Socks

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at [Link]

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/M
Fandom: Undertale (Video Game)
Relationship: Sans/Reader
Characters: Sans (Undertale), Reader
Additional Tags: human reader, Female Reader, Sans is a sock thief, Humor, puns,
Teasing, Insults, Angry Reader, Papyrus being a great friend, Gifts, also
some sads, Talk about bad timelines, mentions of previous deaths,
Crying, Hugging, Promises, Confession, Nuzzling, Cuddling, he’s shy
Language: English
Collections: My Undertale Works
Stats: Published: 2026-06-06 Words: 3,720 Chapters: 1/1
 Socks
by WolfGirl244

Summary

It’s a typical cold morning in Snowdin, and you seem to have found yourself a problem. Your
socks are missing.

Notes

This is from my now deleted Deviantart, Animefangirl-Peggy65. I think I wrote this around
the 2016-17 range? This is part one and two combined. It started out as a crackfic chapter 1
and became serious in chapter 2. I tried to leave it as untouched as possible, but I did edit a
few things like spelling errors and word choice or fixed some things to make more sense.
Apologies if younger me did not understand puns very good. ^^; She tried, cut her some
slack. (Also, younger me kinda bullshited the part about getting up on the balcony. Just
pretend it’s possible shhh-)
"Human, wake up! I, the great Papyrus, have prepared breakfast spaghetti for you!"

You groaned in response, sitting up on the couch and rubbing your eyes. A yawn escaped you
as you threw the covers off to the side of the couch and turned to swing your feet off the
edge. The cold floor met your feet. You hissed at the feeling and immediately began to look
for your socks. You had a habit of taking off your socks before you went to bed. You
distinctively remember that you'd shoved them in the hole between the back of the couch and
the couch cushion near where your feet laid that night. When you checked, however, they
weren't where you remembered placing them.

You were a bit confused at first and even went so far as to remove the couch cushions
momentarily to check for your socks.

"Hey, Papyrus?"

"Yes, human?"

"Have you seen my socks?"

"No, but I, the great Papyrus, shall help you find your missing socks!"

You and Papyrus searched the whole room, but still no sign of your socks.

"Are you sure you didn't take your socks off somewhere else?"

"Nope. And I'm positive the dog didn't get them because it ran out with a bone from your
bone collection under the sink when Frisk was here yesterday hanging out with you and it
never came back. I don't know where that dog went, but I'm rather sure it didn't come back
and steal my socks last night- Wait a minute!” You pause. “Sans!" You yelled, running up the
stairs and storming over to Sans' room.

You banged loudly on the door.

"Come on, Sans, I know you're in there. What did you do with my socks?"

"What socks?"

"Don't you play dumb with me! I know you took my socks!"

"How do you know I have them? Maybe they just got tired of you and left while you were
socked out on the couch last night."

"Sans, no."

"Sans, yes."

"Just--Socks, please! Why did you even take them in the first place?!"
"What can I say? Socks are socktacular."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Sans, now give me my socks back."

"Hmm... Let me think about it."

"Sans!!!" You yelled, stomping your foot on the ground and balling your hands into fists,
bringing them up only to slam them back down to your side in frustration.

"How about 'no?'"

"Ugh! Come on, Sans! I need those!" You were practically whining now.

"My, aren't you needy."

"SANS!"

"Alright, alright. Jeez, kid, calm down. I'll halt on my puns... For now. But you're not getting
your socks back."

"Urgh! You know what? Fine! I don't need my socks. I'll just wear my shoes by themselves.
How's those apples for ya?"

"I don't know. But you don't seem to happy that appled your socks away from you."

"OH MY GOD, SANS!"

No thanks to Sans, you were stuck in the house. You dared not go outside in the cold,
Snowdin snow. Your feet would get cold really easily without your nice, warm, and fuzzy
socks. You laid lazily on the couch, flipping through the TV channels, but nothing was on
except Mettaton's cooking show 'Cooking With a Killer Robot.' You huffed as you paid little
to no attention to Mettaton torturing poor Frisk. Even Frisk looked bored and unamused by
his antics. You refrained from saying anything bad about the show seeing as it was Papyrus'
favorite.

He was probably watching it on his computer upstairs while you boredly half watched the
show on the TV in the living room. You jumped at the sound of Sans' voice, not even aware
of his presence until he spoke.

"Hey, kid, I'm going out to work. Be back later."

Your head snapped in his direction, baffled.

"Okay." You replied, still confused as to how he'd passed by you without you noticing seeing
as how he had to cross in front of the TV to get to the door.

Were you so lost in thought that you hadn't noticed? Or did he just secretly have really
awesome ninja skills and ninja-ed his way to the door so you wouldn't hound him or possibly
tackle him then hound him over your socks? As soon as Sans was out the door, you let a
mischievous glint appear in your eye as you chuckled lowly to yourself. Any monster that
saw your current expression would probably be deathly terrified of you or think you were
insane and start to slowly inch away.

You quickly jumped from the couch, scampered up the steps, and made your way over to
Sans' room where you jiggled the door handle only to find it was locked. Well, you should
have expected that much. Of course he wouldn't give up your socks so easily. You huffed
angrily, but refused to give up. Did Sans have a window? Did he lock it? Hmm...Only one
way to find out. You slipped on your shoes and bundled up before heading out. As soon as
your feet hit the snow, cold rushed through your shoes and bathed your feet in their
unforgiving coldness. You shivered, but knew this had to be done. You needed to get your
socks back.

Turning, you walked around behind the house to see Sans in fact did have a window. But how
to get to it? Well, there was the entrance to that secret underground passage. Perhaps if you
climbed on it, you could reach the balcony, and then find a way to get to the window which
was conveniently close to the balcony. Carefully, you stepped on the igloo like entrance to the
secret passage and reached for the balcony. Just as your gloved hands gripped the hard wood
floor of the balcony the entrance fell in, pulling a yelp from you as your feet lost their step-up
and you were left barely hanging onto the balcony.

Seeing as your gloves were now froze to the balcony, you had a bit of an advantage. You
swung your body, using the side of the house for balance with one foot to swing your other
foot up so that it was on the balcony and used it for leverage as you pulled your self up,
gripping the fence and easily stepping over and onto the balcony. It took a bit of prying, but
you did get your gloves loose from the snow and ice covered balcony. You then walked over
to look at the side of the house. Reaching the window shouldn't be too hard, now. The
question was, though, why have a balcony if you can't reach it?

There was no real way out here, so why have it? Did the constructors mess up and were just
like, "Oops. Sorry, dude, but we forgot the door to your balcony, so now it's just a cool
decoration."? Carefully, you leaned over the edge of the fence and reached for the window
bottom to try and open it from the outside. Thankfully, not only was it not frozen so shut you
couldn’t work it open, but it wasn't locked either, so you slid it open. Now, for the tricky part.
You placed your foot on the edge of the little ledge sticking out on the side of the house.
After almost slipping several times, you reached the window and heaved yourself in.

After you were on solid, non-slippery ground, you found that the room was dark. You must
have not paid it much mind, seeing as you were busy trying not to fall from a two story
building. Blindly, you stumbled around for a door switch only to take a step and end up
falling and sliding off of whatever this mystery object was. You let out an 'Oof!' Whatever it
was, it was hard, that was for sure. You were probably going to end up with a bruise.
Suddenly, the lights were on and you found yourself staring straight ahead at the owner of the
room who currently stood in the doorway, his hand still on the light switch as he stared at
you.
Boy, things couldn't get anymore embarrassing, could they? You let a nervous grin take place
on your face as you let out an equally nervous laugh.

"Uhhh... Hey, Sans...? H-How's it going?"

"Oh, you know, it's going. I would make a pun, but I feel the note on the treadmill will not
only answer the question as to why you're on the ground, but it will also make up for the lack
of puns I have for this situation."

Treadmill? You only had to look over to find you had indeed stepped on and tripped on the
treadmill. You walking forward when it was running at the opposite direction was not a good
mix. You pulled the note from the side of the treadmill and read it. It read, "the truth is that
you just got owned, nerd......" You looked up to see Sans sending a grin you found rather
aggravating. You crumpled up the note and threw it at him in response. He dodged with such
ease he didn't even have to break his lazy posture while doing so. This made you glare even
harder at him.

"Sorry, kid, but you just fell right into that one."

"That's not funny, Sans." You said, cheeks puffed out in anger as you felt heat rise up to them.

You picked yourself up off the ground, towering over Sans a bit. Still, he wasn't intimidated
which made you just the slightest bit angry. His gaze soon fell on the window behind you.

"I feel the need to ask how ya got in without a key, but the open window kinda explains that,
doesn't it?" You looked over at the still open window in response.

Crap. You should have closed it when you came in. He'd still probably figure it out, though.
He was rather perceptive. Speaking of which,...

"Alright, spill it. What made me give away my intentions and let you know what I was
planning?"

"It wasn't that hard. I knew you'd try to get your socks back no matter what, which is why I
went on break so early to see what shenanigans you'd be up to trying to get in my room. I'll
be honest with ya, I didn't expect you to go the route you did. The fallen entrance to the
secret passage was a dead give away."

"So you knew from the start?"

"Yep. I guess you could say that I could see right through ya, kid."

"Oh, ha, ha, window puns."

"C'mon, that one was pretty funny."

You had to admit it was indeed, but you fought off your grin as best as you could to maintain
your angry and determined expression.

"Maybe so, but I want my socks back now, Sans."

"Nope. You can't have 'em. They're part of my collection now."

"Oh, come on, Sans! That's the only pair of socks I have! I dare not go outside in that snow
without them!"

"You kinda had to to get in here, kid."

"That's not the point!"

"What point? This conversation is kinda pointless to me."

"Sans, I'm trying to be deadly serious here and you're cracking puns."

"Oh, but I am deadly serious. See? I'm already dead."

"Sans!" You couldn't help but let a laugh take over your angry shout as you ran a hand down
your face.

"Finally got ya, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. Are you happy now?" You asked, throwing your arms out in failed
exasperation as laughter invaded that, too.

"No, I'm Sans, but you seem happy."

"You and your puns, I swear."

You shook your head, hand on your face.

"Hey, they make you happy, don't they?"

"As much as I hate to admit it. You're not gonna let me live this down, are you?"

"Probably not."

"Yeah, I thought so. But seriously, I'm intrigued, why take my socks? Is it just because you
have a thing for sock collecting or is it something else?"

"Eh, don't worry about it, kid. It's not all that important."

"Well, it is to me! Those are my socks, after all!"

"I ain't tellin' ya and ya ain't gettin' your socks back, kiddo."

"Come now, be reasonable, Sans."

"I can think of a lot of reasons, but I'm not tellin' them to ya."

"You're lazy."

"No, like I said before, I'm Sans."

"You- Grrr! Give me my socks back!" You yelled as you lunged at him only for him to
disappear.

You hit the floor sliding with a loud thud.

"Sans! You bonehead! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

His laugh that echoed throughout the house just made you down right furious. Especially
when you realized you'd just unknowingly fell into his trap by making a skeleton pun.

"I'm just shakin' in my slippers, kid. Listen, my bones are even rattling." He said, sarcasm
dripping from his words as he faked being afraid.

He was mocking you, you knew he was, which is why your next word was sure to be heard
all throughout the Underground.

"SANS!"

Needless to say, you chased Sans all over Snowdin and still didn't get your socks back. By
the time you got back home, you were freezing and Sans mocked you and made puns the
whole time you were curled up under the covers on the couch. You were sure to toss your
pillow at him for it, too. However, that plan backfired when Sans caught it, stuck his magic
blue tongue out at you, and teleported away. You yelled at him again and began to beg and
plead him for your pillow back from outside his door when he refused to return it and you
refused to climb in through his window again.

Finally, you gave up and walked back down the steps to sit on the couch, agitated. When you
reached the couch, however, you found your pillow with a note attached to it.

It read, "Here's your pillow back, kid. Throw it at me again and you'll lose it for good. You're
still not getting your socks back, though."

You simply crumpled the note up and tossed it aside before plopping down on the couch and
letting out a heavy, very agitated sigh. That skeleton was going to be the death of you. You
shot up suddenly, all anger having left you as you wondered just where Papyrus had
wondered off to.

You hadn't even realized you'd fallen asleep until the front door slammed open. You shot up
as the loud intruder- who was not actually an intruder- made himself known.

"Human! I have returned with a new pair of socks for you! And since I'm such a great friend,
I also got you some more clothes! I figured it must have been horrible to only have one other
set of clothes that wasn't even yours, but fear not! I, the great Papyrus, have come to your
rescue!" He said, closing the door behind him.
You smiled at his enthusiasm and confidence in himself. Pap never seemed to fail to make
you smile.

"Thank you, Papyrus. You truly are a great friend." You said, taking the bag he handed to
you. "Where did you even get these? I thought that-"

"I have my ways, human. You have not seen all the Underground yet. Where do you think me
and Sans got the stuff to make the battle body of yours truly?"

You chuckled.

"I suppose you're right."

Papyrus struck a pose in response.

"Of course! The great Papyrus is always right!"

You chuckled to yourself once more and looked inside the bag. Damn. He got some pretty
good looking clothes. They fit your tastes in clothing perfectly. How did he even know what
you liked if you never told him anything about your clothing tastes?

"Like them?"

"'Like them?' They're great Papyrus! How did you know what type of clothes I liked?"

"The great Papyrus has confidence in his skills! But seriously, I just felt they were the right
clothes. To be honest, I was a bit unsure you'd like them."

"Well, thank you, Papyrus. C'mere. You deserve hugs for this."

"Yay! Hugs!"

After putting on a new pair of socks, you turned on and watched TV until dark fell. That
night, as you settled down to go to sleep, you saw someone come from the kitchen. It was
Sans with a bottle of ketchup.

"You're not getting this pair of socks, I hope you know that."

He chuckled a bit.

"Don't worry, kid. I'm not going to steal your new socks so don't worry about having to
ketchup to me again." He said, raising his ketchup bottle slightly.

You tried to hide your smile by shaking your head.

"Move over, kid. I actually kinda like this show." He said, walking over to the couch.

Just to be sure, you grabbed your socks, anyway before moving over so he could sit.
"You know, kid, I was being serious about not stealing your socks this time." He said,
sincerely.

"Why did you take my socks in the first place?"

Silence fell and you were a bit agitated at his sudden silence as he watched the TV. It got to
the point where you glared slightly at him then turned off the TV.

"What was that for, kid?"

"Sans, answer me. Why did you take my socks?"

He sighed and looked away, sadness in his voice as he spoke.

"I didn't want you to leave again."

"What do you mean?"

"I figured you wouldn't leave again if I took your socks. That you wouldn't risk going out in
the cold and leaving us behind again if you didn't have your socks."

"What made you think that?"

"I just- I dunno. I figured this time could be different." When you sent him a confused look,
he carried on. "How do you feel... About reincarnation?"

"Reincarnation?"

"Or something similar?"

"Like... The resetting of timelines?"

He opened his jaw to speak then looked over to you with a look of confusion.

"Yeah... Something like that."

"So, you know,... Don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"About the resets. You know about them, don't you?" He was silent, so you carried on. "It...It
was me. I reset the timelines. The first time, I killed Toriel. I felt bad. Despite that, I carried
on, thinking the most important thing was getting home. I killed Asgore and crossed the
barrier after defeating Flowey, but... When I reached home, it was apparent that wasn't what I
wanted. I... I heard you talking to me. You and Papyrus. You may not believe it, but... I could
hear you, in my dreams. I felt so bad about it and when you guys told me what happened with
Undyne and that I should come try and visit you anyway.”

You fiddle lightly with your socks, tracing the fluffy rims.
“I reset it, thinking things could be better the second time. But even at I went through killing
no one, things still didn't end well. The humans... I couldn't help to get them accept you guys
into their society. Things got bad and... I lost you. You stepped in to protect Papyrus and..."
Tears filled your eyes. "You told me to take good care of him, but even as I did, everyone else
around me began to die. It broke my heart to see Papyrus, who had so much faith, lose it all
before me. Almost every one else was dead, even Undyne. I think that was the straw that
broke the camel's back for Papyrus.”

You go quiet, feeling your eyes burn and trying to blink away the sensation, to not think
about the losses again and everything in between and after.

“Everything seemed so hopeless that I decided to reset again, this time doing nothing. I didn't
want to risk something like that happening again. I couldn't lose everyone again... I couldn't
lose you again." You whispered the last part as tears began to stream down your face and you
began to sob into your hands which you raised to your face as you dropped your socks.

You weren't aware that Sans was in near tears, as well. He was shocked for a moment,
shocked that he wasn't the only one aware of the resets and aware of everything that had
happened in the prior times. He scooted closer to you and hugged you close.

"I'm not going anywhere, kid, I promise."

You wasted no time in embracing him back, sobbing into his jacket.

"To hell with my fate! I don't care, I'm not going to go on just to lose you guys again. I can't!
I won't! I won't lose you again, Sans! I just- Let someone else be the one this world depends
on."

"Shh... It's alright, kiddo. Everything is going to be alright."

After you'd finally settled down, you looked up at Sans.

"Sans, promise me you won't leave me."

"I won't, kid."

"And stop calling me 'kid'." You said, poking Sans on the cheek since you thought better of
flicking him. That might hurt. "I'm not exactly eight, ya know. I'm a grown woman."

"You sure about that? Cuz' you ain't done growing on me."

"Sans," You said playfully. "Don't tell me you're cushion on me."

"Heh. Good one. You were leading me to believe you didn't like my puns anymore."

"Nah. Your puns have always been funny. But tell me, were you being serious about that
whole 'growing on me' stuff?"

He seemed to sweat a bit at this.

"Uh... What do you mean?"

"I mean, is this little thing we have here platonic or something more?"

"W-What if I told you I wanted it to be something more?"

"Then I'd do this~" You said, shoving him down so that he was laying with his back on the
couch and nuzzled your face into the fluff of his jacket while also nuzzling the side of your
face against the side of his skull.

He only seemed to struggle a bit out of nervousness as you wrapped your arms around him
and began to cuddle with him. This timeline was going to be different. You and him would
make sure of that.
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