As people now knew of Sans' existance, and Sans had promised not to kill anyone since then Gaster would have to lock him back in the lab and not let Papyrus into the lab, Sans was allowed to walk to school with Papyrus.

Unfortunately, not only being not dead, but also wearing the Corrupt insignia on his jacket attracted quite a bit of attention to Sans. And he couldn't even  clear the way with a couple well-placed attacks, due to his "no-killing" promise.

He was kind of regretting making that promise, now.

The pair made it to the small schoolhouse trailed by at least twenty monsters, all of whom were curiously watching Sans.

For lack of something better to do, he settled for giving them nasty glares whenever he caught sight of any of them. That seemed to, at the very least, unsettle them enough to keep them at bay.

To be quite honest, though, Sans didn't understand why they were following him. Did they not have anything better to do?

... Evidently not.

As the pair walked to the schoolhouse door, Toriel looked up from unlocking the door. She smiled when she saw Papyrus, and then gave him a slightly confused, concerned look when she saw Sans. Frisk, on the other hand, ran forward and hugged Papyrus, then Sans.

The three of them turned back to Toriel. "Papyrus, Sans, good morning. Sans, I had heard that you helped in the recapture of Waterfall, but I would have thought Dr. Gaster would have dragged you back to his lab...?"

Sans shrugged, frowning. "eh. he made me promise not to kill anyone. which is kinda unfortunate, because i have no idea how i'm gonna make it home without being swamped by those idiots."

Despite the fact that he was being completely serious, Toriel let out a little laugh. "Well, if you would like, I can call your father here to come get you."

Sans looked at her, the ridge of one brow rising. "really?" Then he shrugged. "...sure, why not."

Together, the group retreated from the crowd into the schoolhouse. Frisk and Papyrus sat in their spots, and, for lack of a better place to sit, Sans sat next to them, waiting for Gaster to arrive.

Gradually, the other students began to arrive. Almost all of them were talking about the small crowd of monsters still loitering outside, and each quickly changed to the topic of what Sans was doing here, as well as why he was still wearing the jacket with the Corrupt insignia, when he had so obviously been fighting for the Pure.

Sans blatantly ignored all questions, and Papyrus and Frisk weren't sure if they were allowed to answer those questions yet, so the students were left in the dark.

Eventually, the room fell into a complete hush as the Royal Scientist entered the room. He was definitely the most intimidating Pure monster in the Underground, and that was only multiplied by the fact that he quite literally towered over the monster children in the schoolhouse. There were also a plethora of rumors amongst the schoolchildren that the tall scientist was completely mad, and that there were a variety of dead things in the lowest floor of the lab, which was why no one was allowed there.

Gaster, for his part, didn't mind the notoriety. For one thing, it meant that none of the students did anything more than stare in slight fear as he made his way through the classroom to where Sans was sitting.

Sans was leaning back in his seat, hands folded behind his hooded skull. His eyes were closed.

Gaster cleared his throat when he reached his son, and began gesturing when Sans opened his eyes. "Sans. The queen called and said you needed help with the crowds?"

Sans frowned a little at the use of Hands, then shrugged and responded in kind. "yeah. people are stupid. why're we speaking in hands?"

Gaster smiled slightly. "Because I have a reputation to uphold- these kids all expect something dark and mad-scientist-y. And, I mean, if they can't understand what we're saying..."

"I can understand!" Papyrus grinned at Gaster.

Gaster nodded. "Indeed. And I'm trusting that you won't go translating for anyone, for the sake of your dear old dad's reputation."

Papyrus grinned wider and shook his head. Sans gave Gaster a Look. "you are such an idiot, dad."

"I prefer to think that I make use of what I'm given. For example, Sans, the only reason I agreed to come help you out here is because your presence will be useful at the press release I was just heading to for the purpose of explaining you."

Sans blinked. "wait, what?"

"A large group of people are going to ask you questions, which you will answer, and they will publish in newspapers."

"what?!" Sans' eyesockets widened and his pupils shrank at the thought of being forced to answer idiotic questions, as he slipped back into the Common language. "no! no, you can't do that! you can't make me!"

Gaster grinned at the shocked, scared students around him. "Yes, yes I can."

Sans was determined, though. He grabbed ahold of the desk in front of him, bracing his feet firmly against the floor. "uh, mrs. toriel? i changed my mind! i'm staying here for the rest of the day!"

Before Toriel could respond, Gaster pried Sans out of his seat, and slung him over his shoulder, despite Sans' shouted protests. "No, you're coming with me."

In a last, futile attempt as Gaster walked towards the door, Sans flung out a hand towards Papyrus. "pap! help me! don't let him take me!"

Papyrus, who was the only student who understood what was going on, just shook his head at his brother's overdramatic antics. "Sorry, Sans." He felt bad for Sans at being forced into something he didn't want to do, but he wasn't going to go against his father.

Sans groaned in defeat and flopped limply in Gaster's grip.

And the students were all the more terrified of the tall Royal Scientist.

~o0o~

A short while later, as monsters moved aside for Gaster in a way they did not for Sans, the pair arrived in the press conference room where said press release was to take place.

A variety of monsters were already assembled there. Gaster walked up to the lectern and unceremoniously dumped Sans in front of it. A few surprised murmurs rippled out as Sans stood, dusted himself off, and gave the crowd his long-since-perfected "annoy me and I will rip out your Soul with my bare hands" glare.

Gaster leaned slightly over Sans and spoke to the crowd. "I apologize for my slight lateness, but I realized that any questions you might have will be so much more effectively answered by Sans himself instead of me."

And then, after Gaster gave a quick explanation of what had happened, he turned the spotlight to Sans.

"okay," Sans said before any questions could be asked, "let's just make one thing absolutely clear: i do not want to be here. so, all you morons can help me out immensely by not asking any questions, therefore allowing me to go home." Sans glared at them.

For a moment, an awkward, tense silence filled the room. Then Gaster spoke up.

"Nonsense. You can ask him whatever you like, and he will answer."

Sans let his skull fall against the top of the lectern, moaning. With one hand, he Spoke to Gaster. "you are so, so lucky i'm okay with you. otherwise, i would kill you."

Gaster just nodded and gestured for a monster to give his question.

"Are you really Sans?"

For a moment, Sans just glared. "... no. i'm actually jerry."

A shocked murmur went through the crowd. Sans threw his hands up in frustration.

"you idiots! of course i'm sans! who else would i be?!"

Gaster dragged a hand across his face. Sans was determined, it appeared, to make this as painful as possible.

Next question: "Are you really Corrupt?"

In response, Sans summoned a Corrupt attack, and Gaster only just managed to keep him from chucking it into the crowd. By now, the crowd was afraid, and Sans was scowling.

Next question: "If you're Corrupt, why did you fight the Corrupters?"

Then Sans grinned maliciously. "i guess you could think of it as an example of what happens when people annoy me. oh, and a suggestion: don't annoy me, or i will, without a second thought, eat your soul."

The conference only went downhill from there, although, admittedly, there were a few moments that had Gaster doubled over, snickering at some other poor monster's expense after a particularly snarky witticism of Sans'.

Eventually, though, when a question resulted in Sans shouting what Gaster could only assume was a colorful variety of insults in the Corrupt language, Gaster decided that was enough. He told ushered Sans away, leading him home.

All in all, things had gone better than he had expected.

~o0o~

It had only been a month since Sans had rescued Papyrus and saved the Pure army. And while things had mostly calmed down on the surface, the event was still fresh in Sans' mind.

Particularly when it was late at night, and everyone else was asleep.

With his promise not to kill anyone, along with the fact that the cell in the lab was still broken, Sans was allowed to again take up residence in his room in the house. And while his bed was infinitely more comfortable than the cot had been, that didn't matter when he couldn't sleep, either because of the questions or the nightmares.

Between the two he couldn't decide which was worse; it was almost like they went hand in hand.

He would ask himself, what would have happened if I hadn't been able to save Papyrus? And then, when he finally did fall asleep, he would have nightmares of a Corrupt Papyrus attacking him, and being unable to fight back, because Papyrus.

Or, what if I had died when I fought the clone? And nightmares of Hotland being overridden by Corruption, and Papyrus and Gaster being tortured...

It only got worse from there.

So most nights, he either laid awake and imagined painful things, or slept and imagined painful things.

This night was one of the former.

He lay motionless in bed, one hand resting next to his skull on his pillow.

What if Papyrus had died on the way back to Hotland?

No. stop. Don't think about that.

What if I had died after killing the clone, and no one was left to protect Papyrus?

It doesn't matter. That didn't happen. And it never will.

What if-

The door to Sans' bedroom crashed open, and suddenly, Papyrus was scrambling onto Sans' bed, whimpering.

Sans frantically pulled his younger brother close, summoning an attack to one hand, staring into the darkness, waiting for whatever had threatened his brother to just try to hurt them.

It wasn't some Corrupt beast that showed up, but Gaster, who came into the room and flicked on the light switch. Sans noticed Gaster looked just as awake and aware as he did.

"What happened?" He asked.

Sans looked down at Papyrus, who was pressed tightly to his chest, trembling.

Sans let his attack dissolve, and gently pulled Papyrus away. "... pap. you alright?"

Papyrus shook his head as Gaster came to sit next to them on the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"...'M scared." Papyrus whimpered.

"did... did you have a nightmare?"

Papyrus just nodded.

Sans let Papyrus snuggle back against him, and looked at Gaster.

He could see it in Gaster's scarred face; he was scared, too. Sans had no doubt that Gaster had been awake similarly as he had been.

After a moment, still holding Papyrus, Sans scooted over to lean against Gaster. Gaster responded in kind by wrapping his arms around his sons.

They were all tired. It looked like it was going to be a miserable night.

Misery loves company, but if two is company, and three's a crowd...

Together, they slept soundly, each's nightmares fended off by the crowd of their family.

§

A/N

A fun little fact: about 45% of this chapter was written on my phone, while I sat in a tree.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Remember, voted and comments are not only always welcome, but always appreciated, too!