At first, it had been okay.

When Sans first entered hell, it was okay. He knew he shouldn't have stepped onto the bus, but it had still been rather okay. His family was safe, and he could watch over Hewey and protect him from the demons. The demons didn't even want to hurt him, so it was fine!

But now, it had been over a month. And it was really starting to set in how lonely he felt.

When Sans woke up, he would reach over to find the bed empty. Ever since they had moved to the underground, that had never been the case. There was always someone there, always sleeping next to him. Sometimes it was Laughing Jack, who would like to wrap himself around the skeleton to 'protect his little potato from the nightmares'. Other times it was Toby, who would kick out his legs while he slept and take up the entire bed. It would make Sans flop onto his stomach in retaliation, the two sleeping like that. And sometimes it was even two or three of his spouses, all of them cramming into the same bed. A few times it would be his children, their young faces pleading to sleep with Sans because of nightmares.

The lack of a bed partner first went unnoticed, as Sans was too busy being distracted by their situation to really pay attention to how lonely he felt sleeping. However, it soon set in. Every single night Sans would reach for someone to hold, finding the bed empty.

He hated it.

Absolutely despised it.

That, of course, made Sans starting thinking of how this happened. It wasn't a question of 'if' this would have happened, no. The moment he was born, Zalgo was already after him. Even if Sans hadn't got onto the bus then, he doubted Zalgo would have stayed away. After all, the demon said he couldn't continue his plans until everyone he needed was in hell. Sans had done pretty well distracting his 'Dad' from going after his children, but he knew it wouldn't last for long before he managed to find them and do another attack. Zalgo had briefly mentioned once that he couldn't find Sans' children at all, which made him a proud Father. His kids were doing great hiding from the demon proxies, he was so proud of them!

Sans was trying to figure out where they could have went. If the underground had been attacked, like Zalgo had said, then they wouldn't be able to stay down there. Maybe Equanox's store, sure, but all of them wouldn't be able to hide in there, it was a rather small store. Sky's house was another option, but she had went into a coma the last time Sans heard about her. Those two were the only people that the family had trusted enough to reveal their CreepyPasta tendencies.

Oh, Sans just hoped none of his children went into the towns marked off limits. He really did not want to get back to find someone like Grillby talking to his kids, someone that he used to know in his old life. That Sans had been a lie, and he liked being free of those chains. Before, he always had to fake a smile and lie, Sans had barely been happy before! But after meeting the Creepypasta, Sans never had to lie. With Papyrus, if he felt upset, he would just fake a face and say he was fine. But with the Creepypasta...

~~~~~~

Sans kicked open the door, Helen looking up from his book.

"I feel like sh*t!" Sans announced to the room, "I want to cuddle!"

~~~~~~

Well, they actually communicated and made progress.

Sans pushed aside the room door, glancing back at the other bed where Hewey slept. He was a little glad that he brought Hewey instead of leaving him with his siblings. Although he literally brought him down to hell, and although Hewey was a rather independent teenager, he was still bound to a wheelchair. Sans never did like letting Hewey go out alone or with his siblings, as they always found ways to incapacitate Hewey. Every single time.

It wasn't like Hewey was weak, no, it was the opposite. Hewey was cunning and quick with his words, just like Sans was. His comments were always spot on, and he was always quick to point out things he notices around him. Just because he couldn't walk didn't mean Hewey couldn't kick someone's a**, the boy made sure to work out his arms. But when it came to his siblings, they always found ways to somehow break his wheelchair. Sometimes it was Cole, who accidently would steal a part of the wheelchair that it would need to function, other times they ended up crashing it. One time Tondra had used it to try and summon something, and ended up blowing it up. How? Sans had no idea, but she still did.

So, for now, Hewey would be sticking by Sans until they could figure out how to calm his siblings down. The wheelchair destruction had gone down with age for the most part, but he was still cautious.

It wasn't hard to find Chara's room. Of course she wasn't asleep, she had already died before. Demons didn't need sleep either, apparently, as they only kept beds for decorative and comfort purposes. Sans had learned that when Zalgo woke him up three times in the middle of the night to ask him random questions. It was a bit like Laughing Jack, as he didn't need sleep either, but the tall clown willing slept because he wanted to.

"You're awake?" Chara asked when Sans stepped into her room, looking up from her papers.

"Could we train now?" Sans asked.

Earlier, they hadn't managed to actually start training. Zalgo had asked about Sans' children, and the proud father couldn't help but pull out his many pictures of his children to brag about how adorable they are. After that, Chara had to go do her work, so they hadn't managed to even start.

"Now?" Chara asked.

Sans nodded firmly. "Now."

The girl analyzed his face before standing up, pushing aside the papers. "What's with the sudden urgency?"

"I miss my family, and I want to get back to them," Sans said.

After looking at those pictures earlier, Sans couldn't help but miss them. They were his children, his husbands and wife! Zalgo was his Dad, sure, but Sans didn't consider him family.

"I can't blame you," Chara said, walking towards him. "I uh, don't know exactly how to unlock your demon powers, but we can try at least. And even if you can't unlock them, at least you would have trained with your magic."

"That's fine," Sans said, "Just as long as we try."

"Have you had any incidents where you felt 'demony'?" Chara asked him, "Like, any rage or impulse to kill?"

"Yeah, but that was more Creepypasta related than demon," Sans said, "And genocide related."

"Don't mock me." Chara stuck out her tongue at him. "But none at all?"

"Actually, there was a few times," Sans said, thinking back to the obvious. "I had thought I was sick, but it was my demon side reacting to blood and dust."

"That does happen to demons, I've seen it before," Chara said, "Because they run hell maybe, but whenever they come into contact with blood their powers act up. You probably felt like it was sickness because your demon was blocked, so it just made you feel like crap."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," Sans said, "It usually took until the next day for me to even get sick, so I never linked it with the blood until the second time it happened."

"How many times has it happened?" Chara asked.

"Five times, once when I shoved Gaster into the core," Sans said, digging in through his memory, "The second time when I met SeedEater, you know, the giant furball with the mask in the room with Flowey. The third time was when I was getting food for my husband and I didn't put gloves on, and the fourth time when I tried making a smoothie of organs and I didn't press down on the blender fully, so it had sprayed out and hit me. The last time was when I stepped in a blood puddle on accident."

Chara thought for a moment before looking down at her hand. "Could you summon a sharp bone?"

"Don't cut yourself on your wrist, you won't die but it'll get really messy and bloody," Sans said, summoning a bone before handing it to her. "If that's what you were planning."

"It was," Chara said.

The female stuck out her arm before gently cutting down a thin line on top of her arm, dropping the bone when blood started to seep through. She then used her now free arm to dip her fingers into her own blood before flicking it at Sans, a few drops splattering across his face.

"I could have just poked it," Sans muttered, hand drifting up to press against the blood. "And is this enough blood?"

"It only takes a few drops, trust me," Chara said, "One time I got a paper cut and ended up getting a little bit of blood on the paper, then a demon touched it and it went to chaos. And since you're in hell, it should go faster."

Red eyes glanced back at him as Chara wiped the remaining blood onto her shirt, the two standing in silence for a moment.

"Do you think I'd be able to beat Zalgo in a fight?" Sans asked her, "Based on what you've seen by him, do you think I'd be able to beat him?"

The answer took place after a moment of hesitation. Chara watched him, considering what to say before she finally spoke.

"No. You wouldn't."