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The room rings out in cheers and greetings as Sans steps into the restaurant, shutting the door behind him to keep the cold air out and the warm air in, if only to prevent an extremely gentle scolding from the owner himself. His grin widens ever so slightly, happy to once again be in the presence of the rest of the Rouges' Gallery after an absolutely grueling (read: mostly being bored and napping) day at work.
"hey hot stuff. you already know what's up," he says as he takes his regular seat at the bar, Grillby giving an amused huff as he leans over the counter, resting his skull in a propped up hand.
"That I do," Grillby says through a series of crackles and pops, reaching under the bar from where he stands and deftly sliding over a bottle of ketchup over to one of his favorite regulars. Sans catches it easily in his left hand, even though he knew it wasn't really necessary since Grillby's aim was usually so good that it would have just ended up stopping directly in front of him with no issue.
"g, i could kiss ya," he chuckles before popping off the top and squeezing some directly into his mouth, Grillby momentarily wishing he had eyes to roll.
"Maybe when I'm not on the clock. Don't push your luck, though," he teases as he goes back to drying recently cleaned cups, placing them on the lower shelf behind him once he's done with them.
"dunno g, you know how much i love to gamble. all my bets are on red i think," he snickers as he shakes the bottle in his hand, Grillby letting out the fire monster equivalent of a 'tsk' with a rather annoyed sounding hiss.
"I'm done, I'm leaving you. Goodbye," he says with no real venom as he walks to the other end of the bar, Sans mentally patting himself on the back for a job well done as he shifts to watch him.
"I'll say, I'll always be jealous of how easily you and Grillby have conversations," Red Bird laughs when Sans eventually catches her eye, munching down on some of the fries from her basket. Sans shrugs with his ever present smile, as if to say it really wasn't that big of a deal.
"not yer fault, fire monster speak don't come easy to a lotta monsters outside hotland. just don't got the spark for it, y'know?" is all he says in response, and she sort of raises a brow at that. The bird equivalent, at least.
"How do you know it so well then? I feel like the first day you showed up at the bar, you and Grillbz just hit it off like you'd known each other for years," she says as she gently nudges his slipper with her foot. Sans takes another squeeze.
"used to live in hotland. real scorcher of a place. lottsa fire monsters there so it's kinda somethin' you just learn by acclimation. can't speak it myself, obviously, but g understands common perfectly fine anyhow."
Red nods before squinting a bit, head tilting slightly in curiosity.
"...How'd you and your brother end up here, then? Snowdin seems like a pretty big change of pace in comparison."
Sans snorts involuntarily.
"oh papyrus hates the place. always has, really, so the moment he realized that we could just leave and found a place that was anywhere but, he was already packin' up all our stuff. i was just sort of along for the ride," he says rather nonchalantly, and Red Bird takes a moment to imagine the sorts of animated tirades Sans's dearly beloved brother would likely go on against his old place of residence.
She ultimately finds it pretty easy to believe.
"Must've been a shocker seeing a fire monster all the way out here, then. Did you and Grillby know each other before, though? I know he used to live there too."
Sans just shrugs.
"nah, we just never crossed paths. he seemed happy to know that there were finally monsters in town who were easy to talk to, though. felt like he was lit up brighter than all those gyftmas lights outside when he realized."
He briefly thinks to himself how Grillby probably isn't as excited about it now, if only because of how much Sans uses his ability to lovingly cause him mild annoyance, but he decides to keep that to himself.
"Ahhh... so if you understand fire monster language, does that mean Papyrus does too?"
"sure does. doesn't get flex it as much as i do though, heheh. he and g only really talk when he comes bustin' in lookin for me or trying to pay my tab. don't i got the best brother in town?"
"So you've said. I'm one of quintuplet sisters so I'll take your word on brotherly things," she laughs as she elbows him gently, and Sans takes it as easily as ever.
"So is there a reason Grillbz doesn't speak common so much? I know he understands it and all but it just feels so rare to hear him use it, he's got such a nice sounding voice."
Sans takes a moment to think before shrugging.
"dunno, i've never asked. i just assume he didn't grow up speaking it, far as i can tell most fire monsters don't."
"Makes sense. Gosh– I'm sorry, you probably think I'm so nosy now, getting all up in your guys' business," she says with a sheepish smile as she rests a 'hand' of feathers on her neck. Sans waves her off.
"i get it, g doesn't say a lot about himself anyhow even when he's not speaking common, so it's no wonder. sorry to say you're not gonna get much else outta me, though; i got a business relationship to preserve after all," he teases her, leaning back against the bar as he tries to catch sight of its tender (...tinder?).
It's not a difficult task, considering half the light in the place came from him anyways (and he thinks amusedly to himself that Grillby probably saves a lot on the electric bill because of that). He's currently bringing another round of drinks over to the Dogs of the Royal Guard, being careful to not get any liquid on himself as he both deals out drinks and collects empty glassware. A soft smile comes to his face as he uses one of his hands to rotate the bottle in his hand on the counter, something akin to an absentminded fidget.
Red follows his gaze before nodding with understanding.
"Of course, of course. Wouldn't want to ruin anything between you and your boyfriend," she chuckles, and Sans sort of rolls his eyes at that as he looks back towards her.
"he's not my boyfriend. more like my... grill-friend, y'know?" he says in response with a little 'so-so' of his hand, though to her mild frustration, she notices that he made no real effort to actually describe what their relationship was like.
"He lets you run the bar sometimes, if you guys weren't boyfriends I'd just assume you were married at that point," she says, partially joking and partially not. The part about the bar is definitely true (and she's frankly shocked Grillby had so much trust in anyone, let alone Sans of all monsters, that he was more comfortable with trusting him with his pride and joy rather than simply closing shop for a day or two or putting some manner of 'be back later' sign in the front window). The married part, not so much; she really wasn't sure what kind of relationship those two had and nosiness be damned, she couldn't help but want to know a little more if Sans would be willing to share.
But of course, she knew she should have known better than to expect any sort of straightforward answer from Snowdin's resident jester.
The bells jingle once more as Sans laughs at that, not enough to get anyone else's attention but definitely enough to get Red's.
"keep assuming, i think it's kinda fun that way. you guys know how much i love stoking fires."
"What's this I'm hearing about fires?" Grillby crackles as he returns behind the bar so that he can put the glasses he'd just acquired in the designated dirty dishes basin.
(Dishes Sans notes to himself that he'll probably doing later. It'd been a little while since he'd done something to continue paying off his tab, and close as they are, he'd rather keep himself in Grillby's good graces if he could help it.)
"oh hey there light of my life, we were just talkin' about you," Sans replies nonchalantly, Grillby crossing his arms at that and looking to both him and Red for some manner of explanation as he crackles, "Oh were you now?"
Though she can just about make out what he's saying (...she thinks) Red can't get a good enough read on him to tell whether he's actually upset or not. But Sans seems as blithe as ever, grinning at him like he always does, but with a special kind of fondness she doesn't think he uses with many other people.
"hard not to when you're the star of the show, eh? don't worry your pretty head about it, g, you know i just like to add fuel to your ire."
"............................................................You're insufferable," he eventually mumbles softly, and despite how quiet he is, Red is almost stunned to hear him speak, unsure of the last time she'd heard him do so.
In that same thought, though, she does think it's extremely funny that it's specifically to tell Sans off, and she can't help but fail to stifle a giggle. Sans snorts again.
"i can tell you're smiling."
Grillby shakes his head at that despite the slightest dusting of blue across his cheeks, something that went just as quickly as it came.
"You are wasting my time again, small man," he crackles with absolutely no sense of malice, and Sans merely shrugs and leans closer to him. Grillby leans in closer to shorten their gap and they end up gently bonking their heads together, Grillby leaving the slightest scorch mark on Sans's temple as he does so. In his periphery, he can see Red's eyes widen at that despite her very obvious (to him, at least) attempts to actually parse what Grillby was saying to them.
"guilty as charged. you should go back to work before they get us for showing a disgusting amount of pda in your own establishment," Sans snickers, though who 'they' is constituted of was rather unclear.
Regardless, Grillby just shakes his head at that before grabbing the fresh rag that he had just partially stuffed into his pocket and throwing it directly at Sans's face, Sans bursting out in laughter that has a few people briefly turning their heads as he manages to catch it right before it actually hit him.
"GOODBYE Sans."
"see you, cinnamaldehyde. don't get too burnt out on me."
"I won't, I assure you," he shakes his head again before turning to Red Bird, "Did you need anything else by the way, Red?"
Thankfully, this was a phrase Red could understand with some level of confidence, and she couldn't help but feel some relief at the realization.
"More fries would be great when ya get the chance, Grillbz," she says as she gently shakes her nearly empty basket and Grillby gives her a thumbs up.
"Of course, I'll have it out in a moment. Keep him out of trouble, will you?" he crackles assuredly before pointing his thumb towards his best customer, Sans rolling his eyes with that same grin on his face.
"I'll try my best," she giggles, giving him a little salute before he moves to the room in the back to put a fresh batch of fries into the deep frier.
In the meantime, Red turns to Sans curiously, and he chooses to match her expression until she finally asks...
"...Cinnamaldehyde?"
To her surprise, that of all things is the only thing she's asked today that seems to embarrass him even a little bit, a sheepish little chuckle escaping him.
"aheheh... it's the thing in cinnamon that makes it taste like cinnamon. it's a uh– it's a chemistry joke."
"Didn't take ya for a chemist."
"i'm not, actually, i'm a quantum physicist. but the jokes related to that are often so submicroscopically granular that they aren't particle-ly easy to parse, so i work with what i got."
She's not sure if he's being entirely serious when he says that (and she thinks this with affection, but Sans? a quantum physicist?? the ketchup guzzler who could barely stay awake at his own lookout post most days and who told puns as if his life would be at genuine risk of mortal peril if he didn't??? that Sans????), and the joke is only just about not lost on her anyhow. But she decides to not comment on it any further, at the risk of insulting him. If anything, she thinks she'd be a little embarrassed if she was the only member of the Rogues' Gallery who had ever managed to annoy Sans in a way that matters, considering his near infamous 'chill guy' attitude.
She ultimately decides it's just him doing that enigmatic thing that he does where you can never really tell what he's actually trying to say to you (a tactic he uses with relatively high frequency, just ask anyone at the bar including the proclaimed 'light of his life') and chooses to not think about it too hard, just nodding instead.
"Got it."
Sans's embarrassment washes away with an amused huff, taking another squeeze out of his briefly neglected bottle of ketchup.
"anyhow."
She nods before that little soot mark on his skull catches her eye again, pointing to a similar spot on her own head with a silly little smile.
"You got a little something, by the way."
Sans squints at her before using that rag that had been tossed at him to rub at it, making an almost cartoonish squeaking noise as he does so. When he pauses to let her take a look, she gives him a thumbs up, Sans looking down at the rag and seeing the little smudge of black with an entertained expression.
"funny. must've been frying him out if he did that on purpose, he doesn't normally leave any marks on anything unless he wants to," he notes, tossing the rag to the side so Grillby could get it later if he wanted.
"Maybe he's being territorial or something. As if anyone needed a reminder that you're his favorite customer."
She's smirking a little as she says that. He doesn't even look in her direction as he raises a single finger as if to indicate a pause while he's in the middle of a sip of ketchup.
"best customer, not favorite."
"Both, then. Say– how long is that tab of yours, anyways? I know you're one of the only monsters who even keeps one with him."
"oh, that one stays between us. remember what i said about that business relationship?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say 'bug tan'."
Sans suddenly turns to look at her incredulously, making her feel just a little self conscious.
"...'bug tan'??"
"...Did Grillbz not call you that earlier?"
"ehhh... close enough i s'pose."
"Wait, what did he actually say then???"
Sans merely shook his head and smiled at her, Red giving him the closet thing a bird could give to a pout as he did so.
"C'mon, tell me, I wanna know!"
"you really wanna chance me translating for him again?" Sans posits cheekily, and she opens her beak before taking a moment to remember all those times she had translated for Grillby inaccurately, only for Sans to purposefully come up with something significantly worse and Grillby to look as exasperated with him as she'd ever seen.
She closes her beak.
"Fiiiiiine. Y'know, sometimes I think about asking you to teach me but then I immediately realize how disastrous of an idea that'd be."
"yer insinuation that i'd be a bad teacher is deeply disrespectful," Sans says sarcastically, very obviously not hurt by it in any way, and it's Red's turn to roll her eyes as she finishes off the last of the fries in her basket.
"...but hey, between you and me, g thinks it's sweet that you try. not a lot of people give it as much effort as you do," he adds gently, nudging her. She smiles at that.
"You're not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?"
"on my own life. sentry's promise," Sans grins as he puts one hand up and the other over where his soul would probably be resting in his rib cage. She laughs, Grillby making an inquisitive noise as he returns with two fresh basket of fries, one for Red and one for the blue menace of his bar himself, to Sans's delight.
"Do I even want to ask? Or is this one of those things I shouldn't be 'worrying my pretty head' about?"
Sans waves him off, flipping him a 15G coin seemingly out of nowhere that he catches with ease, as if this were an act they had somehow rehearsed several times over.
"nothin' serious. as you were, boss," he hums as if nothing had even happened, Grillby shaking his head a bit as as he tucks the coin into one of his pockets for safe keeping.
"Thanks Grillbz, you're the best," Red beams at him, fishing a few coins of her own out of her wallet that he swipes off the counter in a similarly smooth motion. Grillby nods at her slightly before moving to go help someone else, leaving her and Sans to their own devices once more as their conversation casually shifted elsewhere, basked in the light of the namesake of Snowdin's favorite (if only) bar.