Another meeting... How perfect. 

Honestly, it was pretty much just like the same thing as last time, as if you had stuck that day on a broken record and it just kept looping over and over. They woke up, the only difference at this point being that Undyne decided to hang back while Sans took Frisk to where they had to go. Again, it was a repeated process of having to wait outside to be let in, Sans having the unease of being watched by that camera for the second time. And then lastly, the skeleton was stuck sitting outside the meeting room until it eventually came to an end.

This is where the day finally took a turn for something different. 

As the door was opened, Sans stood up, seeing Toriel and Asgore being the first to leave with a couple of others. Toriel saw Sans and flashed him a kind smile, deciding to go over to talk to him while he was waiting to be accompanied by Frisk. 

"Hello, Sans. Thanks for bringing Frisk with you once again. You know we could always pick her up if it's too much for you to handle." Toriel said. Sans shook his head, a small grin on his face as he brushed her off.

"don't worry, tori. it's fine. i like being able to walk with frisk. it's nice to get out of the house and uh, spend some time with her, y'know?" He chuckled as he scratched the back of his skull. Toriel nodded approvingly as Asgore joined beside her, adding to the conversation. 

"Well, we are grateful that you still take such good care of her, Sans. I've always put my trust in you for a good reason." Asgore beamed. Sans chuckled a little as he put his hands back into the pockets of his hoodie. 

"i would always gladly take care of frisk." He said. "with my life if i had to." Sans paused and glanced towards Toriel giving her a grin and a wink. "i made a promise after all." Toriel seemed to smile at this and she nodded her head. 

"Of course." Asgore responded. "Just keep it up, Sans. You ready to go, dear?" 

"Yes, Asgore." Toriel said to her husband and waved to Sans. "Again, thank you, Sans. Perhaps we'll pay a visit to you two again soon. Stay safe." 

"you too." Sans responded, waving to them in response until they were out of sight. He sighed, still waiting outside the room for Frisk to appear. He had probably been standing for a good 5 to 10 minutes until the door eventually opened revealing not only Frisk, but she was talking to someone else who must have been involved in the meeting. 

"Sans!" Frisk called happily as she went to give him a hug. She pulled away and looked towards the person who she was with. "Sorry I took so long to come out. We were just discussing a few more things. You see, we were just trying to come to an agreement over something." Frisk mentioned with caused Sans to rise an eyebrow. Was this the same guy she had mentioned before? The one who apparently made things so difficult? He looked decent enough, combed back hair, glasses... Pretty much like your average Joe. 

"uh, right." Sans simply answered. 

"So, Sans, this is Ajax Nixon. Ajax, Sans." Frisk explained, introducing the two. The guy was definitely more professional than Sans, as the skeleton just stared at this guy completely clueless. Ajax smiled. 

"it's uh, nice to meet you." Sans shrugged his shoulders as Ajax went to hold out a hand for Sans to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you too, Sans." Ajax responded, waiting expectantly for him to take it. Sans just sighed and took his hand out of his pocket, shaking his hand with an attitude that seemed like he wasn't really all that bothered. Clearly by the small look of disapproval, Ajax wasn't impressed. But he fixed the expression nonetheless with that same smile he had before. "So, you're a monster huh? That must be interesting." 

"uh..." Sans started. "it's... pretty normal actually. y'know we're just like you. not really all that different." 

"Yes, I suppose that's true..." He slowly nodded. "Apart from the magical abilities and what not..." He pointed out before looking at his watch. "Anyway, I better run. I'll see you, Frisk." Ajax waved to Frisk who waved in return until he had turned his back and was gone. Sans narrowed his eyes a little, taking Frisk's hand in his. She jumped, not expecting the contact but she grinned towards him, until she noticed the look on his face.

"What is it?" Frisk wondered as Sans was quiet. He shook his head.

"never mind. it's nothin'." Sans spoke as they started to walk. "you guys disagree on a lot of things, huh? sounds like to me you two are the best of friends." He casually commented. Frisk frowned. 

"Well... We had more of a time to discuss things this time around, trying to get each other to see other points of view..." 

"riiiight..." 

"You're not angry are you, Sans?" Frisk wondered. "Or jealous?"

"why would i be jealous? that makes no sense." Sans said. "i'm just saying, i don't get it. but i'm not stopping you from hanging out with him as that 'see you later, frisk' sounded more like a, i'll see you outside of work, sort of thing rather than a, i'll see you in the next meeting, kind of thing. but NOT jealous." Sans ranted as Frisk giggled a little and rolled her eyes, giving him a kiss on the cheekbone.

"Alright, it's fine. I believe you." 

****

"what do you think, G?" Sans had wondered to his father a couple of days later. Frisk was currently out spending time with Papyrus and Mettaton, so Sans had the free time to go to his father about a human he just couldn't help to not trust. Gaster had simply rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. Sans was lying sprawled out across his couch just staring at the ceiling as Gaster was sat at a desk, reading a book.

"He sounds pretty normal to me. He's just a businessman who works with Frisk, Sans. Nothing more than that." 

"i just don't get it. frisk said the guy had totally different views to her. opposite to what she believes in. so he must hate us, right?"

"Your problem is is that you jump to conclusions way too quickly without hardly any evidence to draw a conclusion. You get paranoid really quickly..." Gaster trailed off and exhaled once more, closing his book as he placed it down upon the desk. He turned to Sans. "But I suppose that's kind of my fault."

"what do you mean?" Sans wondered as he still kept his eyes on the ceiling. Gaster crossed his arms, looking down at the ground.

"You know exactly what I mean, Sans. I haven't exactly been the best father to you. Or even to Papyrus. I could have done so much better." Gaster admitted. This caused Sans to glance towards him now. "But instead all I did was put you through emotional and physical damage as a kid just for the sake of my own research, so I could help find a way to get us out of the underground. I didn't even consider how you'd feel. Instead I was just like an empty shell, not even looking at you as my son but instead as a science project that I could just.... Experiment on..." He glanced at his own hands, a distraught expression on his face. "You say you forgive me, but I don't even think I could forgive myself, seeing that the damage is still there. I was an awful father, Sans." 

"dad..." Sans muttered. He clicked his fingers and teleported just in front of him. He placed a hand on his father's shoulder, causing him to look up at him from his chair. "i told you, it's fine. and no matter how many times you're going to keep mentioning it, i'm just going to tell you the same thing. it's okay." Sans frowned. "there's nothing we can do to change it. if this is the kind of person i am now, then so be it. people seem like they're still willing to put up with me... frisk has still put up with me after all this time, even when i can just be a total wreck sometimes." He sighed and gave his dad a hug. "you were just doing what you had to do. i don't hate you for that. i'm just glad to have you as who you are now. i don't need to care about what happened then. i don't need to THINK about what happened then."  

"Sans..." Gaster muttered until he chuckled and shook his head. "I don't know why you're so forgiving... Honestly after what I did, I didn't expect that to be a trait you'd have." 

"yea, well thank frisk for that."

"Frisk..." Gaster said thoughtfully as Sans pulled away from the hug. "She's a bright human being, Sans. You're lucky to have her. Don't be foolish and make the same mistakes that I did, don't ever let go of her, do you understand me?" 

"loud and clear, G." Sans grinned. "i wouldn't give her up for the world..." He admitted with caused Gaster to smile. He was so proud that his son had found someone he could devote his life to. For so long Sans had just been someone who was so used to pushing people away, keeping to himself, not telling people anything. But then he just had to meet that one person that would try to help change that. To help him feel that hey, maybe he wasn't so alone and he actually had someone he could talk to. 

"How long have you two been together now anyway? I suppose with timeline resets it's hard to count, huh?" Gaster wondered as Sans rose a brow thoughtfully. 

"well... i didn't finally tell her how i felt until... the end of the last timeline and we got together when this timeline began. so it's been at least a few years." He admitted with a short laugh as Gaster nodded. 

"Maybe one of these days you should think of, you know, the question?" Gaster suggested as he got up from his seat, going to get a refill of coffee. Sans gave him a look of confusion as he followed after him to the kitchen.

"question?" Sans repeated as Gaster nodded. "what do you mean?" 

"I'm saying that have you ever thought of proposing to her one day, Sans? You two do live together after all and you have done for quite a long time... You've been through so much together. Who knows, maybe she's the one for you." Gaster said turning to his son who stared back at him with his eyebrows risen.

"i mean... i don't know." Sans shrugged. "i've never really thought about that kind of stuff. we've kind of been taking life as it goes by, y'know? and... truthfully..." Sans frowned. "i'm kind of scared to, dad."

"Fear of rejection?"

"no, it's not that." Sans shook his head. "it's just... what if this timeline ends like any other? what if i think things are going to be fine, when they won't. what if i think that i have a future with the girl i love, when maybe one day that won't be the case, because everything will probably get reset anyway.... those are my fears. those are the reasons why i don't know if i should even bother." 

"Honestly, Sans. Tell me, if things were going to be reset, don't you think it would have just happened already?" Gaster said. "Frisk loves you. She's not just going to go and randomly reset. You need to trust her."

"you misunderstood, G. it's not that i don't trust frisk. that's not what i'm afraid of. i just feel like it's always possible for things to go wrong, to give frisk a REASON to reset... i don't think she'd just reset randomly without warning, not again." Sans said. 

"Well, if everyone thought like that no one would bother to do anything." Gaster replied. "Just enjoy life a little more, Sans. Relax and stop feeling like you always have to be so aware of everything. Timelines, resets, whatever. Just get on with your life, get on with Frisk and take care of her. Because I'm sure she wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with you. I'm sure you feel the same, no?" 

"of course i want to always be with her, dad... always." 

"Well then..." Gaster shrugged. "Maybe it's about time you started thinking about that question." Gaster chuckled until he sighed and looked thoughtful. "I remember the day I proposed to your mother. It was really nerve wracking. I was so sure she'd say no to me, I wasn't quite sure what got me to think that but... I do remember it being one of the happiest days of my life, when things were still considered pretty normal..." He looked down into his coffee cup. "I just wish I could have spent more time with her rather than putting so much time into my work. I feel like I never really truly got the chance to say how much I cared before she was gone..." 

"i'm sure she knew, G. at least she saw you more like who you are now rather than who you became after she died... that's something." 

"I suppose you're right..." Gaster murmured in response until he began smiling again. "Well, I suggest you better head on back home. Frisk might be back and she'll be BONEly without you." Gaster joked which caused Sans to laugh. 

"heheh, nice one, G. really tickled my funny bone." He answered. "and i will be on my way back soon. though i did have another thing to ask you about. how's it going with trying to find the blueprints? any luck?" 

Gaster sighed. "None." He admitted. "I've looked everywhere, Sans and I can't find a single thing. It's as if they just disappeared out of thin air... It's a possibility that it could have been eaten by an amalgamate or something but... I'm not exactly sure. I'll just have to try and create new blueprints I'm afraid. However, that could take awhile." 

"i see..." Sans frowned. "well, thanks for trying i guess. i'll be sure to let frisk know." 

"Alright, Sans. Stay safe and feel free to drop by again if you need to." Gaster called before Sans ended up teleporting away. The smile on his face soon vanished as he sighed for what had to be the hundredth time. He just hoped he was able to finish those blueprints as fast as possible. Just for the sake of his son and his friends. After all, the surface could be such a dodgy place. Anything could happen.

What brought back his smile was the idea of Sans possibly proposing to Frisk. He hoped their little conversation got him to somewhat think about it, because Gaster knew that without a doubt, she would say yes to him. After all, he was just so proud of his son, proud of them for being so strong even after everything they've gone through.

They were truly meant to be together. And nothing could ever change that.