When the sun came up, the human from the night before had already been awake and standing outside, looking up at the sun as it bled beautifully over the sky in a glossy mess of pinks, reds and orange. It was something she didn't often get the chance to see, so she wasn't paying much attention when a warm voice came up from behind, causing her to jump.
"So you're the one who made all that fuss last night."
Flinching, she spun around and her gaze lifted to stare up at what seemed to be a man made of flame. His figure was very human, but his entire face was like a lit fire that never slept. Hands a color of oranges and yellows that mimicked the flames themselves. "S...sorry?" She spoke up, though not quite sure which thing to apologize for. Jumping, or the fuss from last night.
Either way, the elemental simply gave a kind chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck as he stared her down with no semblance of animosity at all. "Oh don't apologize, you had every right to stand up for yourself. Sans can be a bit... um... boneheaded. Heheh." His voice wavered and flickered like the flames themselves, but gave off a soothing warmth.
A small smile crept over her lips as she seemed to visibly relax when she realized she wasn't in trouble, which seemed almost to be a total 180 from the way she had been the night before. "I have to admit, you're quite the fiery one. I don't think I've met a woman with so much spunk outside of the queen herself or... well... former queen." The elemental admitted.
"I just don't let people walk over me. Not anymore..." She seemed to mutter the last part, as her eyes shifted their gaze away from him, posture tensing a bit as she brought up her left hand to grip her opposing arm with a hint of a frown.
The elemental seemed to frown himself, despite his mouth not being visible, his eyes clearly saddened with regret. Should he have not said that? With only letting a few moments pass between them, he reached a hand out to touch her shoulder, causing her to re-focus her attention back on him, as it seemed she had taken that time in between to fix her gaze back on the sunrise. "Hey. I'm sorry if I upset you."
"No no! Its not--uh..."And just like that, her eyes widened and she seemed to shift gears to almost a panic as she waved her hands in front of herself as if to wave away the very idea. "I... its not you, really, don't worry I uh...--hey, wheres the girl? We should start heading back early if we're gonna make it back before dark."
He blinked, staring at her in confusion. Wait... did she just pull what he thought she had? Sans had done this to him plenty before, when he was avoiding talking about something. Hiding something. She was doing this on purpose, wasn't she? Still, what could he do?
With a sigh, he shook his head and motioned for her to follow him. She wasted no time, allowing him to lead her as they made their way to one of the tents.
"I'm Grillby by the way, whats your name?" He pressed, deciding that he could at least get a bit more information while they walked. Maybe he could help to to relax a little.
"Riku..." She answered, though her tone now seemed to trail off as if she wasn't sure if she should still keep speaking. This though hadn't gone unnoticed as he brought his hand back to her shoulder, resting it gently as he gave her his best smile.
"Listen Riku, if you ever need anything, please come to me. Some of the others can be a bit much at times and may make you feel a bit overwhelmed, but one thing I can say is that in my profession, I have learned a thing or two about how to talk to people." Her gaze shifted up at him curiously, as he gave what she could almost count as a smirk in those eyes of his. "Profession?"
"Yes, I'm a bar tender." The realization took her no time at all to strike and she began to laugh. Hearing her though, he soon joined in and the two found themselves standing just outside of Frisk and Sans's tent, giggling like idiots.
It seemed that the reaction though caused a certain comedic skeleton to take notice and he wasted no time at all in shortcutting behind them. "hey, i didn't catch the joke."
The two turned, looking at Sans, as Grillby still kept his hand on the girl's shoulder, while she beamed and chuckled a little. "Oh, hey there. Nice to see you up. Is she ready to go?"
Sans had to fight the urge to cringe in displeasure at the blatant avoidance of his remark, only to press into the matter of Frisk so quickly, but Grillby seemed contented with her so he didn't push it. "actually, we were just sleepin'. buuut i'm sure i can wake'er up for ya. that said, i'll be the one traveling with you two."
The laughter soon stopped silent as she just stared at him for a moment, giving him a rather cold, studying gaze. Say what? The guy who tried to murk her the other night was going to be the one to go? Sans took the opportunity to grin just a bit wider, sockets narrowing into a rather smug expression as he stared her down. "hope thats okay with you~."
Grillby sighed as he looked between them. Sans with that smug look, held firm while Riku looked like she wanted to just slap it right off his face. "Yeah... sure. Just so long as you don't go digging us any graves." She retorted finally, but also moved with purpose and irritation as she jerked her shoulder away from Grillby's comforting hand to march back toward the entrance to the camp.
San's grin shrunk and his smugness shifted to a glare as he watched her move past him, refusing to even look him in the socket. The hostile tension between the two was so strong it could be used to sharpen a blade. "Sans..."
"save it grillz." Sans tried to brush him away, but the elemental was not having it. "No, you're going to listen. That girl is not our enemy Sans and you two really need to get along. In fact, you owe her an apology." Sans groaned in displeasure before waving a boney hand. "i already--"
"A real apology, Sans. Not a jokey, half-assed one. Try being nice with her and you might just discover shes not what you think." The skeleton sighed and glanced up, meeting the stern gaze of his friend who... admittedly, was a rather good judge of character himself. Still, this judge still wasn't sure yet. Buuut maybe he should try and be a bit nicer... just until he could... feel her out a bit.
"fine."