"It's nice that Frisk is making other friends." Chara sang, as the trio were making their way further down the street, minutes after they had ran into Frisk. Asriel agreed with a nod, knowing Chara was right. After all, Frisk needed other friends rather than just being friends with them, she was still a normal girl after all. Someone who shouldn't really have been roped into the Mafia. "Especially since it's better to have more than just that boring old skeleton." Chara mocked towards the quiet monster.

"shut up." Sans barked, appearing to have a distaste in her insult. Somehow it just irked him a little, even though he didn't really think of himself as someone who was a good friend to anyone anyway. 

"What's the matter? Are you jealous? You've been awfully quiet up until now." Chara teased with a smirk. Asriel felt somewhat worried that Chara was mocking the skeleton, considering he could get pretty feisty when you pissed him off. The last thing he wanted right now was being stuck in the middle of an argument between the two. Especially right after a heart accelerating mission where they had basically been told to steal something back for another person - in return for money. 

"it's not like that." Sans mumbled with a roll of the eyes, while Chara chuckled in amusement. 

"That's something that someone who was jealous would say!" Chara laughed. Once more, Sans seethed in anger. He didn't see Frisk like that. Why would he? He had no reason to, whatsoever. Yes, even though he had acted pissed off towards her that night when he broke down into tears at Grillby's bar, inside he had been grateful. He was glad that she didn't seem to judge him, that she didn't make fun of him. Instead, she listened to him and she was so kind to him even though he never was kind to her. She was a girl with a good soul. 

Even if he had felt that way, he wouldn't deserve her. 

"Alright, alright. I'll stop. Still, you two at least seem like you're friends now. Toriel told me that you two hadn't been getting along - she heard that from Frisk." Chara explained. "You should be nicer to her, Sans. Rather than feeling like you always have to be a fucking jerk like you are to everyone. Be thankful that she's so damn patient with you, 'cause with everyone else you've pretty much worn everyone's patience down." She went on. "I don't know what's got you to suddenly act like an asshole. If it's because of your dad's disappearance, then I find that selfish." 

"shut up!" Sans snapped, his magic eye going to flare up in frustration. Chara rose an eyebrow at the skeleton as they all stopped dead on the pavement. Asriel couldn't help but glance around awkwardly as people were staring at them now, as  they were creating a scene in public. 

"You guys..." Asriel muttered. "People are looking..."

"What? You can never take the truth, can you? Other people always have to spell it out for you, and when they do you still can't even accept it. You're not the only one who is hurting from Gaster going. Everyone is. Yes, you're his son, I understand that you'd be hurting. But unlike you, everyone else tries to be supportive of each other despite the loss of an amazing man. Like I said, you're his son. So fucking act like it." Chara seethed, before she started to continue walking again. Asriel wasn't really sure what to say, so he just awkwardly started following after Chara. Sans stood, frozen to hit spot, slowly calming down his magic, returning his pupils to normal. He didn't want to flare up his magic too much, otherwise he'd over exert himself. 

Looking around at a couple of eyes that were staring at him from random strangers, he exhaled and decided to continue on his way, ignoring the fact that he was likely being judged for snapping out in public like that. Some humans tended to think lowly of monsters after all, so it wouldn't surprise him. God dammit, he hated Chara. She was a complete bitch. Especially to him. (But then with the way he acted it likely wasn't surprising that she acted that way either). He knew he wasn't the only one hurting from Gaster being stolen from them, he had seen the way it had affected Grillby, so he knew.

It wasn't just that though. It wasn't just his dad being gone. It was other things too.

"Maybe you should stop being so mysterious all the time." Frisk's voice repeated inside his head. Yeah, he was pretty kept to himself, yeah, he didn't really tell anyone anything. That was likely why they assumed things, why they thought he was only acting out due to the fact that he missed his dad. But that wasn't just it. That wasn't just it at all. The reason... It was... It was something that he wasn't comfortable with just blurting out to anyone. Something that was just too personal to him, something he didn't like to look back on and think about. 

Whatever that painful memory was, it was what was part of making him who he was today. Only he knew the contents of this memory, he'd never told another soul. He wasn't going to start now. He didn't want to tell anything to Chara, or Asriel, or Asgore or even Toriel. To no one. Not to anyone. 

Not even Frisk. 

Yes... She listened to him and she acted like she cared but... Who was to say that she wasn't just someone who was pretending she was nice? Who was pretending to want to be there when in the end she'd probably turn her back on him if he were to let her in. Letting someone in when you were part of the Mafia could be a terrible mistake, it wasn't rare for people to betray each other. Was it really such a surprise that he couldn't trust anyone?

Later, Sans was back at the headquarters, seeming to be back at it with shifting through papers of possible people he could hunt down on the way to finding his father. There had to be someone. Someone who he could find out something from. Just one valuable bit of information was all he needed and maybe he would be able to get him back. If he was alive. But he had to be alive. Sans didn't know what he would do if Gaster turned out to be dead. He'd probably lose it. 

Sans was kind of wishing that he had someone here to help him shift through all this crap. Frisk probably would have been useful for this task with how loyal she was and how much she appeared she wanted to help. However, she was likely with that friend of hers - that James guy. Though, thinking this, something caught his eye. One of the pictures, of a certain someone. When Sans picked it up, he could not believe his two eye sockets. His expression started off being in shock, before it slowly began to turn into a smirk. Frisk, you weren't completely useless after all. She had found their guy. A guy who might have known something.

The picture was of James.