Shadowed

You and Sans land on a hard surface. You open your eyes to a questionable blue and purple carpet. Even with gloves, you find it hard under your hands, but the blurry colors in your vision reasure you none the less. 

You escaped successfully. 

You hear a deep groan to your left and twist yourself on your hands and knees. Shaking the haze away, you bring your full hand to your eyes to look at the stolen mass. The blob of black flails uselessly in your palm,  coiling back and forth almost as if in pain. It suddenly turns itself back and onto your wrist. 

Sans turns to you, fighting the ache in the back of his skull, and sees the viscous liquid grab ahold of you. 

You jump back, falling on your ass as you feel the mass climb under your coat. You bring your hand away from your face, slapping your other hand around your forearm, trying to stop the thing from traveling up. You feel it sip into your skin and almost yelp with a shudder. 

The skeleton besides you jumps to his knees. Crawling rapidly your way, he tries to remove the clothes on your arm to reach the void material, but you flinch away from him. His eyes snap back onto you, obviously not comprehending your behavior. 

You look at him shocked, almost through a new light. Not only has your vision cleared, but you can almost see, no, feel his soul. His aura... This thing Gaster kept trying to explain to you... You see it now. 

Sans is... Scared? 

"Hey, ehm, are you good?" Said skeleton asks with an almost timid voice. 

You aim to sign, but find yourself at a loss. Faltering in your movement, the dread and sorrow of earlier seeps back into you. You look away to nowhere in particular. 

'Gaster? Wing Ding, are you there?' you ponder weakly. 

Silence. 

"Wings?" You ask aloud thoughtlessly. 'Where are you?'

Sans gapes at you. Wings? What does it mean? Can you actually speak or are you attempting to mutter something else unsuccessfuly? 

"Wings?" He parrots back to you. 

Your head snaps back to his form. Shit. 

Can you hear me, dearest? Gaster finally speaks, sounding somewhat pained.

You jump, actually relieved. 'I hear you!' You look around the room, recognizing it to be a living room. 'I hear you.' You repeat calmly. 'How are you?' You worry. 

His shape nears you in response and you've never felt more relieved to feel him close to you. 

You've damaged me I believe... Yet I... He seems to take a moment to recolect his thoughts. Don't worry about me. It seems I'm actually beginning to feel even better than before...

You breathe a sigh of relief. He feels fine, good, no, more than good now. He suprisingly catches your thoughts before they fully form themselves. 

I'll try to see what I can figure out on my end. For now, how do you feel? He questions back. 

"Hey, buddy? What's going on, you okay?" The blue dressed monster brings you back to reality. 

You lift your arm to your face once more, before shakingly answering. "I'll be fine. You?"

The skeleton huffs, sitting back on his heels. "Nothing I can't survive" He chuckles out nervously. "Listen, I'm... This was all my-"

What seems to be the front door jiggles. Sans turns to it and you reflexively jump to your feet. Someone is unlocking the door. Someone with a heavy energy. You can't understand what that means for you yet, but you decide whatever it is, you don't what to risk it. You remind yourself of your failures. 

Don't put yourself in danger uselessly. 

You see a small window in a room not too far to you and jump into a sprint. 

"H-Hey, wait!" Sans scrambles to his feet. 

You unlock the latch and push it open as the front door opens. 

"Just hold on now!" Sans stutters, putting a hand to your arm as you back into him. 

"SANS? THERE YOU ARE!" The other skeleton walks in just a you sprint and jump out of the window and into a pile of snow. 

You look up to your exit silently, then around you. Seems like you destroyed an igloo. Oops. You're just glad no children where inside. 

"WELL, THAT WAS STRANGE..." You hear from inside. 

You quickly stumble out of the destroyed snow structure and fall into a sprint. You don't stop running until you find a small secluded spot between two buildings. 

Nice and quiet. 

Gaster whispers your name, to which you look up to see his summoned hands. 

'You are still practicing?' You inquire. 

Technically, yes. He mumbles. Thing is, this was not what I was attempting to do... 

You frown worriedly. 'What were you trying to do?'

I meant to reassure you. To search around for your child's energy. You hear him take a breath and see the hands claps tightly. I couldn't. Is voice struggles to let out, sounding frustrated. I tried to ground myself in your reality and this is the result... The floating limbs turns open, now closer to you, as a silent explanation. The world is... It feels numb to me... 

You look at the hands, seeing them shake even as the movement seems restrained. You reach and grab one of them weakly, squeezing and bringing it close as you slide down to a sitting position. 

Playing cautiously with his fingers, you try to calm yourselves down. He feels small, concerned and powerless. It scares you. Even in doubt, Wing Ding has never had such a meek presence. Not only but you feel like people are surrounding you, climbing on top of you. These auras Gaster kept mentioning feel so oppressive to you, you feel like you might suffocate. It's too much! 

It's like two pieces finally click together. Again, responding to your silent thoughts, Gaster's other hands slides over yours. 

It cannot be... 

'What else could it be? You are numb and I'm overstimulated.' You bring the formed magic to your chest as he squeezes around you. 'I... I stole your sense, haven't I?'

No. He cuts frigidly. You have never stolen from me. His tone is harsh, yet another hand appears to slide under your hood and on the side of your head. We are one. He reassures softly. You... You saved a part of me. You brought it back with you. His tone suddenly turns joyous, almost giddy. You've stolen me back from the void, yes!

His hands let you go all at once, almost flailing around in excitement. 

This is grandiose! Do you realize the achievement you've made love? He hear him laugh incredulously. It pulls a hesitant smile out of you. It's unprecedented! You! Without any true effort or thought, have managed to take something back from the void! 

His excitement is contagious. You respond uselessly. 'You're happy.'

Happy? He almost snorts as if insulted by the statement. You've outdone centuries of research my dear, I'm positively elated! 

This time, you can only giggle. You steal a hand from the air, halting the others in there tracks. You have to ask. 

'But I've taken away your ability to feel this world...' You hesitate. 'You've spent your life with this ability and now it's gone and I'm not even sure how to use it... Aren't you feeling empty? Isn't it lonely?'

The hands slowly come closer, landing themselves in an invisible embrace. You feel comfort seep into you. 

It's a small sacrifice I am willing to make.He replies warmly, one hand rubbing small circles on your back. And I am not alone, aren't I? I have you. His words steal another smile from you to which the chuckles contently. I will teach you how to handle this new sense. Do not worry. 

Never would you have believed any of this could happen. You sincerely thought your best years were behind you. That the happiest memories were past. You especially never thought you'd be this close to someone. This comfortable with them. A monster, out of all things, and one that isn't even in your reality. Nothing really makes sense at that point, but you don't care. You're actually happy right now. You chuckle, Gaster's emotions must be seeping through into your owns. You don't care. 

'I wish you were here.'

As do I. 

You take full advantage of the moment, basking in the comfort of this non-existent embrace. Your earlier panic completely evaporates and the world around you slows down. The magic and energies of your surrounding still, blending together. 

It's mainly Gaster now, but you feel others. Shades of color dance in your vision comfortably. It's orange, then pink, then deep blue. It's deep blue, then purple, then green. It green, then pale blue, then red... 

It's red... 

Red. 

You open your eyes and snap your head to the far away street at the end of the surrounding buildings. 

Frisk?