It had been a few days.

Sans had nightmares. It explained why the skeleton had been afraid of sleeping, they didn't seem to do him any good. They had woken him up, startling Smile Dog each night. It started to get annoying after the third time in the same night, so the dog had resorted to licking away at the skeletons face to calm him down. A bit degrading for the dog, but hey, it worked. Sans had calmed down into a soft slumber after.

Smile Dog had come to the conclusion, at the end of the second day, that he actually kind of wanted to stay. Sure, the nightmares would be annoying, and the lack of natural light had been a little upsetting, but... it wasn't so bad. Sans fed Smile Dog, and even ordered food through delivery services and paid through the mail slot or online so he wouldn't have to talk to anyone. Smile Dog didn't even have to try to dodge someone trying to pet him, Sans didn't attempt it. Not to mention having a T.V to watch was nice, even though Sans would retreat into another room the moment he turned it on.

This guy was definitely dealing with some stuff, that was for sure. Smile Dog didn't really know how or when until the police had come.

Honestly, he would admit he's grown to be a bit defensive from the police. After all, he had spent quite a bit running from the police, they were always his biggest threat. When someone had knocked at the door for the first time in his stay, Smile Dog trailed behind Sans, looking curiously at the door.

"Hey Undyne," Sans had said when he opened the door.

But when Smile Dog looked around the door to see the Police, he couldn't help but go back to his instincts.

The police and his old "owner" had history. And when Police entered a scene of a crime, they tended to look at the man covered in blood instead of the dog. Thus, Smile Dog would always go to protect the other.

He was quick, twisting himself in front of Sans' legs and growling at the police. The red haired fish monster in uniform took a step back in surprise, getting into a defensive stand. His back arched as he barked out.

"Sans, what the -"

"No, no, it's okay!" Sans quickly said, sticking his hands out towards Undyne. "It's fine Undyne, I got a dog! He's not dangerous!"

"Well, get your dog under control!" Undyne said.

Smile Dog closed his snout, scooting away with a glare. His dog? Was that all he was? Just some mangy mutt with no sense of being? There were dog monsters, so why did she treat him like this? Was this how she treated them as well?

The two allowed for the woman to step in, her uniform clinking with her movements. Her yellow eyes gave the dog a glare, and he returned it with the same intensity. Sans stepped through their gazes to close the door, asking Undyne if she was hungry at all.

"No, I'm good..."

The fish monster looked around, red hair flopping against her face with the jerky movements of her head. That did bring up the question Smile Dog had to ask. Would she flop like a fish if she died? He had sharp enough teeth, one good grip of the neck and she wouldn't be flopping for long.

"Did you go see that therapist?" Undyne asked him, "Papyrus asked me to ask you."

"Yeah, I got back a few hours ago."

The lie was blatant, the dog looking over with the question lingering in the back of his throat. No he didn't. The need for a therapist made sense, but why would Sans lie about it? Was he going to get arrested by this girl if he didn't see one?

"Doesn't look like it," She muttered, "You know Papyrus is really worried about you. You haven't come out to anything with us. Not that you have to hang out with us if you don't want to, but... this isn't healthy. I feel bad."

"I'm doing better," Sans muttered.

Well, he's doing better than before, Smile Dog could say that. He technically was right. Now he was getting some sleep, and now he was doing some things. Not the best mental health, but better than sitting on the couch for hours in self pity. He still wasn't really eating still, and he got barely a good amount of sleep, but it was something.

Why did Smile Dog appoint himself as his dog? Why would he ever do this to himself?

"Look, I know you and I aren't as close as everyone else," Undyne said, pressing her hands together and pointing them at the shorter, "But we both care about your brother, that's something we've always shared. He's really wrecked over this, you're his only family. You need to somehow get over it so he can see you're alright."

Get over it?

It was very, very clear this guy had some type of PTSD and anxiety, definitely with some depression in there somewhere. And that was her response to it? Get over it? Smile Dog knew people who dealt with this, you simply couldn't 'get over' those things. It's not like it was a choice, the guy probably didn't want to be this way. It wasn't an active choice to suffer from PTSD. It was a choice to not see a therapist, but the way this girl was treating it, she was acting like all he was suffering from was just a bit of sadness.

"I-I can't... " Sans muttered, words lost.

"I know it's hard seeing people die, that's really hard to deal with," Undyne said, "But I don't really know how to help. Call your therapist some more, get a job, just... you're going downhill now, and I don't want you to do that."

So the girl did care. She probably just didn't understand this, then, or what he was going through. That explained her weird attitude. The woman was a confident and powerful police officer, he could tell just from her attitude, she probably never really dealt with this type of stuff. And it was clear she was doing this more out of pity for Sans, along with care for Papyrus, over her friendship with Sans.

"I'm doing fine... I got a dog, see? Smile Dog has been helping me a bit," Sans said.

"Smile Dog?" The fish girls fins for her ears fell back with the name. "That's his name?"

Smile Dog felt insulted. He growled nightly.

"It was his original name, I'm not changing it."

That was another thing Smile Dog liked about Sans. The skeleton actually respected him, which was nice. Unlike this woman here, who thought he was just a normal dog. Though, Smile Dog couldn't really blame her either. All of the tamed dogs in the world really brought down his image. Sniffing each others behinds and rolling in their own waste? Yeah, Smile Dog treated them the same way she treated him.

Actually, now that he thought about it, it was baffling why the skeleton treated him so differently. The tamed, pet dogs should be regarded as they are, why was Sans treating him like another person?

Then again, Smile Dog had shown him a level of independence and cognitive thinking Undyne hasn't seen, so Sans already knows Smile Dog isn't just some mutt.

"I also came by to tell you the case update... I would have told you over text, but I figured I'd try one more time to get what happened."

"What do you mean?" Sans hugged the blanket closer to himself.

"We don't really have much to go off of, for the investigation," Undyne said wearily, "The only person who saw the killer in full was you, and that's not really a description to go with. Humans don't look like that, and there's no monster species with that type of body, either."

Oh, this was getting more interesting. So Sans saw a murder, and that was why he was suffering from PTSD. It made sense. Though the description part did bring up memories of his old owner. People always did get bent up over his description.

"You... they dropped it?" Sans asked.

His voice shook slightly. Smile Dog gently bumped his nose against Sans' leg, to let the skeleton know he was here. A hand made its way down before the digits dug into his fur, dragging through it slowly. Whether it was for Smile Dog or Sans, he wasn't sure.

"Tall, wearing a suit, faceless? Sans, there's no one like that. You know I don't like the idea of that murderer running around as much as you, and I know you aren't a liar, but it's been nothing but dead ends. There's no person who exists like that, and there's nothing we can do. You probably just got confused and imagined something else."

Tall. Wearing a suit. Faceless. Sans saw him murder someone. Sans scared of the forest, scared of being watched.

Oh.

Oh no.

Smile Dog looked up at him with a panicked expression. He saw Slenderman kill someone, didn't he? That would explain a lot. It was already traumatizing enough for someone normal to witness a stabbing or shooting, but Slenderman didn't kill like that. When he killed, he tore people apart. And, on top of the horrible deaths he brought, his natural energy brought paranoia of being watched whenever he was in stalking mode. If he killed right in front of Sans, that sort of paranoia and PTSD was to be rather expected. No wonder the skeleton was freaking out and barely functioning. It'd take the strongest will to stand against something like that.

And, of course, that wasn't even considering his powers...

"Then what do you - I... Are you just going to let him r-run around?" Sans asked, eye lights darting to the covered windows.

Undyne sighed. "No, of course not. You're a smart guy, and you wouldn't lie. Especially after that. But when there aren't any leads on what you said, we have to start looking in different areas. Another teacher said tall and wearing dark colors, so we'll focus on the tall part for now. It's..." She ran a hand through her hair. "It's been pretty difficult lately. The human Police think it was one of the murderers, the ones that have been going around lately, and they planned to hit her specifically. One of the kids said she got a new friend, so we think it might have been one of the serial killers wearing a disguise. It was probably pre meditated, and they just waited for the teacher to be distracted... like falling asleep or something."

Sans looked away, head whirling with thoughts. So that was why he took in Smile Dog then, huh? Because he felt responsible for the girl who died. Probably a child, Slenderman targeted those often. That would have been awful, especially if Sans had been a simple sub.

"Are you sure you didn't see anything else?" Undyne asked again. "Maybe you mistook a bald human for a faceless one? Who wasn't nine feet tall?"

Sans didn't reply. Not that Smile Dog could judge, no one would believe he saw a sight like that. His life was practically falling apart now. And Smile Dog couldn't blame him. Slenderman didn't leave any survivors untouched. Even spectators typically suffered from the lingering memories.

Undyne sighed. "I don't know how to help, but I heard the therapist Papyrus gave you is good. Just try her, alright? And if you remember anything more distinct from the murder, like maybe an actual species of monster or some human, tell me."

"Okay," Sans whispered, "Can you... go? Please?

Undyne looked like she didn't want to, but there wasn't much arguing. Smile Dog watched as she left, and heard the car start in the driveway.

"I-I... I know what I saw, I..." Sans shook his head, "It was real, wasn't it... I..."

Yeah, he was going to help this guy. Not only did he appreciate what Sans did for him, but he had a little rivalry with Slenderman. Particularly because Slenderman and his owner got into a fight. Ever since then, they were a bit iffy of each other.

Slenderman was all about keeping things hidden from the public eye, but what if Smile Dog revealed himself? It'd give up his own identity, but it would be utterly worth it.

Smile Dog sighed, gently. Welp, here he went. "You aren't crazy, Sans."

That sure did cause a reaction. Not a scream, like usual, not even a jump. Sans only started chuckling, looking at Smile Dog as he covered his face with a shaking hand. "Oh man, I - I'm hearing things now. I'm actually gone." His chuckle was rather bare and empty, starved of humor. He sounded on the verge of tears.

"No, you're not," Smile Dog said, moving to stand directly in front of Sans. "I can explain. Explain everything. And I can help you, as well."

If Sans wasn't going to get a therapist, Smile Dog might as well become one. It wasn't like he had much to do, and he wasn't sure where his owner was.

It'd be interesting, that was clear.

~~~~~~

A white hand stretched out of a ditch, and dragged itself forward, revealing a body from behind the bushes. The hooded boy flinched, gripping a bleeding shoulder.

Nowhere.

"Smile Dog," He whispered, looking out across the empty street. "Where are you?"