Frisk had asked Sans to meet up someplace private to discuss an idea. They’d seemed really nervous, which made Sans a little nervous. He was pretty sure it wasn’t a hyper-violent idea, though - they seemed entirely too comfortable with that type of suggestion.

He didn’t know, and he found himself uneasy about guessing. But it hardly mattered. He’d tried not to take Frisk’s obedience for granted, but at the same time, the fact was he knew he could just tell them to reveal their thoughts, and that would be that. It was really hard not to feel a certain sense of… maybe “comfort” wasn’t the right word, but perhaps “certainty” would work. To feel certain in their interactions. A sense of absolute control, nevermind that they had power over him in rather uncontestable ways.

Huh. Now that he thought about it, that was an odd power dynamic. Frisk had absolute power over him, and had surrendered absolute control to him.

Anyway.

He’d been chilling at Grillby’s, not feeling especially eager to get started on whatever awfulness Frisk had come up with this time. If it made them uncomfortable, it was probably nightmare fuel for anyone else. He tried not to wonder what it was, because that way lay madness.

He showed up on time to the meeting in his living room and Frisk was a mess. He was happy to note that they didn’t seem a mess in the bad way - they clearly hadn’t fallen into one of their obsessive guilt spirals again. Just nervousness, anxiety, that sort of thing

They’d also dressed a little differently. Still their style, but nicer. They had a brand new sweater that said, “Bad to the Bone” on it, and Sans couldn’t help but chuckle. He also noted that they almost always wore that heart locket, but weren’t wearing it today.

They just stared at him when he appeared, and didn’t say anything.

“so,” Sans said. “what’s all this about?”

They had an odd sort of terror in their eyes as they swallowed nervously.

“I… had an idea a while ago,” they said. “It… as far as I can tell, from learning some things from Alphys, it really seems promising. Especially combined with what we’d learned from our success, with the impressions lingering between resets. We’ve been kind of trying some things that didn’t seem as likely as this to work, but, um…”

Interesting. What would make them not mention an idea? They usually couldn’t hardly be stopped from sharing whatever idea had occurred to them, no matter how insane.

“but you hesitated to mention it,” Sans prompted.

“Y-yes,” Frisk said. “Um. I… I don’t… uh… trust my judgment in this. Um. I’m not… objective about this idea. At all. A-and I know, um, that I c-can be blind sometimes, in the, uh, right circumstances…”

Part of Sans must have already made a prediction, because the rest of him was trying really hard not to think about the implications of this. And why would he avoid the implications if he didn’t already have an idea where this was going?

He knew damn well where this was going, but he was going to continue to pretend to himself that he had no idea. He could deny all responsibility, all awareness, until the last possible minute.

But he could still poke Frisk a little.

“pretty sure whatever it is you’ve thought of, you’ve already done worse,” Sans said dryly, completely confident that this wasn’t ‘worse’ in that sense at all.

They gave him a glare that was half amused, half exasperated and he chuckled.

“go on, spit it out,” he said.

Frisk covered their face with their hands and took a breath.

“I… in the long reset timeline, I… sort of… fell into a conversation with Alphys, and, uh, I found something out,” they stammered.

“that was months ago,” Sans said.

Jeez, how long had they been hiding this? They weren’t supposed to be hiding things from him.

“Y-yes, but I didn’t put things together until the success with the lingering impressions,” Frisk said. “But, uh, the idea being that, um, we n-need to forge a bond between us, right? With the soul absorption being one angle, one that wasn’t quite enough. Another way to forge a bond, or strengthen a bond, was needed. And, I-I… okay, damn, this is hard… I asked Alphys about… about…”

Frisk choked and turned away.

Sans’ attempt to fool himself into not knowing where this was going was running into a giant problem in glowing neon.

But… but maybe he was misinterpreting. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to broach this topic.

They took a few breaths, steadied themself, and then spoke a single, long sentence at high speed, as though forced from their throat with pure determination.

“I asked Alphys about the practical considerations of a sexual relationship between humans and monsters, and one of the many things I learned was that there was a magic thing in the process that could forge a bond of some kind.”

Called it, that part of him smugly said, only to be shoved aside by the rest of him.

There were… concerns. Many concerns. He couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around the, uh, personal consequences of this conversation, as far as his own thoughts went.

Was this a viable idea? Maybe. He hadn’t thought about bonding through sex, and he might need to spend some time thinking about it.

Was this Frisk’s honest attempt at a viable solution? Maybe. He knew that they loved him… but he was a skeleton and they were human. It was possible that they weren’t actually interested in him in that way, and just thought this was a legitimate approach. And their attachment to him was more… platonic than that. Possibly romantic in some way, but not sexual. And this was a pragmatic, but embarrassing, experimental attempt. Though… he had to admit this didn’t seem likely.

Was this something that Frisk wanted for, uh, more personal reasons, and had simply wrapped it in a viable excuse? Also maybe. His mind kind of stuttered on trying to explore this hypothesis.

The nice thing was, he personally had nothing to worry about. Sure, they were stammering, embarrassed, and clearly struggling, but he could just ask anything or tell them to do anything, and that was that.

Awkward as this was, it might even be a fun conversation, when he looked at it like that.

“so lemme get this straight,” Sans said, his tone amused. “as the next in a series of trials to get me to remember the resets, you want me to have sex with you.”

“I’m gonna die,” Frisk said, covering their face. “I can’t… this… this was a mistake, can I just reload and this conversation never happen…”

He was pretty sure they were just verbally flailing, but it still wasn’t something he liked. So…

“no,” Sans said directly. “i don’t want this conversation erased.”

“Understood,” Frisk said, their voice a bare whisper.

And that was that.

He was really not doing a great job of not taking that for granted. At least he didn’t just take advantage of the situation and fail to appreciate it.

“i have questions,” he said after a moment to try to organize his thoughts.

Frisk swallowed.

“first… i get this conversation is a hard one,” Sans said. “i’m not gonna force you to answer anything. if ever it’s too much, we can just drop it.”

Frisk writhed awkwardly.

“And… by drop it, I assume that also would mean definitely not doing it,” Frisk said from behind their hands.

“naturally,” Sans said.

“I’ll answer any and all questions,” Frisk said.

“kid…” Sans said and sighed. “guess i probably shouldn’t call you that.”

The timing needed to be exactly right for this next bit. He winked and added, “unless you wanna call me daddy.”

“Oh my god, no, Sans, you can’t do that to me,” Frisk said, half shrieking and hiding under a couch cushion.

Sans just laughed. He could almost feel the glare. It was glorious. That particular bit of play wasn’t really his thing, but it looked like fantastic ammo for making Frisk scream.

“honestly, though,” Sans said. “this isn’t like the other experiments. we’re not even going to clear the air about this topic if it’s out of obligation. i’m telling you outright. if you don’t want to be here, if you don’t want to have this conversation, if you don’t want any part of this, we’re dropping it.”

Frisk pulled out from under the cushion and looked him in the eye. They were trembling but resolute.

“I want this,” they said, their voice burning and rough.

That… hit Sans a little harder than he’d expected. He let out a breath, but he had the perfect rejoiner.

“oh?” he asked, sitting down on the couch and laying back in an exaggeratedly relaxed way that also kept his jacket in a necessary position. “you wanna jump these bones?”

Another shriek filled the air and Sans laughed again. He took the opportunity, with Frisk’s silent embarrassment, to try to sort through his own head a little.

But the silence didn’t last as long as he expected.

“Yes,” Frisk said, a hoarse whisper.

He… had to admit, that was his fault. He’d laid out the terms that they had to answer questions to proceed, and he’d asked a question. He had no one to blame but himself.

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“i’m gonna be straight with you,” Sans said after a moment. “i have done my best not to think about anything sexual regarding you pretty much ever. the power dynamic between us isn’t exactly, uh, standard. i’m a lot older than you. the fact that you’re eager to obey me in what seems like absolutely every way makes things a little… ethically ambiguous.”

They nodded, with a serious look.

“i’m pretty sure i know the answer, but i feel i still have to ask. out of a sense of obligation to me… is there anything you wouldn’t do?” Sans asked.

“I can’t imagine literally anything that you might actually ask that I’d refuse,” Frisk said seriously. “Like, if you asked me to kill Papyrus and have it stick, I don’t think I could do that. Maybe if there was a damned good reason, but the idea of you asking that seems even more impossible than doing it.”

That didn’t help much. Almost didn’t help at all. Now, to try to guess Frisk’s limits, he’d have to guess what Frisk thought Sans’ limits were. Eh, he was pretty sure he already knew their effective limits in general - draw the line at “sane things he could ever conceivably ask for” and then, if he was lucky, their limits might be in view. Maybe.

But he could try to narrow things down a little for this particular discussion.

“heh,” Sans said. “what about sexual things?”

“Literally anything,” Frisk said without hesitation.

“and that right there is the problem,” Sans said with a sigh. “i know you are, uh, committed. to me. to your course in life. but you aren’t a sex toy for me to use and discard at will.”

“I could be,” Frisk said, blushing intensely.

That needed another breath.

“i don’t want you to be,” Sans said.

“Then I won’t,” Frisk said.

“it matters to me what you actually want,” Sans said. “and why.”

“That matters to me, too,” Frisk said quietly. “What you want, I mean. And why. It matters to me a lot.”

“i don’t know what i want,” Sans admitted. “you’ll have to wait to find out. but it sounds like you already know what you want.”

“But you haven’t cut this conversation off,” Frisk said. “It’s… something that it’s possible you’ll agree to.”

“i’m making no promises either way,” Sans said. “don’t get your hopes up.”

“Too late,” they said with a cheeky grin.

“you really want me to… bone you?” he asked, expecting another shriek.

Instead, Frisk just laughed, a far more sensual sound than he’d ever heard from them. He saw an almost manic grin as they leaned forward breathlessly.

“Yes, I do,” they said. “I’ve fantasized about it so much that I was honestly afraid that I was blinded, that I was seeing a possible solution where none existed. That I was subconsciously using the idea as a way of getting what I want, even if it’s insane and impractical. That’s why it’s taken so long for me to approach you. I wanted to make sure it seemed actually viable.”

That… required another breath. Or two.

“if it’s something you wanted that badly, why didn’t you let me know before?”

“Because you owe me nothing,” Frisk said seriously. “I love you. I want you. But I have no claim on you, no hold on you. You have given me everything, and I killed the version of you that maybe might have loved me back. I can ask to pursue plans related to our objective - that seems fair. But everything else… it is yours to decide what we are. Friends, enemies, lovers, friends with benefits, friends where one is an occasional sex toy to be used and discarded. Anything.”

“that is really not healthy,” Sans said with a sigh.

“I am not healthy,” Frisk said. “What I am is utterly and entirely yours, Sans. And while I like some ideas more than others, I’m not really… opposed… to any option that includes you boning me. At all.”

“what is it you really want?” Sans asked.

“You… sure you want to know?” Frisk asked uneasily.

“i think i need to,” Sans said.

“I want a hundred million things, many of which are completely incompatible,” they said. “I want to be your lover. The one you love. But also, what you said about being a sex toy that you use and discard… that was incredibly hot… and I find that I want that, too. Or a sex slave, or a million other things.

“But what I think it all boils down to…”

They hesitated and took a breath.

The hesitation was good for him, too. He’d not really pursued anything sexually ever since the incident that brought him here, for a number of reasons. It wasn’t that he lacked any interest, but, well… sex was complicated. Nuanced relationships, expectations, demands on his time. And completely casual sex was either a lot of work to set up - it wasn’t like he was a sex idol or anything - or it was for reasons he didn’t particularly enjoy. There were lots of humans who were interested in monsters just because they were monsters, for example, but that didn’t appeal.

But none of that meant he didn’t feel any desire. He just managed things on his own and enjoyed other aspects of life.

This was hitting him like a wrecking ball. His body, that is. His mind was so taken aback - mostly due to his refusal to allow himself to think about this ahead of time, to see it coming - that he was practically operating on instinct. Gather information, and let the cards fall where they may.

These cards were a little, uh, hard.

“Wise or not, sane or not… and I know it’s probably ‘not’ for both of those… I’ve committed myself to you, heart and soul,” they said. “I want to be yours. Part of me wants to say ‘in any capacity,’ but that’s not true. If you wanted me as a personal assassin, I’d do it, but that doesn’t… seem like a happy future.”

He suppressed a sigh at the confirmation that they’d kill if he asked them to, but it’s not like he didn’t already know that. Even so.

“I want… to be yours. Personally. I want you to feel like you can trust me. Tell me things, rely on me, on both a personal and pragmatic level. I want you to tell me jokes, and share secrets, and laugh with me. I want you to care about me personally. To deeply care.”

Practically all of that was already the case. He did try not to take advantage of their obedience, their devotion, but it was hard not to. He did feel like he could trust them. Not their judgment - they weren’t all that sane - but to have his back? To keep his secrets? They’d burned that doubt away and not even dust remained, in these last months. And they did share in jokes and fun, all the time. They loved his humor, even before they started losing their mind, and their reactions were fantastic.

He’d even partially revealed one of his biggest secrets, if not the details of why. Where his body had been accidentally altered to give him both extra power and extra vulnerability. He could bend reality, could freeze time and space, could teleport freely, could summon powerful weapons… and also die to a hard poke, if it was edged with almost any killing intent at all.

Not even Papyrus knew quite how vulnerable he was. There was a reason he was a bit trigger happy with his teleports and dodges.

They sighed.

“Part of it is with the resets,” they said. “Right now, the only one who is… completely, 100% real to me at all times is Flowey. And he’s…”

“he’s flowey,” Sans supplied.

Sans wanted that, too. He wasn’t sure if it was possible, but the faint success they’d had was impossibly alluring. He had to admit, he wanted it badly. They’d admitted to him about what he’d been like at the end of the long stretch reset, and he didn’t want that. He never wanted to find himself in a doomed timeline, and if they could nail this, he never would. It was good that he never had to wonder if he was in a doomed timeline - beyond the worry that Frisk would snap in some way down the line, or something unexpected went wrong - because Frisk would always tell him, but he’d rather it just never be an option in the first place.

“Yeah,” they said. “I want to keep you forever at my side, to never, ever be afraid of losing you. But not mine. I don’t want you to ever feel trapped by me, held back by me. I want to be yours. Kept on a metaphorical shelf at home, or actually at your side, whatever you need, but always yours. Someone, something you can rely on, to always trust to be there for you. That I can rest easy in the knowledge that you have a simple, absolute faith that I’m yours to do with as you wish.

“I don’t know how to phrase it right, why it appeals so much. The idea of belonging to you, rather than belonging to me, if that makes sense. The idea of you trying to make yourself love me is revolting. The idea of you having sex with me, without actually wanting to, is revolting.”

All of this was weird to his way of thinking. Well, except for that very last bit - that, at least, seemed sane. But they were so earnest, so serious. A big part of him thought it sounded dangerous and unethical and messed up. But… but another part couldn’t help but ask, if it’s what they really wanted, was it actually that bad?

Yet another part was convinced they were just saying that, and what they really wanted was a standard romance with him, but were too broken to admit it. So he called them out on it.

“but you’d rather me love you than just use you for sex,” he said.

“It’s… hard to answer that,” Frisk said. “It’s hard to see it that way. I want… I want the truth. I do want you to care about me, but even the word ‘love’ - there’s a million kinds of love. The love you have for Papyrus, for example, is a beautiful and powerful thing. I love so many, especially the monsters - they’ve stolen my heart in ways and to depths I didn’t even know I was capable of.

“Yes, I want you to love me… but the idea of constraining things to say that I specifically want romantic love seems wrong. I definitely want to have sex with you. I want you to want that. I have to admit, that is something specific I really want. A lot. But the difference between romantic love, where I’m a lover, and a deep bond of friendship, where I’m also a sex toy… it doesn’t seem that significant to me. As long as, whatever kind of love it is, that it is true to you. That’s the part that matters.”

That… really didn’t sound like they wanted romantic love but were denying themself. But it might be.

“be honest,” Sans said. “if your happiest imaginings came true right now, you’d prefer to have me declare romantic feelings for you, right?”

They flushed a deep red.

“U-uh, r-right now?” they asked, squeaking a little. “As in, um, right this minute? Not in a general metaphorical sort of overview idea of what I’d like, but what I’d like… right… now?”

He was going to need to end this conversation soon and clear his head. Clear something, at any rate.

He should say no, and that he meant the big picture way. That is absolutely what he should say. No question.

“why not?” he asked, his voice lower than usual. “tell me what you’d want me to do right this moment.”

He always did love Frisk’s reactions, and damn were they squirming deliciously right now.

“I, uh,” Frisk said, swallowing. “I’m… really not thinking romantic thoughts right now. Um. Kind of the opposite. I-it seems really hot that you might say that this conversation is, uh, making it hard to think and you could use some relief before continuing things. And then looking me over and deciding exactly what part of me you wanted to use. And it’s not smart at all, but for me to still be desperately writhing after you… after you finish with me, and then find out everything else you want to know, and then finally deciding that yeah, you do want to fuck me properly after all, and then I, uh, also, uh…”

He needed to leave. No, he needed Frisk to leave, this was his house. Because he did, in fact, feel absolute faith in the idea that he could order them to come over to the couch, use their mouth, and then just resume the conversation and he would personally have no problems that would result from this.

And seeing them writhe with desire for him was hot in a way that he’d never experienced. Not that he’d ever had anyone writhing with lust and looking at him that way before.

It was really, really hard to resist.

“Then I f-finish, feeling you inside me,” they continued, breathless. “T-that’s what I want right now. I-it’s hard to think of a-anything else, at the moment, to be honest.”

Okay, this had to stop. Now. Because if he went along with this even a little bit more, he’d end up doing something he regretted. And he would regret it, no matter what. He’d regret making an impulse decision about something so important, even if it turned out great.

“interesting,” he said casually, making sure his jacket was well positioned as he got up. “welp, you’ve given me a lot to think about. we’ll need to touch base after i’ve chewed it over.”

“Please, Sans,” Frisk said, their voice pleading.

He paused on his way out the door.

“I know you don’t know what you ultimately want, and I know that’s what matters most,” they said. “B-but… it may not matter as much, but it matters, I… do you… I mean, in a short term, short sighted, in the moment way, do you want… this?”

“i dunno if it’s a good idea to answer,” Sans said honestly.

“I… I understand,” Frisk said, sounding like they were trying to be brave.

Sans sighed.

“look,” he said. “i’ll say this. i knew what i was asking, in that last question. that last order. if my interest were completely pragmatic, i wouldn’t have.”

“Thank you,” Frisk said and he swore he could feel them behind him.

Yeah, he just needed to leave. Screw doors.

His old bedroom in the underground was dusty from disuse, but it was private. It took a little while before he could think again.