were an officer too, Judge. Must be why you can cop-a-feel or two.”

Caroline’s eyes went wide and she covered her burgeoning grin.

“Hey, Sans, wanna hear a dirty joke that’ll make you laugh your ass off? Oh, wait, I see you already heard it.” You leaned towards the monster with a serious glare. You roommate losing it, slumping against the counter. Dirty jokes were her weakness after all. Sans was starting to sweat-- you weren’t going to question it--, trying to look anywhere butt your face. He knew you were calling him out on his earlier behavior, and while you were sure he got the message, you didn’t want Caroline to know.

“okay, i get it.” He pointedly stared at the counter, grin twitching slightly. “though i gotta ask,”-- his smile was back, oh gods!-- “didja sit in a pile of sugar? ‘cause you get a pretty sweet ass.”

And, done. Nope. Outtie. You just turned on your heels and went back to furiously chopping the lettuce and other assorted fixings. Caroline’s roaring behind you. She actually high fivied him, that innocent traitor!

Once you had thoroughly subjected the plant matter to a harsh tossing, you took a deep breath and pulled out three plates. You saw Sans raise a brow ridge at you, so you just threw him a sickeningly pleasant smile. “What? You should eat more. Need to put some meat on those bones.” He snorted at the pun and you could sense another one coming. Some excuse not to eat. You refused to give him an inch. “Oh, and you just have to try Care’s cooking.” You placed the plates down with a mock pout. “I just know she’d be super disappointed if you didn’t.”

Care started laughing nervously, trying to make an excuse for him now too. You weren’t so ignorant of magic and general monster ‘folklore’ to think a skeleton couldn’t eat. Instead you patted Care’s shoulder with a soft smile. She still looked flustered and nervous but stopped mumbling random excuses.

You slid on the oven mit and extricated the fish, placing a fillet on each salad bedding and drizzling them with a homemade dressing. Mix a bit of mayo and ketchup together; tastes pretty good, especially with a little bit of pickle relish. You did notice Sans staring at the tomato paste longingly. Now that you would question.

The three of you moved to resume positions on the living room couch, though Sans still took the bean bag chair. Care flipped the TV back on to her favorite cooking competition, explaining the rules to Sans as you all had missed the first few minutes. “So you try to sabotage your opponents dishes by limiting what they can cook with either tools or ingredients. The judge doesn’t know what handicaps were given and they go around tasting the food to see if it meets their standards. One person is eliminated each round and sent home. The winner walks away with all the money they didn’t use.” She had placed her lunch on the chair arm, leaning over slightly to talk with Sans.

While you weren’t the most interested in this particular episode you did still glance at the TV every few minutes. But every time you looked back at Sans his dish was a little emptier. Your brows slowly pinched together, flicking your gaze over to Caroline who was staring at the show, chattering away about how much she loved the host. By the time your eyes were back on Sans, the entire plate had been emptied and licked clean. He met your gaze with a languid smile but you just stared.

How. In. The. Fu- Oh hey, foot in your face!

You totally didn’t squeak while leaning back at Caroline's foot swung out into the air where your head had just been seconds before, the roommate in question lying face down in the carpet. She had somehow managed to save her plate from tumbling to the ground, but only by a slight margin. “Care are you-”

“Not another word,” she grumbled around a mouthful of rug. Sans had since moved into the kitchen, gone the second you broke eye contact with him. The fucker was fast, you’d give him that. He returned a few seconds later with your band-aide kit from the bathroom, handing one to Care as she sat up. While for the most part undamaged, there was a small cut on her forehead where the table knife dug into her skin. It wasn’t too bad, but it still bled quite a bit. Sans seemed more on edge than ever before.

“Here, give me your plate. I’ll get you some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol.” You held out your hand as Caroline passed her dish over, muttering about how ineffectual hydrogen peroxide actually was. “Keep her hands off it, will you?” you flat out ignored her grumbling, opting to enlist the jittery skeleton’s help. At least give him something to do that wasn’t wandering around your dorm.

Then something hit you. A really unpleasant idea if ever there was one. Sans had gone into your bathroom, the bathroom you haven’t properly scrubbed clean in gods know how long-- two months. three weeks, and five days-- the very same bathroom your hiking clothes, undergarments and all, still contained. Or you hoped by every divine power that they were all still there.

You placed Caroline’s plate down on the counter and tried to look as unhurried as possible on your way to the bathroom shelf. One glance at your discarded clothes and it seemed like everything was there. While you didn’t have time to search and be sure now, that’s precisely what you would do later. Instead you huffed silently, doing your damndest not to blush at the awkward situation, and retrieve what you came in here for.

Once out in the main living area, Sans was nowhere to be seen, Care had a confused expression while one hand pressed an unused napkin into her temple in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “Where’d bony butt go?” you dropped onto the couch next to her, uncapping the bottle and applying some fluid to a cotton ball.

“I... I don’t know. Said something about ‘the kid’ calling him then took off... erh if that’s what you call it?”

“Hm?” You picked a simple healing melody that wouldn’t be too noticeable beyond the sting of the hydrogen peroxide and set about mending the wound very carefully.

“Well, his left eye changed, the room got a lot colder, there was this big flash of blue light, and he was just... gone.”

So that’s how he got behind you so fast? You must have missed the light two nights ago when the monsters first emerged. And that might also explain the pulse of magic, like static rippling over your skin, when he was suddenly behind you a little more than an hour ago. Since monsters are so loud, you just crushed your magic sensitivity all the way down while he was here. The spell on your finger tips sparked as your concentration wavered, the green light almost becoming visible to Care. Your questions surrounding Sans hadn’t lessened in the slightest, as though it all worked out too well...

Wait a second. “Care, band-aid.”

“Thanks!”

You stood and marched your way back to the bathroom, depositing the hydrogen peroxide and cotton before kneeling to sift through your dirty clothes. Bra, tank top, flannel, socks, jeans... “Mother fucker took my panties!”

This had to be the single most idiotic thing he had ever done. What was wrong with him?! Sans, hands buried in his hoodie pockets, hopped a few times before finally short-cutting his way back to Asgore’s place. The human government had set up a pretty large house for the pretty large monster King, said king’s ex, and their quasi-murderous adopted child. Not to mentions the Royal Scientist, the Captain of the royal guard, his brother, and technically himself. Though ‘living’ might be a bit of a stretch for him, all things considered.

The skeleton puffed his way up the stairs, doing his best to go unnoticed, and while Frisk certainly spotted him, the little ambassador made no move to approach. Fine by him. Unlike the others, Sans remembered the genocide runs. All of them. It was hard to believe at first, a kid like Frisk going stone-cold killer and wiping nearly every monster into a dusty grey smudge. Once he figured out the barrier though, everything fell into place. Frisk might have had some magical potential before they fell, but after they were a full blown mage with natural skills far beyond what they should have had.

Who knows how much that magic may, or may not, screw with a person’s head. And speaking of screwing- oh gods, no. stop it sans. just because her human friends call her ‘soul’ doesn’t mean she’s a... not even going to finish that thought. just. no.

The moster shook his head, trying to fling away his unbalanced throughs. Was this his heat coming early again? And a human, really? It wasn’t like anatomy was going to work in his favor on this one. Immediately a swarm of crude and dirty anatomy based humor descended on his mind, causing him to both flush and flinch. Though your voice immediately echoed in his head, and all those ‘ass’ puns. He knew you were going to yell at him for it, he’d been counting on it, butt ass puns? Really?

The monster had no ulterior motive and he’d swear that to his grave. But there was something in the second he touched you that sparked in his bones. The way your soul seared so brightly on that walk down from Ebott; the way you glowed when standing up for another monster against your own kind. Sans would never say it but, gods he could stare at you for hours and never feel it enough. So when you were clipped and closed off around him, it felt like you were doing it on purpose, pressing in the blaze of your own soul to hide something from him. In fact he was sure you were hiding something you didn’t want him to know.

When Sans saw your eyes burn green he was scared. About as scared as any monster would be when confronted by a soul as powerful as yours. On top of that, it felt different from the kid, like this wasn’t something given to you, but a power you had. Sans felt that from you like a constant wave of heat rushing through his bones and clouding his mind. It made his spine tingle with fear and excitement, sending his soul hammering in his ribs, and oh how he hated this feeling. But he couldn’t get enough.

The monster got to his room, sans the self-sustaining trash tornado, and nearly slammed the door to vent some frustration when a soft fabric brushing against his leg-bones caught his attention. There, resting oh so innocently on his foot, was an undergarment. A very specific undergarment. The monster could only guess at it’s use, seeing he didn’t really have a need for underwear, nor did Alphys or Undyne use similar clothes that he knew of. Your scent on the fabric caught his focus and curiosity held it. He’d honestly forgot that he grabbed it in the first place, only remembering once you went into the bathroom yourself.

Sans knew you would kill him the second you found out, so he made up some half-hearted bs and short-cut right out of there.

The monster sighed, blue staining his skull as he slipped into his room and locked the door. gods this will not end well.

“He did what?” Caroline rounded the bathroom door as you gathered you clothes.

“He took my panites.”

“....”

For a long while neither of you spoke, just mutually processing what happened. “I’m going to go tell Stillwater. I’ll probably have my extra curriculars tonight too, so don’t expect me back until late, okay?”

“I’m going to kick his bony ass when next we meet.” Caroline actually growled, a dark look on her face. It startled you.

Sure, you’d seen her mad before but this was on a different level. Was it her protecting your honor? And if so, you felt proud to have such a friend, yet also terrified for her well being. You had to say something, anything, to get Care to let this go. Crap, crap, crap- “Not unless I do first.” Really? That was the best you could come up with? Really?! Gods, this will not end well.