"NYEH! LOOK EVERYONE – LOOK HOW COOL I AM AS A GIRL! SHE'S REALLY GOT SOME STYLE!"
"Ha! Yeah, I'd give her one!"
"Um… one what, Undyne?"
"don't ask, tori…"
"A training session, of course! Or maybe a few!"
"oh…"
"Sans, why do you look so surprised? Were you thinking I'd say something else?"
"no… never mind."

Sans let out a sigh, and kind of zoned out as everyone around him marvelled excitedly at the photo of their counterparts. He could understand it. This must be a pretty good time for them; as far as they were concerned everything was back to normal, after all…
"Haha!" Undyne exclaimed, a wide grin spreading across her face. "Alphys, is that you?"
"I-I guess…" Alphys gasped, staring at a lizard man wearing a lab coat. Wow, he certainly looked different to her. He was much wider, and a little taller. His skin was darker, and he had huge horns on his head… He looked kind of scary, actually. In a… sexy kind of way…
"He looks like a total nerd!" Undyne exclaimed.
"O-Oh…" Alphys mumbled, her cheeks darkening as Undyne said the complete opposite of what she was thinking. "Y-You think so…?"
"Yep! I can see why my guy likes him!" Undyne beamed, which caused Alphys to smile a little.
"YOUR GUY LOOKS SO BADASS, UNDYNE!" Papyrus grinned. "I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO LOOK MORE MASCULINE!"
"Ha! Thanks, Pap." Undyne sniggered, feeling complimented. Alphys looked at the image of the monstrous Undyrus. He was so tall and muscular, like his skin was about to rip at any second under the strain of his big… muscles. Wow. Suddenly, Alphys felt her cheeks darken and her heart skip a beat, and she looked away timidly.
"Are you okay, Alphys?" Toriel asked, noticing she'd suddenly gone quiet.
"Fine!" Alphys squeaked, and her cheeks darkened even more.
"What was I like as a guy?" Toriel's voice came from somewhere above Sans. He kind of heard it, but he wasn't paying enough attention to have any idea what she said. In his spaced-out daze, he didn't even realise she was talking to him. "Sans? … Sans?"
"SANS!" Papyrus screamed, causing Sans to jump a little and snap back to reality.
"uh – yeah, bro?" He said, offering Papyrus a weak smile.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION! DON'T BE SO RUDE!"
"sorry…" Sans mumbled. "what did you ask, bro?"
"NOT ME!" Papyrus yelled. "TORIEL! TORIEL ASKED YOU WHAT SHE'S LIKE AS A MAN GOAT!"
"oh! sorry, tori." Sans gasped, looking at her apologetically. Wow. That was bad of him. That was no way to treat the girlfriend that thought you were cheating on her, right? "uh… you're a nice guy." Sans smiled. "you're really sensitive, but uh… heh." He smirked a little. "you have a great sense of humour."
"Oh! That's nice." Toriel smiled, not quite as sincerely as Sans had hoped. Dammit… Sans's soul sank a little. She knew something was wrong.

XXXXX

Well, that had been a pretty intense day. Aside from all the horrible stuff that had happened, Sans had spent the best part of his afternoon answering question after question about everyone's counterparts. He didn't really mind; he'd kind of expected he'd have to do that, but… he felt bad for Toriel. She knew something was wrong. She'd been wanting to ask him all day, he could tell. But they'd never got a minute to themselves… Which Sans was kind of grateful for. He really didn't feel much like pretending right now, and pretending everything was okay was all he could do. How could he even begin to tell her the truth? Or anyone, for that matter. How do you even start that conversation…? Jeez. Sans hated this.

He lay down on his still unmade bed, just wishing it could be morning already. He wanted this day to be gone. He wanted it to all be over. Maybe in the morning, things would be better… … Nah. That was bullshit, wasn't it? Things weren't going to get better. They maybe wouldn't get any worse, but no matter how much time went by or how much wishing Sans did, Gaster was… … … dammit. He couldn't stand to think… damn!
"please." Sans whispered, closing his eyes. Please… please don't let it be true. Just, reset. Wind the clock back, put him back in Serif's universe and let him try again. He wouldn't fuck it up this time, he wouldn't… … he would let Gaster… "dammit!" Sans snarled, rolling around in his grief. He buried his face into the mattress and started sobbing. This was horrible! He hated this! He wanted his dad. He wanted his girlfriend – all of a sudden Sans was regretting not telling Toriel the truth. She could keep a secret, she wouldn't tell Pap! And she'd make him feel better. Once again he'd done the wrong thing. instead of opening up to Toriel and letting her try to make him feel better he'd pretended like everything was okay, like he just needed to adjust back home, and he'd let her go back to the Ruins when he'd really wanted her to spend the night here, in his house with him. He'd done that. He'd fucked it up again! He was stupid! Stupid stupid stupid!

Sans closed his eyes, and allowed his tears to trickle down his face and dampen his mattress. How could he fix this…? … He couldn't. He couldn't, he… This was just… how things were now. Gaster was erased, and it was Sans's fault. It would always be Sans's fault. "dad…" He whimpered. Even this was stupid. Gaster didn't exist anymore. "i know you can't hear me… but i'm sorry." Sans sobbed. "i'm so sorry. i wish i'd listened to you." He sniffed, and rolled onto his back to stare out of the window. As if that helped. Gaster wasn't there anyway. He was nowhere now. "i wish i could take it back. i'm really sorry, dad…" What was he even saying…? He was talking to nobody. Literally, nobody. Nobody could hear him. Nobody was watching him. For the first time in his life, Sans felt truly alone. Then…
"NYEH!"
"heh." Sans smiled a little, and closed his eyes. Wow… Papyrus had woken up. Normally Sans hated it when that happened, because Papyrus always wanted another bedtime story and he was so anal about how Sans read it. Now, though… Sans kind of hoped he wasn't just yelling in his sleep, which Papyrus did quite a lot. Sans could really use his brother right now. "pap…?" He uttered, too quietly for Papyrus to hear. "you awake, buddy?" He spoke a little louder, loud enough, but he still got no response. Hm… Maybe Pap was just dreaming then. That was too bad…
"OH, WOWIE! SANS, COME AND CHECK THIS OUT!" Nope. He was definitely awake. Wow, he sounded excited – even more than normal. Sans wasn't sure he had the energy for this… "IT'S MISTER SMILEY-HANDS!"

Sans's pupils suddenly widened. Wait… did Pap just say…? No. no, he must be dreaming after all. Either that or Sans had misheard him. There was no way that –
"Hello, Papyrus." Okay. A third voice definitely just came from Papyrus's bedroom. "I'm glad you remember me."

Sans lay perfectly still, his body frozen while his heart started racing so fast he thought it would explode. Oh… wow. Wowie! All of a sudden, Sans's pupils lit up and a wide grin swept across his face.
"cool!" He breathed, and jumped up as fast as he could. He almost fell off his bed as he hurried to climb off it, and without a second's hesitation Sans bolted out towards Papyrus's room.

Author's Note:-
Welp, there y'all are. I did it! I'll be honest, this fic was kind of an experiment for me. I had a few different themes and styles going on, and whether or not they worked together is really up to you to decide. At times I thought it was a disaster, but I was determined not to have yet another unfinished fic, and so I forced myself to finish this and… actually, in the end I liked how it turned out :) Whether I'm alone in that, I don't know! But I did everything I wanted to do with it, so I guess that's a good thing.
Anyway! Thank you so much for reading, and an even bigger thank you goes to those of you who kept me motivated by reviewing the earlier chapters; that really meant a lot to me and it gave me the boost I needed to continue on with this, even when I felt like giving up. I really hoped you all liked this fic, and please give me your feedback if you have time as it would be very much appreciated. Thank you! Take care!

p.s. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but if you do want to read the Sans/Gaster fight, look up a fic of mine entitled 'Gaster's Demise' and it's in detail there. Also, my fic Mister Smiley-Hands is a short one-shot about Papyrus's imaginary friend who we all know has another name :p Once again, thanks for reading!