Eri sat on the floor next to her bed in the room everyone said was hers. She was crying but held her hands over her mouth to muffle any sounds. Her eyes started drooping and she fell into a weirdly restful, deep sleep.

<~>

Eri opened her eyes, but she wasn't in her room. She was in a...place, if you could even call it that. There was nothing. It was mostly black with shades of swirling grays and off-whites. There were also slim wisps of dark blues and fiery tones.

"Who are you?"

Eri fell to her butt as she stared at the source of the new voice, absolutely terrified.

"You're the skeleton..."

In front of her was a skeleton. It wasn't like the ones in the books or posters she saw. This one looked like it went through a fire. Its bones were charred and its skull, the back of it going to its eye ridge was still covered in reddish-orange flames. In its eye sockets, there were two tiny lights; they were like tiny, flickering, pale flames.

It wasn't smiling like all the skeletons she'd seen either. It was frowning, well, not like it was upset, more like it was confused. It wore a plain white shirt, an unzipped blue winter coat with white fur on the inside, black swishy shorts with a white stripe going up the outside of his legs, and fuzzy pink slippers.

It smiled and laughed at her surprised words.

"i suppose i am. i'm sans, sans the skeleton. who might you be?"

"...My name is Eri."

"well it's pretty cool to meet you eri. i know a kid around your age who's also closed off. his name is kota and we're best buds. i think you'd be great friends, but what does this ol' bag'o'bones know, eh?"

There was an awkward pause where Sans cleared his throat.

"heh, tough crowd. how'd you get here, eri? it's not easy to connect souls like this."

"Souls? Is that where I am?"

"you didn't...yes indeedy! my soul to be precise, it's a, heh, not the best best to be right now. are you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"you're arms and neck. you're covered in bandages. are you hurt?"

Eri's eyes widened and her breathing sped up. Sans panicked and started waving his hands in front of him.

"you don't have to answer if you don't want to! duh uh um, how-how about i talk about me instead!"

Sans sat down in front of her, cross legged and hands on his feet.

"i have a really big family. younger brothers eijirou and papyrus, a devoted older sisters nova, two moms, ichika and natsumi, the coolest dad ever, grillby, two cool uncles shota and hizashi, two cool cousins, hitoshi and asriel, at least two niblings i can't wait to meet, i think an underground brother-in-law, didn't exactly have the time to get his name but his villain/hero name is dabi. i, uh, also have a boyfriend. i miss him, so much."

Small, translucent tears started rolling down his cheekbones. They evaporated before getting to his jaw. His smile was somber and his eyelights seemed to be full of so much pain.

"...What's his name?"

Sans jumped and smiled brightly.

"katsuki. he's unbelievably kind and one of the sweetest humans i know. he's really strong and gonna be an amazing hero."

"Hero?"

"ya know, the people who fight the villains. the good guys. Well, i can personally think of a few heroes who deserve to be stripped of that title. he's so awesome that he got second place during the sports festival!"

"Who got first?"

Sans's smile grew proud and his fists connected to his hips.

"why, yours truly, of course~ i'm a far better strategist that my gorgeous boyfriend and, while i can't match him in brute, raw strength, but numerically, i can, did, and will continue to do, run circles around him. he's also super thoughtful. my stomach can't handle spice, like, at the heck all, but he loves spicy food. whenever he eats it, he makes sure to eat mints afterward so he doesn't have to worry about upsetting my stomach when he kisses me."

"He sounds really nice..."

"do you have any friends, eri?"

"What are friends?"

"uh, people who make you happy! people you can lean on when you're sad or to be happy with when something good happens."

"Do you have friends?"

"i do, a human named haru, a few from school, denki, hanta, tenya, and mina, my classmates, and a few pro-heros i interned with one time."

"I don't have any friends."

Sans frowned, but caught himself and placed his hand on Eri's head.

"well that's not true. i'm your friend. you're my friend now too."

"We're friends?"

"of course we are! we're best buddies!"

Eri nodded at his words with big eyes, like she'd never heard that before. It hurt Sans's soul to see such a forlorn look on a child's face. Cool blue tones filled the dark space around them.

"how old are you, eri?"

"I just turned six. How old are you?"

"in human years or monster years?"

"Um...both?"

"in monster years, i'm fifteen. my body presents that way too when i'm human. in human years i'm seventy-five."

"You're really old."

"heh, i suppose so. when katsuki learned how old i am, he said he was dating an old fart."

"Why are you a skeleton?"

"why do you think i'm a skeleton?"

"Um...is it your quirk?"

"good guess, but no. i'm from a different world. one of monsters and magic. i'm a skeleton monster."

"Is that why you're covered in fire?"

"not exactly. my dad, grillby, is a fire elemental. a being of pure fire. he's really nice, you'd like him. he makes really yummy food."

"You can eat?"

"i can, i eat a lot of food! hotpot, takoyaki, karaage, soba, chocolate, ketchup, i can eat anything! what's your favorite food?"

"I only eat rice porridge."

Sans's smile grew strained as he slumped in on himself. He was getting a clearer picture of Eri's situation, and he wasn't liking it a single bit.

"eri. i need to ask you a serious question. it won't lead to any punishments or anything like that, okay? i need you to be completely honest with me. tell me about your home situation."

Eri looked scared and hugged her knees to her chest.

"You-you promise I won't be punished?"

"i give you my solemn word. no one will learn of our conversation, i promise."

Sans lifted Eri to sit in his lap as he leaned against a nonexistent wall.

"My father is a mean man. He does surgeries on me all the time and even uses his quirk and I don't remember what happens when he does. I always feel weak after he does. That's why I have so many bandaids."

Sans stayed silent and brushed his phalanges through her hair.

"i wasn't born. i was artificially created in a lab with fire elemental and skeleton monster d.n.a. my creator is called w.d gaster. he was tasked with creating a way to escape the underground and setting monsterkind free. he grew mad with power and set his sights on immortality after a while. by the time i was created, his mind was already in ruin. i was experimented on endlessly when i was an infant and toddler. tests on my magic, my bones, my hp, my intelligence, everything."

Eri watched the space around her darken. Blacks and grays swarmed, nearly smothering the already small wisps of color.

"i would've never gotten away from the hell i was raised in unless i got out. i found grillby before i knew he was my father. meeting grillby saved my life and i didn't even know it until i came to this world."

"You were like me..."

"yes. and i will get you out of this place eri. i promise you that."

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