This was what he did for Papyrus. Every time he misbehaved, Sans just tried to talk to him or ignore it. That's why his brother was so fucked up now. Why he walked all over Sans. Why wouldn't he? Sans practically laid down for him and pulled a rug over his chest.

This was a pattern. Sans realized that way too late. He always thought he messed up a bit while raising Papyrus, but he didn't realize... it was still happening. He talked about it with Jane before. He thought he had already fixed this issue!

He was doing it again. Sans thought he handled it but he did it again.

Sans ended up laying in their backyard, looking up at the cloud filled blue sky of early year weather as he dwelled in self-reflection. A bit chilly out. Not overly freezing now, and the weather was coming back to the warm spring and summer promised. Bean would probably enjoy splashing around in a pool.

The shuffle of grass could be heard before Jane was settled onto the ground beside Sans, letting her body flop against the untrimmed lawn. Her hair sprawled out below her, mixing with the grass, and certainly was now thoroughly dirty.

"It's a bit too early to be star gazing now, huh?" Jane asked.

"Never too early. Just because I can't see the stars doesn't mean they aren't there." Sans gestured towards the sky. "So technically I am star gazing. Just can't see what the hell I'm gazing at."

Jane dragged her head towards Sans, eyes lightly narrowed as she looked across his defeated facial expression. "So you found out about Sally's lie, huh?"

Sans frowned. "... So you knew?"

"Yeah. We all did, admittedly. It was kind of - well, super obvious."

"And why didn't you tell me?"

"When I first found out I didn't want to say anything because I was trying to get you to ditch your friends. And hey, that lie did set the coursework for your doubt. After I found out that you're really cute and an awesome person I realized that it should come from Sally herself."

Fair. Sans would have been more upset if he found out from someone other than Sally.

"Sorry, for that."

"No, no, you're good, it's just..." Sans sighed, looking to the side. "I feel stupid. I made a lot of stupid mistakes and didn't even learn from them and I'm just... I'm not going to be a good parent. What the hell was I thinking?"

"You're saying you made mistakes to a serial killer."

Sans snorted. Right. He couldn't complain to a group of people who had it worse than him.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Sans groaned.

"No one does. We just all pretend that we do. That's what life is about."

Curse Jane and her stupidly amazing ability to have her head on straight. No matter what anxiety or depressed thoughts Sans threw in her direction she'd be able to handle them. That was probably a good thing, though.

"I'm upset that she lied to me about the incident. And I'm upset that she poisoned Toby. But she had good reasons for both of them. To her, Toby was insulting everyone here, and Papyrus was always a dick. I'm frustrated but I don't want to do anything rash. I don't... I don't know. At all. What to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I know I should punish her, she almost got Toby killed! But I have to figure out how to talk to Toby about him insulting some of the CreepyPasta here, and then figure out how to talk to everyone else about their treatment of Toby because that's not fair to him. And I have a kid and two partners and a job and I am fucking swamped. I feel like my head is about to burst."

Everything was happening at once. Sans felt like he had no breathing room. Ever since Bean was born it was a constant struggle of an event after event, drama after drama. Then he got in Eyeless Jack, started dating Jane, Toby game in, just... everything was going on and he felt like he was being swept along. Sometimes he got in the breathing room. Other times it felt like he was sinking. Like right now.

"That's because you learned a lot today. You feel like you're overwhelmed now because of everything that happened. And you also have to manage a household and be constantly stressed about everything that happens in it. If you get caught, well, we all know it's over," Jane said. She sat up, looking down at Sans who was desperate for some reassurances. "But you're forgetting about something."

"What?"

"You aren't alone, idiot." Reaching over, Jane flicked his nose socket. "You might be Sally's guardian but you aren't the only adult in the house. I think we need to have a house meeting about this. Today was a lot and we all need to talk about it."

"Talk about it? We already did."

"You talked with Sally. Briefly. You haven't spoken with Toby about why Sally hates him, nor have you spoken with Laughing Jack about how easily Sally managed to get poisoned candy. And you haven't managed to come up with a full-on system to alleviate stress or any full backup plans. Or about your anxiety with raising people you care about."

For a bit, Sans thought he was doing good. He thought he had things under control. Then this day shattered all of that. Sally had been lying to him. The friendliness he thought everyone had was a sheer layer to the possibility of attempted murder. His comfort from before was an illusion, and Sans was panicking as the cards fell around him.

In conclusion, emotions were stupid.

"Alright," Sans said, moving to sit up. "Let's have a house meeting."

~~~~~~

Open floor type of situation. That's what Sans decided. As he sat down onto the new plush, awkwardly teal-colored couch that clashed with the dull painted walls, Bean chewing on a random plastic dinosaur Sans had bought her, he chose that course. To just let everyone have the floor (one at a time, else chaos would ensue) to ensure everyone could just get their problems out.

This house was... nice. But it wouldn't last. Not at the rate they were all going at. He already had a close call with the neighbors, and an attack occurred on a date night. Now they were trying to kill each other inside of the house. This needed to happen.

"Okay, this will just be an open floor deal. No interrupting, but everyone needs to talk about concerns or problems or whatever. This situation we have right now ain't gonna last forever. We can't have fighting inside of the house. Can we just make a blanket agreement to not try and kill each other anymore?" Sans asked.

Everyone slowly murmured agreements to that. Some quicker about it than others. Zero gave a long harsh frown, hugging her hammer close to her chest.

"Zero," Jane said.

"But -"

"Zero."

They stared at one another for a moment. Hesitation took over Zero's face before she sighed, forcing a quick "fine" out through the skin of her teeth.

"I think it should be stated that self-defense is allowed if they attack... attack you first, though," Toby muttered. "For safety reasons."

Sally glanced away at that statement.

"Well, yeah. But if any of you guys attack one another in the house I'm going to have to kick you out," Sans said.

That certainly caused everyone to turn. Silence fell. Eyes stared.

"I'm not saying to not kill. You guys know I don't give a shit. And if you guys need to fight then go out somewhere and handle it. But do you guys realize what happens if one of you gets into a brutal fight in here? What if you guys leave a lot of blood? What if one of you fucking dies and I have a goddamn corpse on the floor? I care about everyone in here, so my main concern is your safety, but I know I can't stop each and every fight that happens." Sans ran a hand through Bean's hair. "Especially since this is supposed to be the safe place from the police. If someone makes a noise complaint, or someone suspects domestic violence, then what? Hell, CPS can get involved because we have Sally and Bean here. You guys can't go around recklessly fighting or trying to poison people. This is a haven, and that means - within this property - you guys should be safe from each other and the police."

He wanted to argue more for their safety. That he didn't want them to fight because he didn't want them to get hurt. But they were CreepyPasta. If he couldn't convince them to not go out and kill people and risk their safety constantly, trying to stop them from fighting would probably be impossible. So he had to go from it from a different angle.

If Toby had died, they'd have a corpse. Sans would have to dispose of a body - Toby's body, no less, and Sans was starting to consider him a friend. He couldn't imagine dealing with that. Were he and Toby super close? No, not anywhere near that. But they certainly did experience a horrible event together, so they bonded a bit over that.

Imagining Toby - fucking hell, imagining any of them as a corpse on the floor sent a shiver down his spine. At the very least monsters dusted away. But humans stayed. It was horrific to think about. To rot. To smell. To taunt you with the possibility of them moving around, just like they used to. Only for their dead eyes to stare forward in the form of pure nothingness. Dust was nice to handle. Could be spread anywhere in the world. Dead bodies only rotted.

"That's why there can't be any more fighting or instances here. I didn't really consider building a reputation with my neighbors before I moved here, but if they think something bad might be happening we'll get investigated. And we keep too much evidence around to risk that. So we need to start preparing for that being a possibility. Have proper spots for weapons if you won't keep them on you, make sure to clean them with bleach, that sorta stuff."

Sally eyed him from the side. Yeah, okay, maybe he was stalling a bit for the bit topic. But these things did need to be discussed. Might as well just get everything out while he had them here. Wasn't that the point of this?

"And, uh, also, I can't... do it. This." Sans nervously glanced to the side. "All of this, I mean. I can't take care of all of you and do chores then worry about my kids and the police. We sort of having a chore list going on right now but there's still a lot of stuff I have to do."

Normally a house wasn't too much to handle. But they had a lot of people. Assigning everyone just one chore wasn't working. Sans still had to do a lot of things. And do his online job. And feed his daughter because she got all difficult if someone else fed her. And constantly stress about the police every time he heard a slight siren outside. And stress about Frisk, because they were curious and there's no way in hell they'd let Sans leave their life without trying to barge in again.

And... worry about resets.

That was a terrifying thought. He had managed to push it aside because Frisk was rather satisfied with their current life. But if they got bored? He'd lose everything. End up back Underground with his shitty brother memories and no CreepyPasta to be around. No boyfriends or girlfriends.

No Bean.

Thinking about that made him slightly push her against his chest. There was always so much to stress about. Be it the police, Frisk, or the people he lived with. Life wasn't simple.

Then again, life was never simple. He always had an unusual life. Always had an enemy roaming about.

"Why don't you just quit your job, Sans?" Ben asked.

He tucked his knees against his chest on the couch, head tilting as he spoke. Sans glanced over at the blonde-haired boy.

"What?"

"You work from home, sure, and have flexible hours, but it's still hard mental work. I can rob the rich and they never notice. So you don't have to worry about payments or bills or anything. And I can just hop through a screen and rob something if we need an object. It won't help a lot but you won't have to worry about constantly jumping from work to us."

Sans shook his head. "It'd be suspicious if I had no job but was still able to afford all of this."

"That's why we create a paper trail. Just like what I did for Sally," Smile Dog said, perking up from Jeff's lap. "Make false forms that you work in a small company. As long as you keep paying your taxes as if you work like that, you should be fine."

Oh.

That was... kind of tempting. In a way. His work wasn't too hard but it still did take up some time. And during the rare video chats, he had to kick everyone out of the room. Which was a hassle, especially when they still were loud within the house.

"I'll have to consider it, then," Sans said. He hunched slightly when Bean tugged on his hoodie. "But we gotta talk about other things right now. Mainly... Toby. I've been avoiding this, but you guys all treat him like jack shit. This place is supposed to be a safe place for everyone from the law."

"For CreepyPasta! This bastard ain't one!" Jeff jerked an arm towards Toby. "He publicly announced it and everything! He doesn't get to abandon us all and then intrude in our only haven!"

"I didn't abandon you!" Toby said, looking over. His shoulder jutted out.

"Yes, you did! Why else would you do that? You're still a serial killer!"

"He did it because someone died, jackass!" Clockwork snapped. "Because we found Judge Angels dead!"

Who the fuck was that?

Sans glanced around as everyone fell silent. Eyeless Jack seemed just as confused.

"Another CreepyPasta," Laughing Jack whispered to Sans.

"It had nothing to do with any of the actual CreepyPasta. It's just... Clockwork and I found her dead, and her boy... boyfriend... It's not - feck - like that. I didn't quit because I thought I was better than all of you, or I thought I was a superior killer or... or whatever. I quit because she got into a fight with another CreepyPasta and lost. And I didn't... I can't do it." Toby gave a forced chuckle. "Just couldn't. I don't like the rivalries we have or the stupid... rules, or working for Slenderman. I couldn't do it."

"It still felt like you were abandoning us. Sure, a lot of CreepyPasta don't interact, but the fact that you went out and made a very obvious announcement to us all was... insulting. As if you were calling us idiots." Jeff looked away.

"It wasn't - fuck - like that at all. I didn't mean to insult all of you. It wasn't a choice for me when I was first taken in, either. I just... associated the name CreepyPasta with the loss of my friend. And I still do. She died because of that title. I know it doesn't matter to some people, and other people think they can't get rid of that name, but to me?" Toby shrugged, one of his eyes twitching. "That name meant everything wrong with my life. I couldn't tr... travel as I wanted. Kill who I wanted. I felt trapped and - wooop - this is the most I've felt free. It's okay if some of you are mad at me, but removing the title is what I want to do. To just be Toby. Not another serial killer under Slenderman's thumb."

"You have the right to choose what you are, Toby. But the way you did it came off as... egotistical, if that makes sense," Smile Dog explained.

Sans wasn't a serial killer. Nor was he a CreepyPasta. So he didn't understand how this could be as insulting as they painted it out to be. And he doubted he'd fully understand. At the end of the day, he wasn't wanted by the law. He could live comfortably. To some of these people, who lost everything, the name CreepyPasta was all they had.

And to see someone actively denounce that could feel like the last thing they had was being shat on.

So Sans wasn't going to step in for this. He wouldn't understand what that name truly meant to them. Toby had to work this out with the others.

He let the conversation flow. Toby and the others talked a little bit more about that. Clockwork stepped in to defend him. Sally spoke up a bit about why she felt like he was a threat and tried to poison him. Sans mostly sat back and listened, making sure everyone got to say what they wanted - no, needed to say. Bean cooed and whined in his arms as he gently rocked her back and forth.

He let out a soft sigh as his anxiety dwindled down. He can't believe one reveal sent him on a spiral downwards of self-doubt and worry again.

That was a problem Sans would have to work with. Instead of just talking about it with everyone, Sans had mentally made it his and only his problem.

He was doing good recently. To think that one event was all it took to set him back.

But he bounced back.

Underground, that never happened. If something upset him, made him stress or worry, that was it. He was staying in that pit of despair. Yet here he was, surrounded by people he cared about, all having an open discussion to ensure their stays were happy here. Something happened today, and he found out something else. And it made him upset and confused and anxious. But these people were helping him. Trying to make sure he was better. Trying to make sure things would work out, that things would be okay. Sally did something wrong but she was trying to make it better. Jane and Toby were even working together to explain different ways for Sally to communicate her frustrations, and to understand Toby's point of view.

Sans couldn't stop himself.

He burst out crying, right there on the couch. Happy tears, but tears nevertheless.

~~~~~~

Alright then.

When Ben had walked into his room, late at night, he had been expecting some joke to follow. Ben just seemed like the type of person to do that. Instead, he awkwardly held up a disc and mentioned that Sans should watch it.

And, as he watched it, Ben explained to him what was happening. Although it was pretty damn clear in the video itself.

He sat, briefly after it ended. Just... sat. Before shaking his head.

"This doesn't concern me anymore, this... this is his problem. If he pissed off demons he has to deal with them himself. I don't care. No contact means that, this doesn't change it."

And Ben accepted that with a silent nod of the head. Taking away the disc and slipping it into a nearby trash can. Sans watched that, giving a quiet thanks to Ben for informing him.

Hopefully, this was the right call. He really hoped so.