(Wow, this took way too long to get up... forgive me XS)
Grillby kept his eye on Sans as the small monster quickly went between customers; taking orders, running over to him, telling him the order, before running around to get people the prepared food and take another handful of orders.
Grillby was thankful that no one tried to physically attack the monster, but he felt his soul pull at ever angry shout Sans received.
"What the hell? I come here and get a vermin serving me, ugh"
"Monsters taking human jobs? Go back to the zoo freak."
"Bad enough the owner is a monster, but so is the waiter?"
"Useless piece of shit! Get a new job or go faster!"
Countless insults everyday, most of them Grillby didn't even want to think of repeating. But, Sans would just keep sending a grin back at him everytime he passed by or set up another order.
Grillby also couldn't help but notice another feeling that he couldn't pinpoint to an emotion. Everytime Sans would make contact with him, even if it was just a wink or smile, he felt something strange buzz in his soul, which would leave him to just staring at the monster curiously. Grillby decided to ignore it and go on with the day.
Sans was relieved as he looked towards the clock as the last customer left for the midday break. Everyday they got a break from 2:00pm to 4:00pm before they got the night-time rush. The humans did seem to enjoy one thing about monsters, and that was their magic alcohol. Sans didn't see anything special with it, but humans seemed to prefer it over their fermented fruits and stuff.
Sans immediately walked over to the bar, hopping into his old stool before letting out an exasperated breath and resting his head on the counter.
Grillby raised a brow at him, "Tired?"
Sans chuckled, "yeah, no one knocked me silly so i didn't have an excuse to take a break." He said as he propped himself up onto his elbow.
Grillby hated when he joked about things like that. He sent Sans a serious look, "Speaking of that, that bruise looks worse Sans. Did you not put ice on and use green magic?"
Sans rapped his fingers on the wood, "i put ice on it."
"Any magic?" Grillby asked.
Sans sent him awkward smile, "uhhhh," his eye-lights flicked to the side, "...no."
Grillby sighed, "Why didn't you?"
Sans' grin widened trying to hide his embarrassment, "well, you see....i don't know how." He said the last part quickly, looking down at the table.
Grillby held a straight face, "And your brother?"
"i didn't wanna bother him, and i was busy with trying to figure out what to pay off anyways," he said, looking towards his feet, "humans are weird, i don't know who or what to pay off when and which ones will give me more time or not."
Grillby walked around to the other side of the counter, sitting on the stool next to Sans. He looked over to his friend, "Sans, I know I've said this multiple times, but... I can help you pay it off. If you would just let me-"
Sans quickly stopped him, "you don't owe me anythin'. i can't expect you to help me like that."
Grillby furrowed his brows, "Sans, it's not about oweing people, I just want to help."
Sans remained silent, avoiding eye-contact with Grillby. Grillby realized he pushed enough for one day, and decided to go back to the bruise problem.
Grillby sighed, "The least I can do is try to heal that," He gestured to the bruise, "may I?"
Sans lifted his head, giving him a soft smile. Grillby felt that weird feeling again, but just pushed it away. Sans laughed a little, "yeah, i'd like that." He then turned himself to face Grillby.
Grillby smiled back at him, happy that Sans at least let him help with something. He manifested green magic between his fingertips, before bringing his hand slowly to Sans' eye-socket.
They second he touched the blackened bruise, Sans jerked away, yelping like someone just kicked him in the ribs. Grillby looked at him wide-eyed.
"s-sorry," Sans quickly blurted, "i, uh, guess i forgot it hurt." He laughed at himself.
Grillby ignored his comment, glaring at the bruise instead. He suddenly realized that it wasn't just a bruise, the person who punched him also ruptured the magic vessels around his eye-socket, no wonder why he reacted like that.
Sans noticed his expression, "what?"
"The magic vessels in your eye burst inside your bone, that's why it hurts so much." Grillby said, still looking over his eye for any other possible additions to the injury, to find no more.
"oh," Sans said before he laughed silently, "guess he really got me good, huh?"
Grillby ignored his statement, bringing his hand back to the skeleton's eye, the green magic dancing on his fingertips, "Sans, you must hold still for a moment, it's going hurt but the magic will help it heal faster, okay?"
"got it." Sans said, still seeming relaxed. He closed his bruised eye so Grillby could use his magic, still looking up at him with his other eye.
Grillby slowly let his hand gently touch the bone, he felt Sans flinch slightly from his touch, sucking in a breath through his teeth, before he froze where he was.
Grillby slowly began letting the magic seep through the bone, before he again noticed the strange flutter inside his chest. He furrowed his brows at it, but ignored it again.
After about a minute, Grillby felt the small monster finally relax into the magic, speeding up the process greatly. The dark blue bruise turned into a lighter blue before Grillby stopped and pulled back.
He gave Sans a thumbs up and tilted his head questioningly.
Sans nodded at him, "yeah, that helped a lot. thanks, g."
Grillby sent him a smile before he stood up off the stool and walked back around to behind the counter.
The continued talking about random topics while Grillby began eating his lunch, when they suddenly both heard thumping outside.
They both turned to the door simultaneously, as four kids suddenly fell through, all collapsing on one another. They sat shocked for a moment, before they both started laughing, immediately recognising all of them.
Papyrus, Frisk, M.K., and Fuku.
Papyrus, being the unlucky soul at the bottom of the dog pile, squirmed half his body up before waving at his brother, "HELLO, SANS!" He said cheerfully, "HELLO, SANS' BOSS SIR!"
M.K., the next closest from the bottom, stuck out his yellow head before laughing, "DUDES! DID I WIN THE RACE?"
Frisk, who was somehow flipped with their belly facing the ceiling, not their back like everyone else, bapped the dinosaur-like monster in the head, "Nu-uh! I totally would have won if I realized I had to pull, not push the door!"
Fuku, Grillby's daughter, wagged her finger at them, even though none of them could see her do so, since she was at the top, "Tsk Tsk, but Frisk, you didn't realize, so therefore you didn't win."
Papyrus shook his head at his arguing friends, "WELL, OBVIOUSLY, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WAS MOST DEFINITELY VICTORIOUS."
Fuku shifted, now sitting criss-crossed on top of the group, "I believe, that since no one knows for sure.... That means I won."
Frisk furrowed their brows at Fuku, "In what world does that make any damn sense?"
M.K. gasped, "FRISK, dude! Swearing ain't cool!"
Frisk's features scrunched up, "Damn is not a swear word."
M.k. retorted, "Is too!"
Frisk rolled their eyes, "Is not!"
The two of them continued to go back and forth, while Fuku and Papyrus argued about who really won, until Sans felt like he was about to lose his skull, calling out, "everyone, stop!"
The four children turned to him almost mechanically.
Sans sighed, "okay...first off, fuku, get off of all of them so then they can get off of each other."
Fuku blinked at him before slowly getting up, freeing the group. Frisk immediately hopped off, mumbling something about it getting sweaty in there, M.K. rolled off, struggling to get up before Frisk walked over and helped the armless monster, and Papyrus bounced up with more energy than everyone in the room had combined.
Sans shook his head at them, "okay, now, what are you guys all doing here?"
M.K. immediately chimed up, "Well, you see... me an' Frisk were talking after school, and they said they wanted to come over here to talk to you about something, but then i said, 'Yo dude, race you there.' and started running, then Frisk started chasing after me."
While the yellow monster paused to take a breath, Sans looked over to Frisk concerned, Frisk connected eyes with him and just waved him off.
M.K. continued, "So, like, as we were running Fuku saw us and asked why we were runnin' and I shouted that 'we were having a race to her Dad's diner', so then she followed." He then furrowed his eyebrows, "And I don't remember when Papyrus joined..."
Papyrus then butted in, "I JUST SAW FRISK AND FOLLOWED, ASSUMING IT WAS A RACE OF SOME SORT."
Sans kept his eye-lights on Frisk as he said, "uh-huh, i see. how 'bout this... paps, can you take M.K. home before his parents get worried?"
Papyrus nodded, "OKAY, BROTHER!"
Sans quickly added, "wait! take this." He tossed his brother his cell phone, "the second you're alone, i want you to call grillby so i can keep an ear on you, okay?"
Papyrus furrowed his brow bone at Sans, "IS THIS ABOUT WHEN THE HUMANS JUMPED--" He caught Sans' tense expression, dropping what he was going to say immediately. He sighed, "OKAY, I WILL..."
Sans relaxed, his shoulders sagging slightly, "thanks, bro."
Papyrus just smiled back at him, heading out the door, M.K. reluctantly following him, whining about how he wanted to stay with Frisk.
Fuku, then looked to her father, "Dad, can I go in the back and do my homework?"
Grillby nodded and Fuku grabbed her tablet and headed to the back, leaving Frisk, who was looking down at their toes.
Sans looked back to Grillby, finding that he was cleaning off the bar counter, purposefully letting them have space.
The skeleton then turned back to child, kneeling down in front of them, "hey, buddy, is there somethin' up?" He looked towards where their eyes were hiding under their bangs.
Frisk kept looking at their feet before connecting eyes with Sans.Their face remained neutral for a few moments, before a cheeky smile started spreading on their cheeks.
Sans looked at them confused by the sudden change back to happy.
Frisk then began bouncing on their feet, leaning down excitedly and whispering to the monster, "I got something to show you, shhh." They then laughed, running outside, then coming back in with a bag. They must have thrown it to the side before they fell through the door with the other three children.
They held the bag close to their chest, enjoying the curious face they were getting from the skeleton as they bounced on their feet, trying to hold back their glee.
Sans raised a brow at them, "so, ya gonna show me, or not?"
Frisk continued bouncing, before handing him the bag, their cheeks warming as the anticipated his reaction.
Sans looked at the child confused, before giving a care-free shrug, taking out the object hidden within the bag. It was a canvass. He flipped it over to see what was drawn on the other side. His eyes widened in amazement and awe as he looked over the painting.
It was a froggit, a very realistic one at that, he could've sworn it would jump off the paper at him any minute. The froggit had it's front feet chained together and a strip of thick, black, tape covering its mouth, two simple words scratched into the tape, 'I'm equal.'
He looked to the child in astonishment, "you...did this?"
Frisk nodded sheepishly, "We had to do a painting project in art.... a-and the teacher said we could do anything as long as it had to do with racial equality... so, everyone else was doing things about African Americans, and Jews, and Muslims, and stuff... and with what happened to Papy-" They froze themself, their eyes turning crestfallen at the memory of the incident, "I-I decided to do this." They gestured to their painting, looking at the ground, "i know it's not very good, but-"
"frisk."
Frisk's head snapped up at the skeleton, not used to him using their name.
"this is..."
The child coiled back, his tone setting them on edge, afraid that they may have somehow offended him.
"...amazing!" He said with a wide grin, causing Frisk to look at him with bewilderment, "i didn' know i had a lil' artist staying at my house!" He reached up ruffling Frisk's already messy hair.
Frisk glanced past him at Grillby, who was just smirking at them while organizing some glasses. They moved their attention back to the skeleton.
"seriously, kid," He said looking up at them from his knelt down position, "this is really good. and i ain't just sayin' that 'cause i know ya." he looked back down at the painting, a softer smile melting on his face, "and the message means a lot." He wrapped his arms around the child, causing the child to quickly return the hug, knowing he didn't usually just give them out like that.
They stayed like that for a brief moment, before Sans pulled out, putting the painting back into the bag. He handed it to Frisk, "now, kid, why don't you go back with fuku and work on homework. when paps calls, i'll tell him to come back here so you two can walk home together, okay?"
Frisk groaned at the mention of homework, but nodded anyway, heading to the back where they saw Fuku go. Sans shook his head at them, watching them disappear behind the door. He then turned to the fire elemental, being greeted with a teasing grin.
He furrowed his brow-bones at the monster, "what?"
Grillby gave a soft laugh, watching as the skeleton stood up and walked over to him, his face remaining puzzled. Grillby then softly said, "You act like a parent to them. A good one, too."
Sans' facial features only grew more perplexed. "huh? nah, no way," he said, dismissing the idea.
Grillby smirked, "I'm afraid you do. I wouldn't be surprised if I hear them make a slip up in the future."
Sans rolled his eye-lights, "uh-huh, sure, g."
Grillby shrugged, opening his mouth to say something else, when both of the monsters heard the door jingle open. They both turned their bodies towards it simultaneously, being greeted by the presence of a short, stout rabbit they both recognised all too well.
She had light blonde fur, and long ears that laid on her back. Her paws however, were a snow white, as well as the fur on her muzzle. Her narrow green orbs pierced the two friends as she stood in the door, her paws clenched into tight fists.
"mrs. stimlote..." Sans greeted nervously, knowing her to be the deceased CeeCee's mother. Sans held a soft smile, even though his eyes showed to be crestfallen. He plastered on his 'waiter's attitude' as he spoke calmly, "how may we help you today?"
Whatever she was about to say or do, one phrase kept Sans standing straight and tall.
They were worth it.
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