Tiny Raven

—Red—

Sans’ pun surprised Red and for a moment all he could do was stare at his alternate. After his earlier attempt had fallen flat he had assumed Sans shared his brother’s hatred of wordplay.

He was even more surprised when Sans let out a short bark of laughter, both at his own joke and at Red’s expression. He quickly covered his mouth and attempted to stifle himself, a blue-grey blush coloring his cheekbones.

Red found he liked the sound of Sans’ laughter.

It was genuine and warm, low and melodic.

… He wanted to hear it more.

Red looked away from Sans, ignoring the way his own cheeks warmed. He collected himself as he focused on folding the map.

He had hoped Sans would share his interest in astronomy. It wasn’t too much of a surprise – all the other Sanses had similar interests. But not liking astronomy wouldn’t be the first time Sans was an outlier.

But if Red was going to spend more time with Sans in an attempt to figure out why the Tale brothers didn’t get along … he might as well enjoy himself.

And Red could live in the Planetarium and not grow tired of it.

He led the way to the astronomy wing, glancing back to catch Sans’ reaction to seeing it for the first time.

It was everything Red had hoped for.

Sans’ eyelights lit up, blindingly bright, and his smile stretched wide. He seemed taller, like he was standing up straighter.

Like he wasn’t trying to make himself as small as possible.

He was all but vibrating with excitement.

“c’mon,” Red said with a grin, his own excitement rising in response to Sans, like a contact high. He jerked his head in the direction fo the planet models. “let’s start over there.”

Sans didn’t need more encouragement than that, and he quickly lost himself in reading the informational placards and looking at the displays.

“it’s too bad we don’t have a scale model of the solar system in ebbot,” Sans said softly after he had spent some time staring at the little Earth model and its moon.

“whaddya mean?” Red asked. “these are scale, ain’t they?”

Sans waved a hand, “they’re scaled for size, not distance. It’s still cool, seeing the sheer difference between earth and jupiter, but it’s hard to get a good sense of how far away jupiter is from earth, y’know?”

“i dunno if I’d be up to that much walkin’,” Red said with an exaggerated yawn. “space is … spacious. does that sorta thing even exist?”

Sans nodded, his attention on a sign about the asteroid belt.

“there’s a bunch walkable and drivable scale models, all over the world. the sagan planet walk in ithaca, one in vienna, another in melbourne. there’s one in munich called the planet walk. the biggest is in sweden – it spans the whole country.”

Red wondered, but didn’t ask, how Sans knew about those when he didn’t know the local museum had a planetarium.

Sans mumbled something too soft for Red to hear, but he didn’t push for the other to repeat himself. Instead he let Sans get lost in the informational placards and models again, while he went over to the planetarium to see what was showing.

The next show started soon, and was one of Red’s favorites. While it tread into science fiction rather than fact, it was still built on sound science. Its focus was on what life might look like if humans ever left Earth to become star-farers. Beginning with more-realistic colonization of the moon and Mars, ending with distant future marvels like Dyson spheres and ring worlds. It even dove into the concepts of wormholes and warp drives, and how they might be created.

It was aspirational. Inspiring.

Red bought two tickets and went to find Sans, who was more-or-less where he’d been left.

“hey,” Red said as he approached, causing Sans to jump. Red gave an apologetic smile and held up the tickets. “they got a show startin’ in ten minutes. wanna find some seats?”

“show?” Sans asked. He frowned at the tickets in Red’s hand, beginning to curl in on himself again. “i … i don’t have the g … ”

“don’t worry about it,” Red said with a shrug and a wave of his hand. “it’s on me.”

Sans raised a brow bone at him, eyelights dimming with uncertainty.

“y-you … you mean it?” He asked.

“ya don’t have to make a big deal about it,” Red answered, annoyance bleeding into his tone. Sans flinched, shrinking away.

Red sighed, his annoyance fading to worry.

“it’s fine,” he said. “i wanna see it, an’ boss’d dust me if i just … abandoned ya.”

Sans still looked uneasy so Red added, “seriously. don’t worry about it.”

“o … okay,” Sans answered, and he looked up to meet Red’s eyelights with a shaky smile. “thanks.”

Red only glanced at Sans once during the show.

He’d had them sit in the back, away from everyone else. Their glowing eyelights bothered the human guests, something that Red had dealt with before.

It turned out to be a good decision.

Sans’ eyelights were glued to the whirling cosmos above them, bigger and brighter than Red had ever seen them.

They didn’t rival Blue’s cyan stars, they dwarfed them.

The smile on his face was euphoric and real. Open with wonder and awe.

Red knew that was the same smile he’d worn when he had first been in this room, watching a film similar to this. The same smile he’d worn that first night on the surface, after the sun had set and the stars came out.

He tried to ignore the feelings Sans’ smile raised in his Soul.

They spent the entire afternoon in the astronomy wing.

Sans went from exhibit to exhibit, reading every placard over and over again.

Like he was trying to encode every detail to memory.

“what’d ya like most?” Red asked as they passed through the gift shop on their way out of the museum. When Sans didn’t answer he glanced back, only to find him holding a NASA mug, eyelights hazy. “sans?”

Sans jumped, putting the mug back and smiling at Red.

“i liked everything,” he said as he caught up to Red. “actually seeing the difference in size between earth and the gas giants was … awesome. puts everything into perspective, how tiny our planet is in the universe. and the pictures? from the surfaces of the moon and mars? from the surface of venus?! it’s amazing what humans have been able to accomplish without magic or a functional understanding of quantum theory. imagine what they’ll be able to do once they start allowing monsters into scientific fields!

“and the moon rock! that little piece of grey basalt is extraterrestrial! and humans brought it here through explosions and mad science! they decided to go to the moon, built a rocket, went there, and brought back a rock. that’s insane!

“and the setup dedicated to what the first mars colonies might look like? so cool.

“and the planetarium show … i can’t begin to describe it. the models of potential exoplanets were fantastic, and the projections of how we might terraform a planet?” Sans sighed happily. “i could spend forever exploring every bit of that wing and never get bored.”

Red laughed in agreement.

“getcha talkin’ about this stuff and ya never shut up, do ya?” Red teased.

He had been enjoying Sans’ exuberance and excitement. He had meant the comment to be playful. He had been the same way the first time he’d come to the museum, spending the whole night ranting to Edge about everything he’d seen.

He expected Sans to blush that pretty blue grey color, maybe be a little embarrassed. Maybe comment something back.

He didn’t expect Sans to deflate. To look away, ashamed, as he crumpled back into his usual slouch. For the bright lights of his eyes to dim, and his grin to fall back into the stiff mask he usually wore, the joy gone like it had never been there.

“s-sorry,” Sans stuttered, voice soft. “i don’t … i didn’t … i’m sorry.”

Red was lost in the wake of Sans’ sudden emotional shift, and he kicked himself for causing it.

“i didn’t mean it like that,” Red said carefully. “i get the same way. space is cool, y’know? sorry.”

Sans shrugged and shook his head, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “it doesn’t matter, anyway.”

He turned away from Red, and Red let him. He waited as Sans collected himself.

He hid the pain he felt in his Soul when Sans finally turned around to face him, smiling mask in place.

Sans didn’t meet Red’s eyes.

“thanks … for inviting me,” he said. “i had a lot of fun.”

He glanced at the sky, awash in reds and pinks as the sun sank below the horizon.

“i should probably get back,” he said, more to himself than to Red. He looked back at the ground, grey-blue blush on his cheekbones. “i don’t wanna be a bother, after you brought me here, but … could i bum a ride home? i don’t have money for bus fare.”

“yeah, sure,” Red said, off balance from Sans’ mood swings. He offered his arm and pulled them both to the street outside the Tale brother’s apartment building as soon as Sans had grasped it.

Sans stepped back as soon as they were on the other side of the void.

“thanks,” he repeated as he turned to the building.

He took a single step forward, and then stopped. Red could see he was staring at one of the windows, could see his smile ticking away by fractions.

“hey,” Red said.

Sans let out a shuddering breath as he glanced back, eyes wide.

Red rubbed the back of his skull awkwardly as he looked away. “you, uh. ya got a phone, right?”

Sans frowned but nodded, turning fully as he dug it out of his pocket.

“we should exchange numbers,” Red said, the words coming out in a rush before he could regret them. “it’d make it easier to hang out.”

He watched as Sans’ expression did an emotional speed run. Confusion, anger, refusal, relief … acceptance. He held out his phone.

It was an old flip phone. Dumb, worn down, and well out of date. Between the scratches, the LCD burn, and a crack on the lower right that had killed a substantial number of pixels, the screen was nearly unreadable.

It looked a lot like the phone Red had used when they were still in the Underfell Underground, long since tossed for a nicer smartphone now that they were on the Surface.

He pushed aside his questions, although they bounced in his head like ping pong balls.

Why is Sans’ phone so … shit?

Doesn’t Papyrus have a fancy smart phone?

Red flipped through the options, sending himself a text message before handing the phone back to Sans.

“now we got each other’s numbers,” Red said with a lopsided grin, hoping it hid his uneasiness. “text if ya wanna hang out.”

Sans nodded, and the last thing Red said as he stepped through the void was his grin.

Wide and bright again, open and sincere.

The void closed in around him and Red was alone.

He collapsed in his bed, trying to quiet his racing thoughts and to ignore the feeling gnawing at his Soul.

He was no closer to understanding the rift between the Tale brothers.

—Sans—

Sans stared at the spot Red had been, conflicting emotions battling in his core.

He closed his eye sockets, focusing on his breathing to try to calm his confusion and anxiety.

He wanted to focus on the good parts of the day.

He looked up at the sky. The sun had finally set, but it was still too light to see all but the brightest stars.

He’d spent the entire day surrounded by the cosmos and their mystery.

He glanced at the phone in his hand, seeing the text message Red had sent himself. There wasn’t any content, just a single word.

hey

Red had given him his number.

Sans closed his phone and slid it into his pocket, smiling with relief.

He hadn’t fucked up.

Despite everything. Despite not having the money, despite not leaving the astronomy wing, despite talking too much …

He hadn’t fucked up.