tossing and turning

[dustless]

It seems that human food doesn't really do much for the SOUL.

Well, maybe it would if it had been special food. Frisk vaguely remembers hearing about food made by dear loved ones can help heal heartbreak, and that might be close enough to count.

But they don't really...have that right now. They just have castle-made candies and cakes and fruit, and while that was better than nothing, none of that stops the uncomfortable ache settled in their chest and pulsing through their body.

They also recall a little rabbit child talking about how sleeping could help with that. Well, sleeping in hotels specifically, but that rabbit had been in a hotel, and the castle could probably be called a hotel, albeit one filled with unwilling residents. 

And so they quest to find a place to take a nap, without having to worry as much about being found by a particular troubled skeleton. They haven't given up on him, nowhere near it, but they'd like to be healthy when they meet again just in case. So their usual resting spot of "in the garden" was discarded, since it's right in the middle of everything.

As nice as it had been to be outside during it, their original plan--to hide out on top of a tower and catch a nap there--was foiled by the rain that came with the storm.

So Frisk carefully steals through the castle towers until they find one with a mostly-empty bedroom almost to the top, and try to rest there.

Key word: try.

The bed is very soft and comfortable, and they hover around the hazy edges of sleep for what feels like hours, but they never quite make it there. They're too worried about...sort-of-Papyrus. And Sans. And their friends they left behind, and their friends here, and just--everyone. They can't focus on a goal until they feel better, but they can't rest unless they stop worrying, and so they just cycle through thoughts over and over and over. And their low HP only distracts them even more.

So eventually, Frisk gives up and collapses into a soft-ish chair by the tower's window instead, watching the sky turn oranges and pinks, and a handful of stars appear between swaths of cloud. Maybe they'll be soothed to sleep by the prettiness of it. 


[backdated in the castle's nebulous timeframe of after their 'fight' with S4 and meeting Thor, but before everything else.]

Comments

[sansational]

Of all the questions to ask...

...this is probably the one he should have expected Frisk to ask, honestly. So even if Sans looks genuinely surprised for a moment, he laughs in the next one.

He answers by smiling. He answers by leaning forward and hugging them. And if he has a moment of remembering another human, bleeding out in his arms in another time, that just leaves him more determined to be careful when the moment passes. Frisk does feel very small, in his arms, all of a sudden.

And when it does, he feels...better. It's a good hug. Hugs in general are good things, even if Sans pretty much always needs to be asked or invited before giving one. Even if he has to lift a hand to scrub at his eyesockets, for a moment.

As he holds them, Sans appreciates anew just how tired the kid is. No one would have blamed them for fighting back, perhaps - S-4 really had been trying to hurt them, after all. But they hadn't, and Sans is grateful, and still holding on to some hope.

"jeez, kid. you bring out the best in me on a lot of counts, but it's not like i enjoy making a habit of dumping all this in your lap. guess you just have a way of getting me talking. c'mon. lemme at least find you a better place to sleep than here."

[dustless]

Relief rushes through them, comforting warm, and they relax into it.

"You needed it," they mumble into his hoodie's shoulder. That was important, even if it kind of (really) hurt them.

Once the hug is broken--which might not be for a little bit, if Sans doesn't pull away first--they'll just lean back, head flopping against the chair's soft seat.

"Dunno. Don't have to. When I can sleep, it can be anywhere. When I can't...I can't. Anywhere." To Frisk, this spot is as good as any.

It's kind of odd, how often they keep finding each other coincidentally. (Or maybe not, they suspect now, but don't bother putting further thought into it.)

[sansational]

The hug won't be broken for a little bit. Sans might eventually be the first one to pull away, but if anything, he needs this, too.

Even when he does pull away, it's to lean against the wall just beside the chair instead - that way, they remain just around the corner from one another, but at least it's a corner facing in the right direction.

"yeah, i know how that goes. well, the 'sleep anywhere' part." He could lay down right here on the floor and sleep, if he wanted to. Sans has his own fits of insomnia, which feeds into his ability to otherwise sleep anywhere, but they're much rarer on the whole.

"sure i can't talk you into it? i tell a mean bedtime story, y'know." He's mostly kidding, but sleep is supposed to be one of the things that best heals a wounded SOUL. Not that Sans would know personally.

[dustless]

"Mm. You're a cool guy, Sans."

This non sequitur was brought on by...a lot of things. Well. Mostly thinking about Papyrus. The...old Papyrus. He was cool, even if he was kind of weird. And Sans didn't hate them. They were both cool brothers. Frisk is very glad to have met them, even these more sad alternates. They're friends, or can be friends, and they have more hope in the castle than back at their homes and Frisk is glad to know that too.

Their arms stretch above their head before they drop them down and start pushing their body up from the floor. Their limbs feel a little more like jelly than muscle, but the chair's seat isn't that high up.

[sansational]

"heh. well, i did learn from the best."

It might be a non sequitur, but it's also quite a high compliment, knowing who they're both thinking of. If a skeleton could blush, Sans would definitely be blushing.

They're friends, or at least Sans hopes they are. That's not a judgement he makes easily, but even he can see that Frisk wouldn't put themselves out there this much if they didn't care. Sans, meanwhile, probably only cares more about his brothers, at this point. It helps that they keep coincidentally running into each other. Or maybe it's not a coincidence.

Either way, he yawns, and settles down more comfortably in his corner, remembering only in that moment that he'd been on his way to take a nap himself.

"that a yes, or am i just gonna have to settle for being the world's wittiest speedbump right here?"

[dustless]

Maybe Frisk would be the same, eventually. Only caring about those closest to them. But that kind of thing would take a long time.

They would agree if he asked, even if the asking would hurt. They do love him.

"...yes to...story, or...something else?" They've already forgotten what he was offering in the first place. "And. You should go find...bed. Sitting up sleeping is bad for your spine, I think." They realize that's what they're doing, sort of, and move so they're curled up in the chair instead.

[sansational]

Sans' eyes are already closed when he replies: "not for me."

Well, maybe a little for him. But Sans sleeps sitting or standing up often enough to barely notice any lingering aches from doing so, anymore. It helps, being a skeleton held together with magic. It's a lot easier for a ligament or a muscle to nudge a vertebrae out of its place than for magic to do so. Sans presses the back of his hand to one mouth as he yawns again, before adding in a mumble: "probably for you, though."

He was offering half-jokingly a bedtime story, or whatever-time-it-currently-is story. Something to maybe help Frisk get some rest, since the hot dog was something of a failure. Failing that, he was offering to physically block Frisk from getting up from the chair, though that was rather more jokingly given that Sans is barely taller than they are.

But since Frisk doesn't seem inclined to go anywhere just yet, and since they agreed even if they didn't know what they were agreeing to, Sans taps a thoughtful fingerbone against the side of his skull. "hm..." And since "Peek-A-Boo with Fluffy Bunny" might not be the kid's scene, he decides to recall the first chapter of another human book he once read to the point of dogearing. At least that way, he can still recall the first chapter. A book about a school for children who could use magic. He'd liked the words, at least, even if only about half the book had survived the trip down the waterfall.

[dustless]

Their answering hum has a ring of doubt, because they haven't quite thought of that, and Sans doesn't seem like the healthiest anyway. There's no direct calling out, though, since they don't have the energy.

...Frisk recognizes that story. It's a classic.

There are more soothing voices out there than Sans has, maybe, but his words and tone are steady. They close their eyes and listen.

It takes very little time for them to sink into a doze, and any missing words or alterations don't catch their ear enough to jolt them back to awareness.

[sansational]

Sans has a good memory even when it's being muddled by crossed timestreams, so despite the fact that it's been a while since he read half the book, he tells a reasonably accurate recollection of it. Though, by the end, the words are getting interrupted by occasional yawns, and they start to run together a little. But he's had a lot of practice telling bedtime stories. He knows how to pace himself.

By the time he's done, Sans cracks open one eye and peers up at Frisk. Satisfying himself that the kid seems to be dozing, at least, he closes his eye again. It won't take more than a few seconds before he falls entirely motionless, snoring lightly. In the end, it proves to be one of his better sleeps, even if he will feel a little sore in the spine when he finally does wake.