"Do you have the list Asriel?"

"Yes Mr. Shota, it's right here."

Asriel was being sent on his first solo mission when he returned to his home. He was being sent to the grocery store. Asriel was indignant at Shota's worry but resigned to bite his tongue and allow himself to be babied, even though he's much older than his guardian.

"I'll be fine. I walk to the store, I get the stuff I use your card to pay, and I come home."

"Alright, Mr. Independent. I'll see you soon."

Shota ruffled Asriel's head and went into the living to help his husbands, housemates, and the Kirishima child take care of seven hungover teens.

<~>

Asriel walked through the local park to get to the store. He enjoyed seeing the Gold Flowers sprout forth from where he walked. The flowers were the subject of a sore memory from the past, but he couldn't help but love the flower's golden sheen. The humans of the new world called the Gold Flowers buttercups.

They were clearly ignorant of the mystic properties the flowers held. To be completely fair, Asriel wasn't completely sure what mystic properties the flowers had. Asgore told him and Chara the Gold Flowers helped protect the monster army during the Human Monster War forever ago. He was still curious about it. Maybe the Comedian will know, he was one of the top three scientists after all. His old man fought in the war as far as Asriel knew.

"Hello little boy! Doing some shopping for mommy?"

Asriel walked into the store and stared at the condescending lady who greeted him. Might as well mess with her.

"My mom died during childbirth."

"O-oh, is daddy at work?"

"No, both of my dads are taking care of my older brothers and their friends."

"Oh. Dads, as in plural. More than one."

"Yeah, my dads are the pro heroes Eraserhead and Present Mic. Are we going to have a problem, miss?"

A sweet grin lay in lieu of a shit eating smirk, cause the lady looked like she swallowed a lemon.

"Not at all. Go enjoy your shopping young man."

Asriel snickered while placing the stuff Shota tasked him with getting. A few loaves of bread, a couple bags of chips, Papyrus, eggs, parsley...Papyrus? Asriel froze and walked back to the end of the starches and baking aisle. Sure enough, he hadn't been hallucinating. He pulled out his phone (or electrical brick) and recorded Papyrus taking boxes of noodles and inspecting them.

Sans had been teaching him Soul Manipulation in his free time when the younger monster sought him out. Carefully, Asriel pulled Papyrus's soul out. He made sure to record everything. From the blood red soul, to the equally red eyes.

Papyrus, having his soul pulled out, rushed forward to attack. A sharpened bone in his hand was literal millimeters from his face. Asriel was on his back on the ground. His shopping was scattered around him.

"A...A-Asriel?"

The attack disappeared and Papyrus rushed into a portal behind him.

"Chara?"

"Kid! Oh my god, kid are you okay?"

Asriel didn't even notice the humans trying to help him. Asriel took off without the shopping and raced to the closest patch of grass outside. It took three minutes, but he managed to travel all the way back to his house.

Sans was racing out the door trying to pull his jacket on. Natsumi and Shota were trying to get him back inside to no avail. He forgone any type of footwear in favor of leaving faster. Asriel was in danger, but it wasn't enough to force his shortcut to activate. Thank the stars that his little brother was standing in the grass looking like he saw a ghost.

"Asriel!"

Sans was tripping over himself to reach him. Asriel stopped the phone recording.

"Sans...Somethings wrong. Really, really wrong."

"What's the problem? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"I ran into Papyrus at the store."

"W-what?"

Sans face grew slack. His eyelight shrunk to the size of tiny pinpricks and his mouth fell open. Asriel ran into Papyrus? No, that couldn't be true.

"Here."

Asriel played the recording for Sans to see. By the end of it, Sans's eyelight was flashing between neon blue and yellow.

"N-no...I-I-I refuse to believe it! No!"

Everyone rushed outside. Sans never yelled like this, not even when Papyrus hit him. Him screaming in anger and/or fear scared the bejesus outta them.

Katsuki shoved past everyone and tried to hold Sans. Sans panicked and ran off, quickly going through a shortcut to the school's front gate. He then continued to run until he ran into a broad and dirty chest.

The human before him had on a black vest, white undershirt, and black slacks. A stained and freshly dirtied apron lay on the ground next to him. His skin was a dark caramel color and his hair moved and looked like flames dancing on top of his head. He had thin glasses on the bridge of his nose with wide, confused dark golden eyes behind them.

"S-sorry man."

Sans tried to rush past him but his upper arm was in the stranger's grasp and he was pulled into the human's chest.

"Sweet stars above, child are you okay? Your feet are bleeding!"

Sans had to stop and take a good look at the stanger.

"G-Grillby?"

"You...Sans?"

A fresh wave of tears ran down Sans's face as he leapt into Grillby's arms. Grillby hugged Sans tightly, believing that if he let go the former Skeleton Monster would disappear again.

"Sweet stars, Sans, I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Grillby, I missed you."

Sans had his face buried in Grillby's shoulder. The two stayed in the tight embrace for a couple minutes. Grillby stayed silent, just comforting Sans as he sobbed his soul out in his chest.

"It's okay Sans, let it out. I'm not going anywhere."

Sans stopped sobbing, but his tears refused to stop coming forth. He eventually passed out from exhaustion. Grillby stood up and walked the way Sans had been running from.

Grillby looked at the sun's placement and assumed the time to be around noon. It had been a long time since he was last on the surface.He soon reached a school? A human woman with long blonde hair was looking around frantically.

"SANS! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

That made Grillby pause. This human knew Sans? Grillby walked up to the woman and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder, nearly fainting at the lack of fire. Sure it was obvious when he first appeared, but it still unnerved him.

"Excuse me, madam? My name is Grillby, am I right in saying, you know Sans?"

The woman spun around and snatched Sans out of Grillby's arms.

"Who the hell are you?! And why do you have my son!?"

"Apologies, my name is Grillby. Sans bumped into me and we recognized each other."

"Oh, I know who you are. Sorry about my, uh, little outburst. Sans had high praise for you, I'm sure he'll want to talk to you more when he wakes up. We can chill at my place for the time being."

Grillby smiled brightly and took Sans back from the woman.

"Thank you. Might I know your name?"

"Kirishima Natsumi."

"Nice to meet you Kirishima. Can I assume you've been taking care of Sans?"

"Yup. Me and my son Eijirou found Sans in an alley when he first arrived in our world. He's been a joy to have around. Helping around the house and whatnot. My turn for a question. How are you here?"

"I couldn't tell you. I was delivering food to the only scientist left in the Underground, but she panicked after reading this book and I'm here. I think, if I remember correctly, she used her tail to knock me over and threw the book at me. Next thing I know, I am on the sidewalk in broad daylight, something I never thought I'd see again, with a human body. Then Sans barrels into me."

"I see...my wife is a scientist. She'll be able to help you far more than I will. I'm a cop. This world's equivalent to the Royal Guard from your world. Keeping with me so far?"

"Yes, it is a lot of information. The surface and humans in our world were much less technologically advanced."

"Alright we're here. Welcome to my home, make yourself comfortable while I call everyone back to the house."

Natsumi left for the kitchen as Asriel ran down the stairs.

"Who are you?"

"Prince Asriel?"

Grillby's head was frozen in place as he stared at his former prince. He looked exactly like he remembered, aside from the dark green shirt and khaki shorts.

"Grillby? I guess since Sans was turned into a human it would make sense for the same to apply to you. When Sans wakes up, do not mention Papyrus."

"Why not? What happened? How are you alive?"

"Something happened while Papyrus was here, and it's not pretty. I'd rather not talk about how it happened, but I was Flowey back in our world. I'll ask Miss Natsumi to make drinks. Anything you want?"

"No I...how about a cup of water?"

"Do you want a piece of lemon?"

"No, just iced water will be fine."

Grillby was nervous. He might have a human body, but would water still hurt him? Asriel returned with a cup filled with water and ice cubes. Grillby took a careful sip and almost dropped the glass from drinking so quickly. He quickly noticed a ketchup bottle on the table and chuckled. Some things never change.

"Sans, it's time to wake up."

"Nooo. Just put it on my tab, Grillbz....Holy, Grillby!"

Sans shot up and stared at Grillby with astonishment.

"Damn Grillbz, you pull off being a human! Slap some new clothes on ya, and you'll be a real lady killer."

"Thank you, I could say the same to you Sans. What's it like to no longer be a Skeleton Monster?"

"It has its ups and downs, but I don't have a whole race depending on me to break the barrier. Here, I'm nothing more than a 15 year old, normal human. I miss my beautiful bones, but if my old body is the price to pay for a life without stress, I'll gladly pay the piper."

"I am relieved to know that you're happy. Did you make friends during your time here?"

Sans went bright blue at the question. Peaking Grillby's interest and causing him to smirk.

"Well, um, you see -"

"He has a whole group of friends and a boyfriend."

Asriel loved the chaos he was fueling. Sans's face went a shade darker and threw a pillow at Asriel.

"Shut yer trap furball!"

The door slammed open and Katsuki actually tackled Sans from how hard he hugged him.

"Don't you ever run off like that again, you hear me Richter?!"

"Sorry Ground Zero, won't happen again. Skeleton's honor. Where's everyone else?"

"Your mom drove everyone home. Kirishima is staying the night at Raccoon Eyes' place."

"Mom?"

"Sorry Grillbz, long story."

"Not that long squirt. Nice to meet you Grillby. I'm Ichika, Natsumi's wife. Sans called us mom once and now we're his de facto parents."

Sans groaned into Katsuki's shoulder from embarrassment.

"Suck it up, you scared the shit outta everyone, the embarrassment is your punishment."

Sans remembered why he ran off in the first place and turned to look at Asriel.

"Asriel, you're absolutely sure about this?"

Sans's face held a seriousness that everyone thought wasn't possible. His tone promised a bad time, giving Asriel flashbacks.

"No comedian. It was them. I'm right, and you know it."

Asriel's arms were wrapped around his middle, trying to ground himself. Shota and Hizashi weren't there to comfort him. Grillby was growing concerned for his former prince. What was going on?

"Sans, what are you talking about?"

"Ichika, do you remember what I told you about Chara?"

That gave Grillby pause. The same Chara from their world?

"Yeah, but what do they have to do with this?"

"Chara's soulless spirit is possessing Papyrus."

Grillby wanted to yell in shock, or anger, or something. Chara, the beloved second child adopted by the King and Queen? Prince Asriel's younger sibling? Princen Chara, now a soulless malevolent spirit possessing Sans's only brother? Grillby couldn't believe what he was hearing. He just got here, what did he get into?!

"What?!"

"And if Frisk's bloodlust and determination infected the spirit, then who knows what they forced Papyrus to do."

"Natsumi -"

"I'm already on hold with the station. Nakamura, put me on with the chief."

"Be sure to search the forests and any abandoned buildings nearby. I got a bad feeling and I really don't like it."

Despite Sans's joy to have Grillby by his side, he couldn't help but feel dread for the upcoming week. But, he was sure of one thing. He will save Papyrus. That's a promise.

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This chapter is dedicated to Lilbeamer01 Good job deciphering WingDings