A/N: A slight AU of my "Dreams of the Past and Present" series. I say "slight" because you can consider it canon or not canon. It takes place when Frisk is eighteen and is now romantically involved with Sans. If you're squicked by the bone-zone, there won't be any here. There will be possible mentions of things that happened in DotPP but this story can be read alone too.

The only thing I really need to add is that in this AU Frisk has been practicing magic with the monsters (because my headcanon is that humans can use magic, but they need to be taught) so they know basic color and fire magic. They're still learning.

Prologue

Frisk had always known that one day Sans was going to go on a road trip that would last a while. Well, he said "road trip" but it wasn't going to include nearly as much road as most people did when they took a "road trip". The whole of the surface world was available for monsters to explore in a way many had not done. Now that most of the politics were dealt with, with the exception of a few countries, monsters could go anywhere a human could. And Sans had access to shortcuts which could quite literally take you anywhere in the world. He had already explored most of the portals within a ten mile radius in the past nearly six years that monsters had been on the surface, but there were a few he didn't explore. Those were the ones that would take him to farther away places than a few miles.

He had been holding off, for the most part, for Frisk's sake as well as his brother's. Sans had no idea how long it would take him to satisfy his exploration need, so he had been lazing about in Ebott with his friends while Frisk went to high school and Papyrus made a place for himself in the world. Now, though, Frisk had free time. They had finally graduated from high school, and Frisk could use a much-needed break from politics. Also, Papyrus was fine on his own. He was happy with his physical therapist job, and he had been somewhat pushing for Sans to branch out. Actually, Papyrus had been a little up-front about wanting Sans and Frisk to go on a romantic vacation together just because he was tired of them "never doing anything with their lives". Frisk was always busy, thank you very much.

So Frisk suggested the road trip to Sans. It would fulfill one of Sans's biggest dreams to really travel the world, and it would give Frisk and Sans the alone time that Frisk had been craving. Frisk loved their family and friends very much but sometimes they just wanted to cuddle with Sans in peace without anyone around. And not just in the middle of the night.

Toriel and Asgore had been slightly reluctant only because they worried about Frisk's job and the fact it would be the first time Frisk would be leaving home. But they were both aware Frisk was an adult, and so they gave their blessings. "Just do not get married without us there!" Asgore had joked and Frisk had blushed a little. If they were going to marry Sans, then it wasn't going to be some quick thing in some foreign country. Hopefully.

Undyne and Alphys had been excited and slightly jealous when they were told at Frisk's graduation party. Undyne had done the most traveling the past couple of years for her job, so she wasn't quite AS upset, but Alphys had places that she wanted to go to. Like Japan. And conventions in other countries. And to the Kennedy Space Center. And the North Pole. Frisk promised to take as many pictures as possible and to mail them souvenirs.

"if we end up in japan, we anime get you stuff." Sans joked. Alphys was unimpressed. Frisk promised to get her plenty of stuff.

Papyrus had been both happy and sad when he had been told. The three of them in many ways had been in a partnership of sorts. Sans and Frisk may have been dating, but Papyrus had been very much a large part of their relationship. Frisk loved Papyrus just as much (but not quite in the same way) as Sans and it would be difficult to leave him behind on his own. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" Papyrus said, "I HAVE PLENTY OF FRIENDS! SO I'M NEVER ALONE! JUST MAKE SURE TO CALL, OKAY? AND KEEP YOUR BLOG UPDATED BECAUSE I'LL BE LOOKING EVERY DAY, FRISK!"

So soon after it was decided, Sans and Frisk packed up some travelling bags and got ready to leave. Ebott would always be here for them to come back to, and Frisk's parents would be here if they needed a place to rest. Sans would make sure to keep an accurate map of where shortcuts are and where they lead to. Apparently in his free time he had created a program for it on both his computer and phone. This was combined with a very accurate GPS which would hopefully work anywhere. It wasn't like Sans had really tested it in extreme environments.

Sans threw both of their bags into his pocket dimension (Frisk could hear the bones as they clanked together) and the both of them climbed onto his moped. There was no telling where they would be going, but the early dawn was very poetic and exciting. Frisk grinned and hid their face into the back of Sans's loose hoodie. "Where first?" They asked.

"guess we'll head over to the next town first." Sans suggested and the two zoomed off. Frisk still didn't really like the thought of taking the moped through shortcuts but it was the quickest way to get started. And Frisk had to get used to it. Eventually, though, Sans planned on traveling on foot because they didn't expect to always wind up in an area where the moped would be able to go. Frisk didn't know where or when they would drop off the moped.

The beginning of the trip was a little longer than expected so the sun was fully up by the time they arrived at the first mysterious shortcut. Frisk had been around Sans long enough that they had begun to recognize the shortcuts when they see them. Or rather, sense them. The shortcuts couldn't actually be seen. But Frisk wasn't focused on the shortcut and was instead looking upwards at the skyscrapers. They were in Frisk's old city. Was this on purpose? Sans was watching them.

Sans's hand found Frisk's and squeezed it. Frisk looked at him. Their face was slightly confused. "thought you might wanna say goodbye to this too." He said. Frisk blinked and then really looked around them. There was an old pain in their heart remembering their human parents. They weren't even sure if their old parents lived here any longer or if they had moved on. Frisk hadn't kept in contact because they didn't need to. There was nothing to say goodbye to here but nonetheless Frisk was a little happy that Sans had brought them here. But they were ready to go.

Sans released Frisk's hand and grabbed hold of the handlebars. It was the first day of summer vacation and the whole world was open to them. Frisk took one moment to snap a picture on their phone of the view of the city looking upwards -one of Frisk's favorite views of any city- before Sans took them both through the shortcut to who knows where.