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A fight.
One fight was all it took.
They yelled screamed and it even became physical.
It ended with papyrus cracking sans’ right socket and walking out the door saying he hoped sans would die.
He just stood there completely defeated, he had never seen his brother so angry, he fell to his knees and held the only thing he could savour as his brother had packed most of his possessions before leaving. The small locket, it held a picture of them and a blurred figure. He saw small droplets of water fall onto the locket and soon realised that he was crying. THE one person who kept him sane had just walked out the door, had just broken him both physically and mentally, who said he hoped sans would die. He cried, and cried, and cried so much until he couldn't cry anymore and went completely numb. He couldn't feel anything anymore, he didn't want to feel anything any more. He went into the kitchen, there was a draw in the kitchen which always had a lock on it, he knew why, it was the knife draw. It held every sharp knife in the house and papyrus was the only one with the key. Sans quickly broke the lock with a bone attack and grabbed 3 of the sharpest knifes. He went upstairs into his room, and that night all you could hear from the house was cries of pain.
Papyrus soon arrived the lab, a short cut was thankful for that. He knocked on the door and Undyne soon answered. He asked her if he could stay for the next few days while things calmed down between him and his brother. She of course agreed not knowing what extent papyrus had put sans’ mind through.
For the next few days in Snowden things were normal, Sans went to work checked on his puzzles, updated alphys when needed and went home. Very soon though over the next few days things changed. It was little things like what he would wear. He changed his battle armour to a long sleeved shirt and pants still wearing his boots and gloves. Then he started to be slightly less friendly getting to the point where he didn't even smile it was just a neutral expression in his face. Then soon he started to not show up to work, it wasn't much at first a couple of minutes, then hours, then days and very soon he wasn't coming to work at all staying locked up at his home, leaving only to go buy food and even then he didn't talk to anyone but the cashier in order to buy his food.
Papyrus was doing quite well at the lab. The sterile conditions meant that he soon stoped smoking since it wasn't allowed. Undyne made sure he took his anti-depressents and sleep tablets and he has becoming much better even cutting down on his alcohol by leaps and jumps. Over all he was improving a lot even slightly getting into shape thanks to the fact he had to walk all the way to waterfall everyday in order to check and see if the ice production was working properly. He had been there for about 2 months despite wanting to only stay for a couple days.
He had, had enough. He was sad, lonely, smoking and even drinking, well hell he now knew how papyrus felt. He had barely slept and hadn't gone for food and about 2 weeks so he was pretty underweight. It was about 8pm or late at least. He decided to go for a walk around water fall soon falling asleep near the river. He had given up and he didn't care if he dyed now or tomorrow just as long as he didn't have to love anymore. He had next to completely forgotten that papyrus went here to work but he didn't care, he just couldn't, he lay there tugging on the little silver locket hoping that his brother would find him, and part of him hoping that his brother would find his dust.
The next morning papyrus had gotten up early since he wanted to check out alphys and see how sans was doing since he knew that he always had training that day and hour. He knocked on the door and when it was opened he received a punch straight in the face.
“Ahh what the hell Alphys?”
“What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT THE HELL PAPYRUS HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN YOUR BROTHER LATELY?!”
“What? You know I've been at Undyne’s, WAIT what's up with sans?”
“Oh gee I dunno only the fact that NO ONE HAS SEEN HIM FOR WEEKS!!”
“W H A T.”
“Yeah you better get it into your head and go and find your brother before HE TURNS TO DUST YOU LAZY PIECE OF SHIT!”
Before she could say anything else he was bolting back to hotland in order to check the cameras. He got about half way there before bumping into someone, he quickly turned to say sorry but was soon meant with sans, but he has a horrified expression on his face. He quickly turned to run but PAPYRUS soon caught up with him since Sans hadn't been out much and had slept in the cold most of that night, and hadn't had much sleep the previous nights.
“Sans wait!!”
He quickly grabbed sans’ arm and was easily holding him in his grip since his brother fought back quite weakly. It didn't take much for sans to soon lose his energy, he soon was gasping for air and papyrus gently picked him up, he quickly teleported to the lab to the shock of Undyne.
“PAPYRUS seriously how many time have I- oh my gosh WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!”
Sans had passed out in his arms completely deprived of sleep and food leaving him energy deprived too.
They quickly took him to one of the lab rooms and hooked him up to an Iv and a couple other machines to measure his magic levels and nutritional levels since despite him being full grown could not survive for long without necessary nutrition. When they looked at the screen papyrus nearly doubled over in shock he was literally on the edge of death. If he hadn't found him today he was pretty sure he wouldn't have lasted past this afternoon. His magic was severely low and he over exerted himself too much. They hooked him up to a magic stabiliser and papyrus even started to give sans some of his own magic in order to help him heal. He wanted home to wake up so much…but they could only wait.
A few hours later, Sans still showed no signs of waking up. Papyrus and Undyne had discussed what could have happened to make this possible and even went to Snowden to talk to a few people and found out information about what had happened that last couple months. Luckily his soul had stabilised and he no longer needed Papyrus to help with his magic.
Papyrus still kept a watchful eye over his brother though. Despite Sans being the older brother Papyrus soon took over that role after Sans had soon started to fall depressed and anxiety slipped into his mind without him even noticing. Papyrus had eased some of the stress and had finally gotten him some help, and with a few medications he seemed to be getting better. He slept a lot more than the couple hours he would usually get, and started to eat on a healthier schedule. Papyrus hadn't had as deep of depression as Sans but he recognised it as soon as it came and hid it well from his brother, cause the last thing that they both needed was another payment needed to be payed off.
He was still asleep. It had been a couple days and it seemed that Sans hadn't woken up. Alphys and the dog patrol had come to see the little skeleton for a couple hours but the dogs couldn't stay to see the sweet skeleton looking so helpless, and Alphys for once actually needed Undyne to hold her since she couldn't help but cry seeing the usually bright happy skeleton, looking so weak and fragile. Sans only had 1hp but that never let him give up his dreams, by far he would be the best royal guard, but Alphys was so afraid to put him on patrols, since any thought of him getting hurt or dusted tore her heart open. Papyrus was still recovering and he had a couple days where he seemed to go off track, but he was soon brought back by the fact that his brother would need him as soon as he woke up, and him being drunk and depressed was not going to help him when he woke up…if he ever woke up.
It had almost been a week, no signs of him waking up had appeared, there was signs of improvement though. His soul had started to become stronger, and his breathing no longer seemed so ragged and light. Any cuts or scraps on his wrists and humerus had healed up, and his magic seemed to not be as weak as it was before. He seemed to lightly be responding to any questions they asked him and a couple time his eye sockets seemed to flutter open but he didn't wake up.
It was 2:30am 3:30am, he wasn't sure but it was dark. He had woken up in a white bed and his clothes were gone and replaced by what looked like a hospital dress. He couldn’t see all the way around the room and soon he discovered that one of his eyes was covered with a patch. A strange tube was attached to soul and there was a button in his hand. He wasn't sure where he was but he didn't press the button. He looked around but only saw a few machines and notes, a few of them were relating to him and his soul. He stretched in the bed hearing a couple bones pop and crack back into place. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep for but he couldn't feel his legs. Since nothing else was around he looked over to the button he had placed on the table beside him, luckily someone had left him a glass of water. He was happy to drink from it and it turned out to be a sweet berry mixed cordial. He put the glass down and looked back over to the button. He wasn't sure what else to do but the tube on his soul was getting quite uncomfortable. He pulled out his soul and saw that it was only a small patch. He easily pulled it off and examined it slightly noticing that it had a small dim glow of blue from his soul and-
“HOLY SHIT SANS!!!”
He heard a loud scream from down the hallway and a pair of feet running towards him. He wasn't sure what to do so he sat there quietly and hoped that no one would hurt him since he wasn't sure if he had done anything wrong. Suddenly Papyrus was in the doorway staring at him in disbelief while Undyne behind him was gasping for air.
He just stood there unmoving, he soon walked over to his brother and quietly knelt down beside the bed giving his little brother one of the first hugs they had had in nearly 2 and a half months. He soon felt shaking arms wrap around him and little tears on his shoulder. He soon started to cry himself. Undyne was checking the monitors trying to not interrupt the moment. He started rubbing the little skeletons back as he heard little hiccups and sobs from his brother.
He couldn't help crying. His brother, who he thought had left him to die in waterfall, was here right next to him holding him in his arms and helping him as he cried. He wasn't drunk, or holding onto Undyne. He was gently rubbing he back trying to soothe his brother and get his breathing back to normal. Wait he was crying? He looked and the small wet patch that was on his brother's jackets from where he had been crying. He soon calmed down and only the occasionally hiccup could be heard. His brother continued to rub his back in an attempt to calm him down and soon picked him up into his lap and held him to his chest. His long arms had wrapped around the tiny figure and held onto him as though he was going to turn to dust.
They had fallen asleep together and Sans was still curled up onto Papyrus with his arm reaching around him. Undyne was sleeping on the couch curled up even thought the couch was bigger than her.
He felt the small figure move in his arms and it gently woke him from his sleep. He released his arms a little around the small figure so he could move into a more comfortable position. He carful cuddled up onto the large jumper and shivered a little. His brother brought the blanket over him and he seemed to calm down. A few minutes later he gave a yawn and slowly opened his eyes. Questioning the figure he was lying on he smiled up at his brother, his eye sockets were still half lidded and he still held onto his brother’s jumper.
He gently smiled down at his brother he was still very tired surprisingly, but he was holding on strong. He no longer needed to be on the machines since he was awake. He was going to have to spend the first couple days just drinking things like water and shakes with different nutrients in them. But for the mean time he looked so cute lying on his chest he couldn't help but softly pat his head and almost lull him to sleep again. He gently picked him up and walked over to one of the labs with an examining table. He put down a blanket on one of the metal tables and another one over his brother so he didn't get to cold. He put him down in a sitting up position so that way he wouldn't be tempted to go back to sleep. He eventually woke up a bit more, still yawning and his eyelids weren't quite open. Papyrus ran a couple of examinations on him but nothing to serious came up on any of them. He took the patch off his brother's eye and shined a light in the socket, he seemed happy with everything so he applied a fresh patch onto his eye and taped it on. He carefully unwrapped his brother's wrists and humorous’. Sans seemed to look away as though afraid of what he would see. He carefully applied some disinfectant and made sure that any deep scars were healing properly. Everything was fine so he wrapped up his wrists and thighs (sorry I got tired of saying humorous’) and carefully picked up his brother gently rubbing his back and shushing him to sleep. He had defiantly been through a lot so being as gentle as he could with his brother would he him out immensely. He quickly found his brother curling up to his chest as he sung the song that he would always sing when he was sick of injured.
“You are my sunshine”
“My only sunshine”
“You make me happy”
“When sky's are grey”
“You'll never know dear”
How much I love you”
“Please don't take, my sunshine away”
He continued to sing the sing and soon Sans had fallen asleep again. He always looked so cute when sleeping. He was very innocent and he never really changed when he had hit 10 years old. He could act adult and do many things a child couldn't do, but he was still adorable and with 1hp papyrus always worried about him. But luckily so far nothing bad had happened that caused anything serious.
He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep but he was happy that he was still curled up with Papyrus. They had moved to the living room and Undyne was sitting next to them watching some anime. Papyrus had fallen asleep, but he wasn't that angry at him. Sans understood that it would take a long time for things to settle down but for the moment he just wanted to be with his brother.
“O-oh, hey Sans.”
“Hey Undyne.”
“How do you feel?”
“I feel fine, it's really nice to be with papy again.”
“Hmmmmm, I heard what happened, I guess it would be nice to be with someone you missed.”
“Yeah…”
He held onto his brother’s jacket quite tightly. Undyne got the message that he wanted to stay with his brother and put on an anime that they had started watching, but different things came up and they weren't able to watch the rest of it.
The had gotten to the end of the movie and Papyrus had woken up half way through when Sans seemed to yell at the screen because one of the villains had push an innocent person out of the way. He carefully snuck his hands around his brother and quickly pulled him back into a hug.
Sans was shocked at the action and seemed to run out of breath, along with his eye sockets going out.
“Hey Sans?”
“…y-yeah?”
“Do ya want me to get you some clothes and berry smoothie?”
“*gasps* Yes please!”
He walked out of the room and you could soon hear the smoothie machine revving to life. He returned a few minutes later with a light blue sweater and jeans, and what looked like a raspberry and blueberry smoothie. He helped his brother get into the clothes and handed him the smoothie. He was very happy to receive it and gladly drank it all. The smoothie easily covered the taste of the medicine he had to add in there. He seemed to have a bit more energy then before after having the smoothie and he was defiantly looking a lot better once he had it. The blue on his cheeks had returned and his bones were no longer a dull shade. Papyrus explained to him that he wouldn't be able to have solid food couple days but Sans seemed to understand besides the fact that he was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to have tacos for dinner, but he was defiantly happy when they said that he could experiment with the different ingredients to create his own drinks. He tried hopping off his brother's lap but he seemed to grab him before he hit the ground.
“Hey I need to grab something for you before you start to walk around ok?”
Sans didn't know what he meant but happily swung his legs while sitting on the couch. They were still a bit sore but he had been asleep for a while, as far as he knew. Soon papyrus came back and he was holding a pair of light blue crutches. He explained to sans that he needed to use these when he was walking in order to help build the strength back in his legs. He was kinda shocked to see sans had out right refused and seemed to be trying to stand up on his own. That was before he feel flat on his face and asked for the crutches. He handed them over to the small skeleton and helped him up off the floor. He made sure that his brother seemed to be using them correctly so he didn't end up with a limp.
It seemed easy enough, when you put weight down on one leg and use the crutches to keep you balanced. He fell over a couple times but he seemed to get the hang of it eventually. Papyrus worried over him a little when he fell over but surprisingly he was pretty persistent. He was eventually able to walk around quite easily but still required a bit of help.
A few days later he had really gotten the hang of it and didn't need any help to walk around with them. He was in the kitchen making a chocolate blueberry smoothie when Undyne walked in and asked him if he wanted to try something. He of course accepted and she led him into her lab. There was a table in the middle which had multiple small bowls of food in them. It was mostly stuff like fruits vegetables and the occasional meat but Sans was a bit confused, wasn't he only meant to have the smoothies?
“Um, Undyne? What's all this for?”
“W-well it's b-been almost a week a-and I though that maybe y-you would like t-to try a bit o-of solid f-food, to see I-if your body is a-able to accept solid food y-yet. Y-you wanna g-give it a g-go?”
He gave a small nod, but he seemed kinda nervous. They had tried this a couple days ago and it had caused him to throw up. But since he knew what was coming he thought there was no problem giving it a go, besides this stuff looks like a range of foods his body would accept better then the other time. She handed him a bucket and they both had a bit of a laugh knowing what this was for.
He sat down in one of the chairs and decided to see if the blueberries would stay down. He grabbed a few and swallowed them down. Nothing seemed to happen so he had the rest of them and they were really sweet, the exact way he loved them.
“S-so is e-everything g-g-good?”
“Yeah! I don't feel sick atleast.”
“T-that's good! L-let's co-continue.”
He tried a few more fruits and veges before trying some of the meat.
“U-um undyne?”
“Yeah?”
“I can't chew through this.”
He held up the piece of meat, which had several bite marks in it.
“O-oh! Maybe t-t-try something a b-bit softer.”
“Ok!”
He grabbed a sausage and it seemed to break up easier. Undyne took down some notes but he didn't try much after that. Having solid food still felt weird to him so he didn't want to push himself. Undyne seemed happy with his results and they both left the room. They sat down together and put on Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2, one of Undyne’s favourites. Sans soon fell asleep however. He defiantly had been sleeping a lot more than usually, but after what he had explained to Undyne with the couple months he had been alone, it was no surprise that he was sleeping a lot. She grabbed a blanket for him and his bear that he usually slept with. It had a Cotton candy smell with a little blue bow and a night cap on its head. She placed hither bear in his arms and the blanket over his body. He lied down and snuggled into the blanket.
-A month later (cause fuckit)-
He splashed into the pool and Undyne quickly got in after him. All three of them had tried aquaarobics. It had really helped the strength in Sans’ legs but Papyrus was defiantly against it since, although Sans’ skull couldn't fill with water, Papyrus’ could. So more often then not he would end up at the bottom of the pool. So instead while Undyne was helping Sans with his swimming, Papyrus did a check up on all of the systems and made sure everything was in working order.
“O-ok Sans. I want you to swim to the bottom of the pool and back up again.” She was getting better with not stuttering btu still had the occasional.
“Ok!”
He easily swam to the bottom and top again. His legs were getting stronger but the occasional pain from previous deep cuts were still being healed on the inner parts of his bones, so to help him he used a wooden cane if he needed to lean on something. He was getting better at walking though and it was really showing with the improvements. Undyne hopped onto the side of the pool and held a switch in her hand. Sans accepted her challenge and she turned on the switch. Jets from the side of the pool activated and moved the water in an irregular pattern. Sans was swimming towards the bottom but got caught up in one of the jets and was being pushed up. He quickly got out of it's route and swam back to the bottom before easily swimming back to the top. Undyne turned off the jets and decided to go grab some floaties and toys so she and Sans could have a bit of fun before heading to the lab to do more tests. Getting some of the toys they played around for about half an hour before getting out due to Papyrus coming in and saying all the machines were set up. This was meant to be his last test before heading home and Sans was over exhilarated about it. Getting to see everyone in Snowdin again and going back to training with Alphys always made him happy. They headed over to the lab and Sans got a towel to wrap around himself. He sat down on the bench and quickly put on the little suction cups in the right places. His soul beat, magic levels and magic stability showed up on the screen. Papyrus and Undyne gave him a quick look over and nothing seemed to be wrong. They checked up on his scars but nothing was infected. Undyne took Papyrus into another room and gave him a prescription for some antibiotics.
“So make s-sure he takes these t-twice a day. A-and don't you F-Forget to take your m-medicine
“Heh, will do Undyne, thanks for everything.”
He hugged Undyne and she hugged back. They stayed like this for a little while before they had to separate. Papyrus walked out to Sans and picked him up telling him the good news. Sans squealed as Papyrus swung him around. He showed him the prescription and he seemed ok with it. He was glad that he didn't have to take many pills but it meant that he would sometime have to stop during training so he was able to take the tablets. He would also have to wait about 10mins for the tablet to start working before he could continue with training which bummed him out a little. But he was happy that he was still able to do training.
A few months later
Sans was doing his normal run of the stations at Snowdin when he caught his brother slacking off.
“PAPYRUS!!”
“yeah bro?”
“What have I told you about slacking off?! A human could arrive any day now!!”
And from behind the peculiar shaped lamp you could hear a small child’s giggle.