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Sans was a pretty lonely guy. He spent most of his time in the lab, watching the older scientists work and learning from them. When he wasn't in the lab, he was out in the multiverse. The day he had first managed to open a portal was certainly an exciting one, he met so many other monsters, other Sanses that gave him the nickname 'Sci' due to his fascination with science. The thing was, he hadn't exactly made friends with any of them. A decent amount of the other monsters were way older than him. Those who were his age had way too much energy for him, he already had to exert himself way too much, taking care of his little brother. Didn't have much to waste on other people.
Still, he liked seeing the multiverse in his spare time. There was so much out there to see. So many things for him to learn, things he couldn't find out from the scientists. He'd already far surpassed their abilities, what with him already able to make portals at him age - something even the best in his lab hadn't achieved - he was certain there was much more he could learn how to do with exposure to other worlds.
Although his first time opening a portal had been an exciting one, he had gotten into a lot of trouble that day. As soon as the shaky, unstable portal appeared in front of him, he entered it without a second thought. It took him forever to be able to open one that took him back home, his family freaked out so badly, they claimed he was grounded until college (they didn't follow through on that). Since then, they kept an eye on him, and made him swear to only go through a portal again if he had full control over where he was going. Thankfully they didn't tell any of the scientists, lord knows Sans knew better than anybody how obsessive (and creepy) those adults could be over monsters with abnormal abilities. While he did make that promise, it wasn't a pinkie promise. Besides, how was he supposed to know when he had the hang of it if he wasn't checking his progress?
Today would be one of those days when he would be disobeying his family and checking how accurate his portals had gotten. He had plans to go to a world he had visited many times, but when he stepped through the portal, he immediately realised he was in the wrong place. There was grass covering every inch of the ground that he could see, and there was sky. This world wasn't in the underground, it was the first time he'd ever ended up in one of these.
It was a lot less impressive than he thought it would be.
The adult's hyped up the surface way too much. The only thing that caught his interest was a pretty tree in the distance. Back in the underground, he could only see the roots of trees, seeing how they looked above ground was amazing. He didn't expect them to be so strange. The tree was perfectly symmetrical, one half shined bright like the sun, with golden apples hanging from the branches. The other half seemed to suck the life out of it's surroundings, apples also adorned this side, but they were black instead of yellow. Both sides of the tree were really pretty, in Sans' opinion, but those fruits did not look healthy.
Sans made his way over to the tree, wanting to get a closer look. As he got closer, he saw a skeleton sitting under the tree. He couldn't see very well, but they looked like another Sans. They were reading a book, he wondered if it was a book he knew of. He approached the other skeleton and stood in front of them.
"Hi-" He began to greet, but cut himself off as he saw the other flinch at the sound of his voice. Sans frowned and took a step back, giving the skeleton some space. They glanced up from their book, looking as though they expected him to hurt them or something. When they realised he was a skeleton, like him, they looked more confused than afraid.
"Who are you?" They asked, lowering the book.
"I'm Sans, well, a Sans, from another world."
"Another world...? There are other worlds out there?" Suddenly, the other skeleton stood up, looking quite excited.
"Yeah. I'm from Sciencetale, most other Sanses call me Sci."
"I'm Nightmare. I've never met another skeleton my age before, aside from my brother of course." They grabbed Sci's hand and shook it gently. The young scientist was surprised, this Sans was a lot more polite than most other monsters he had met.
"Your brother? Papyrus?"
"Who's Papyrus?" Sci froze. "My brother's name is Dream, we're twins."
"You don't have a Papyrus?" Nightmare shook his head. Sci didn't know how to feel about that. Every Sans he had ever met had a Papyrus, whether they were alive or not. But he supposed it couldn't be that strange, Nightmare did still have a brother anyway. "Most Sanses do, guess that just makes you special! My brother is still just a baby, must be nice having a twin."
"Eh... Nice isn't exactly the word I'd use."
"Really? How come?"
The two sat down together beneath the dark side of the tree while Nightmare explained the story of him and his twin. Sci was fascinated, listening intently to the story. He looked up at the tree and it's pretty fruits when Nightmare explained it's purpose. It was insane to think something like this was hidden away in some small world in the multiverse. He was glad he found it.
Sci and Nightmare grew closer slowly, over time. The young Sans came back to visit Nightmare whenever he could get away with it. They bonded over their shared love of reading and learning, a common trait they found out they had very quickly. Sometimes, when Nightmare's brother was out distracting they villagers, Sci would take him out to see some of the multiverse. Nightmare loved it, the world was so much bigger than he ever could imagine. Their favourite places to go were librarby's. Though Nightmare found the underground strange and cramped, he was also fascinated that monsters had found a way to live comfortably without the surface, even if they were far from happy. Dream would suffocate in an underground world.
With Nightmare's help, Sci had learned how to control his portals much better. Nightmare was really good with magic stuff, even though he didn't do a lot himself. They were planning to go to one of the bigger librarby's today. They'd have to sneak in, kids their age weren't usually allowed inside without an adult, but they were pretty sneaky. The portal opened, Sci stepped through first and held it open long enough for Nightmare to join him. When they looked around, it was pretty obvious they weren't in the right place.
"Wow. There is nothing here." That was a bit of an exaggeration. Sure, the world was empty - but there were monsters here. At least they looked like monsters, kinda. They were more like unfinished sketches. Most of them didn't even have mouths. But there was one, Nightmare could see, had a soul. None of the others did. It was a Sans, just like them.
He walked over to the Sans, noticing the completely blank look on their face. He could see a soul, but couldn't sense any feelings from them. How strange. They stared at him, it almost looked like they were staring through him but, he could see their eyes widen slightly at the new people in their void of a world.
"Hi there." Sci walked over and stood beside Nightmare. The skeleton shifted their eyes over to him, they opened their mouth, mimicking the way his moved, but no sound came out. "Guess you can't really talk, huh?" He sat down next to the skeleton. They were small, so he assumed they were a kid like him and Nightmare. His friend sat down too, averting his gaze from the skeleton, he was naked (to other skeletons) after all.
It was pretty chilly in this nowhere place, it was a wonder the skeleton didn't freeze. Sci decided he would offer them some help. Thankfully he always carried around a bag of thing in case of emergency. He brought out a knitting set, much to Nightmare's confusion, and starting knitting. nightmare, along with the smaller skeleton, watched as Sci expertly knit some sort of jacket, and put it over the skeleton. It was a blue jacket, since that's the only colour of wool Sci owned, but when the skeleton had it on, they both swore they saw them smile.
"Do you have a name?" Nightmare asked them, finally looking down at the Sans. They shook their head, good to know they could actually understand what he was saying. Kinda sucked that they didn't have a name though. maybe he could give them one. He wasn't good at coming up with names, but if he suggested some to the skeleton, they could choose their own. He started listing off some names to them, they shook their head after each suggestion. Couldn't blame them, to be fair, he was saying names of characters from books he had read. And he was starting to run out of names. "Okay... none of those I guess."
"How about Ink?" Sci suggested. The skeleton lit up and nodded at him. Seemed like they liked the name.
Nightmare and Sci stayed with Ink for a while, but they couldn't stick around forever. Even if he couldn't talk, they enjoyed spending time with him and felt bad leaving him behind, in this empty place. Especially after they stood up to leave, Ink grabbed Nightmare's hand to try and stop them abandoning him.
Asgore knows they would get into huge trouble if the adult guardians found out what they were doing, but the boys didn't feel bad at all when they took Ink out through the portal with them. They went back to Dreamtale, staying there for a little longer while they showed Ink the world he had never had an opportunity to see. Ink was having a great time, and Nightmare and Sci found they were pretty good at teaching him about things. It seemed his favourite thing was grass, he spend a lot of time lying, face down in it. At first this concerned the others, but they found it kinda funny once they knew he was okay.
Of course, their fun still couldn't last forever. Sci had been away from home for way too long, and he was sure his family would be pissed. He bid his friends goodbye, with the promise to return tomorrow. Ink was left in Nightmare's care, watching as Sci hopped through a portal and out of sight. Needless to say, all three Sanses were excited for what fun the next day could bring.
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(Link to an art I made to go with this story! - ART! )