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"WOWIE, HUMAN, I AM SO GLAD YOU WILL BE STAYING FOR THE NIGHT!" Papyrus clapped happily as he and the human, Frisk, stood in his living room. "I AM GLAD THAT EVEN IF I CANNOT RETURN YOUR INTENSE DESIRE FOR A ROMANTIC TRYST THAT WE CAN STILL HAVE A SLEEPOVER!" Papyrus patted Frisk on the head. Frisk merely nodded. "VERY, VERY PLATONIC SLEEPOVERS WHERE ONE PERSON IS MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE OTHER. OH! I SIMPLY MUST TELL SANS!" However, despite Papyrus' best efforts, Sans did not answer his phone or any of his text messages. Papyrus cast a worried glance in Frisk's direction, who shrugged. "I GUESS IT IS MY HOUSE TOO. YOU ARE RIGHT. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO ASK PERMISSION TO HAVE MY VERY BEST FRIEND SLEEPOVER! COME, LET US PLAY PARTY GAMES AND SUCH!!!"
Papyrus' idea of party games included a variety of children's board games. Frisk finally managed to pull Papyrus away from a 10th round of Pop the Human to play Twister. Frisk grinned and posed with their hand on their chin as Papyrus laid out the game mat on the floor. "HMM? HUMAN, I HOPE WE ARE NOT PLAYING THIS SO THAT YOU CAN GET CLOSER TO ME!" Frisk shook their head and laughed. Papyrus was fun to joke around with. Papyrus struck his own pose as he finished straightening out the mat. "BEHOLD, THE BATTLEGROUND WHERE YOU SHALL ADMIT YOUR DEFEAT! YOU MAY HAVE BEAT ME AT POP THE HUMAN 9 TIMES IN A ROW, BUT I HAVE A SECRET TECHNIQUE THAT HELPS ME WIN AT TWISTER EVERY, SINGLE TIME!"
A glint shone in Frisk's eyes as they spun the wheel and placed their foot on red. Papyrus spun and stuck his hand on green. They continued to take turns until it came up to Frisk's potential last move. Frisk was certain that removing parts of yourself to reach all the spots on the mat was cheating, but Papyrus only nyeh'd in Frisk's face. It would seem no matter what, Frisk's next move would result in their end. They wobbled just reaching for the spinner. As Frisk did, Sans suddenly materialized in the living room. Oddly enough, he was utterly shirtless and covered in sweat. The surprise of his brother's appearance caused Papyrus to collapse right onto Frisk, who laughed. Cheaters never prosper!
"SANS! YOU JUST MADE ME LOSE-"
"water, i need water!" Sans ran into the kitchen. Looking at each other, Papyrus and Frisk nodded and scrambled to get up. They stood just outside of the kitchen with inquisitive looks. Sans poured himself a tall glass of water using the same mysterious blue magic Papyrus flung at Frisk earlier. After all, the sink was about the size of 3 Sans standing atop one another. Sans just dumped the water over his head and let out a sigh of relief. "ahhh, that's what i needed."
Papyrus crossed his arms and tapped his foot, "SANS! YOU CANNOT JUST SPILL WATER ALL OVER THE GROUND. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT YOU DRINK WATER USING YOUR MOUTH IN THIS HOUSEHOLD!"
"heh, but paps, i felt like my skin was on fire," Sans chuckled, wiping some of the watery sweat from his head. "i'm workin' real hard so i'd appreciate a bit of slack. anyway, back to work!"
Sans disappeared as Papyrus threw his arms up into the air. Frisk raised a brow up at Papyrus, who shook his head. Could Sans teleport? The skeleton brothers got weirder all the time. As Papyrus spoke, Frisk could've sworn they heard the world's smallest violin playing, "SANS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME WITH ALL THE MESSES HE MAKES! FIRST THOSE WEIRD GREASE STAINS AND NOW THE WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR. UGH, HE WON'T EVEN LET ME CLEAN HIS ROOM ANYMORE! I AM TIRED OF WHATEVER IT IS HE DOES IN HIS ROOM!" Frisk tilted their head as Papyrus led Frisk to the top of the stairs. In Papyrus best whisper, he said, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE DOES IN THERE, BUT DON'T YOU SEE ALL THAT FIRE?" Frisk looked over. Papyrus wasn't kidding, and flames poured out from the bottom of Sans' door. Oddly, nothing caught fire, but Frisk did wonder about that from earlier. They were tempted to touch the flames, but for some reason, it felt like it would be impolite not to ask the fire first.
"PLUS, HE PLAYS SOME WEIRD, SLOW MUSIC. THE CLOSER YOU GET TO THE ROOM, THE LOUDER IT GETS. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT AT ALL!" Frisk rubbed their chin in thought. Are flames pouring out from Sans' door? There was a weird sciencey joke book on the table downstairs. Maybe Sans was secretly a mad scientist!? "NO, THAT IS SILLY! THERE IS NO WAY HE IS DOING ANY SCIENCE IN THERE. OR... WAIT, WHAT IF YOU ARE RIGHT? IS HE GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS WITH SCIENCE!?"
Frisk nodded and gave a thumbs up. Sans must've been using all sorts of bunsen burners to cause that much fire to show up. Wait, was the entire room in flames? "YOU KNOW... I BET HE WAS PUNNING WITH US EARLIER!" Papyrus growled as he sat at the top of the steps. Frisk sat beside him. "TALKING ABOUT HIS SKIN BEING ON FIRE! HE HAS NO SKIN!" Frisk giggled, and Papyrus shook his head. "NO! DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM, HUMAN! HIS PUNS GET LAZIER AND LAZIER BY THE DAY. NO! BY THE HOUR..." The tall skeleton sighed as he rested his skull in one of his hands. "SIGH, WHAT DID A COOL GUY LIKE ME DO TO DESERVE A BROTHER WHO LIGHTS HIS OWN HOUSE ON FIRE?"
Frisk wondered: why didn't the fire spread to the rest of the house? Was it magic? They poked at Papyrus' arm. "HMM, MAYBE HE IS EXPERIMENTING WITH ORANGE MAGIC! I BET THAT'S WHAT THAT BROTHER OF MINE IS DOING." Orange magic? "IT IS LIKE THE OPPOSITE OF BLUE MAGIC? INSTEAD OF NOT MOVING, YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING! OR ELSE YOU GET BURNED!" Frisk looked back to the door. The flames came in and out from under the door rhythmically, like waves rushing over a sandy beach. "I HAVEN'T SEEN ORANGE MAGIC UP FRONT IN A WHILE; MOSTLY YOU FIND THAT MAGIC IN HOTLAND. I HATE THAT PLACE!" Frisk threw Papyrus a puzzled expression. "WHY? IT IS TOO HOT! AND THEIR PUZZLES... THE PUZZLES ARE PURE GARBAGE AND NONSENSE! CONVEYOR BELT PUZZLES... CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?"
Frisk tried to imagine. A conveyor belt puzzle where they had to run the opposite direction from spikes or flames. They gulped and thanked the stars they didn't stay dead when they died. "WHATEVER YOU ARE IMAGINING," Papyrus smiled widely, "IS PROBABLY NOT EVEN ONE TENTH AS BAD AS WHAT THEY REALLY ARE! HONESTLY, HUMAN, I WISH YOU WOULD JUST STAY HERE AND LIVE WITH SANS AND ME! THEN YOU'D NEVER HAVE TO GO TO HOTLAND AND DEAL WITH ALL THOSE AWFUL PUZZLES..." Papyrus looked away with a small blush as he whispered, "OR HAVE TO LEAVE IN GENERAL."
The air grew heavy as Papyrus said that. They didn't want to leave either, but they felt compelled to see the journey through no matter what. Maybe they could do something to help free all the monsters? Based on what Papyrus said, it sounded like Frisk could get through the barrier no problem. Indeed, that would mean they could somehow break it? Maybe Frisk needed to learn magic! "A HUMAN BREAK THE BARRIER, YOU SAY? I GUESS THAT COULD HAPPEN! IT WOULD BE LIKE ONE OF THOSE ANNIE MAYS THAT DOCTOR ALPHYS IS ALWAYS TRYING TO SHOW ME." Frisk nodded. "SIGH, I DON'T THINK MY BROTHER WILL BE COMING OUT FOR SOME TIME. WHEN THOSE FLAMES ARE UNDER THE DOOR, HE COULD BE IN THERE FOR EVEN A WHOLE HOUR! SOMETIMES, ON THE RARE OCCASION WHEN HIS FIVE JOBS' DAY OFF ALL ALIGN, HE IS IN THERE FOR HOURS!" Papyrus narrowed his eyes, "I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'D SPEND SO MUCH TIME IN HIS ROOM! THIS IS A TRAVESTY FOR HIS SOCIAL LIFE AND MINE!!! NO ONE WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH SOMEONE WHOSE BROTHER IS WEIRD, SMELLY, AND SINGED SOMETIMES."
After the gripe fest, Papyrus and Frisk prepared a sleeping bag in the living room. Papyrus would sleep in it, while Frisk took the couch. Frisk was puzzled as to why they wouldn't just sleep in Papyrus' room, but he assured them that, "WEIRD NOISES FROM SANS' ROOM SOMETIMES COULD BE HEARD," and, "MAYBE YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE EXPERIMENT, BUT I HOPE HE ISN'T EXPERIMENTING ON A LIVE ANIMAL! I ALWAYS THOUGHT HE WAS JUST WATCHING NATURE DOCUMENTARIES WITHOUT COMMENTARY."
The duo settled in and fast fell asleep after gossiping a bit more about Sans' experiments. Maybe he was constructing some machine like Doctor Alphys did, that could breath orange magic. Or had a magic aura that was orange. Maybe he had an orange inside the room that was constantly on fire, and the entire experiment was for the sake of a strained pun. That was Papyrus' bet. However, Frisk started to have doubts. They were ten years old, so they were a bit worldly. Papyrus often complained about how often Sans would go to Grillby's, and Grillby himself was fire... Maybe Sans' door was a portal to Grillby's! Frisk felt satisfied with that theory, but Papyrus scoffed at it. "WHY WOULD THE WHOLE THING BE FIRE? IS GRILLBY'S ALWAYS ON FIRE NOW? I HAVEN'T BEEN THERE IN A LONG TIME."
The next day, Frisk roused to the delicious smell of eggs. Ahh, so Papyrus could cook other things? Other things that smelled not only edible but tasty. As Frisk sat up on the couch, their foot brushed against a skeletal shoulder. Looking down, they saw Papyrus still asleep. He had an angry look on his face as he uttered small, angry 'nyehs' under his breath instead of snores. Frisk carefully stepped over the skeleton and peeked into the kitchen.
Sans sat at the bone brother's small round table with a pleased look on his face. He looked pleasantly tired, like a person who just put in a hard, but satisfying day of work. At the stove, Frisk spotted a familiar person. Grillby! What was he doing over? Maybe Grillby was Sans' assistant in the orange magic experiments. Frisk rubbed their chin as they thought about what sort of person Grillby was. Not only did Grillby and Sans work the entire night, but Grillby was also cooking breakfast for Sans! Wow, what a lovely person.
Grillby finished up making breakfast and brought Sans a plate. Grillby apparently didn't make anything for himself or even bother to sit down. Frisk listened carefully as they saw the fire monster open what looked like a mouth.
"Your tab... isn't paid in full yet..." Grillby said in a low, deep voice. Frisk immediately placed Grillby's voice into the 'cool, adult' voice pile in their head. It was thick and smooth like jazz... or whatever it was adults liked to compare male voices too. At those words, Frisk noted that Sans seized up and started to sweat profusely on the back of his head. "Hah hah... call me again, sometime..." Grillby winked at Sans, who sat and kept staring at the eggs the fire monster had cooked him.
The fire monster left the kitchen and spotted Frisk. Frisk stared up at the fire monster, and they both nodded at each other. Grillby put a fiery hand on Frisk's head and gave them a small pat. Frisk flinched at first, but the fire didn't hurt. In fact, it was pleasantly warm. "Cute... kid... stay safe." At this point, Papyrus sat up and started to rub his eyes. Grillby removed his hand from Frisk's head and left through the front door before Papyrus could say anything.
"WAS THAT GRILLBY?" Papyrus asked as Frisk walked over to him. "DRAT! IT LOOKS LIKE YOU WON THE BET. DID WE DECIDE ON WHAT THE PRIZE WAS?" Frisk shrugged. "IN THAT CASE, I WILL MAKE YOU THE GREATEST SPAGHETTI YET! NYEH HEH HEH!!!" Papyrus stretched and stood. He walked over to the kitchen, with Frisk in tow, to find Sans still staring at his eggs. "HMM? I WONDER WHAT HE AND SANS WERE DOING?"
Frisk saw that Sans' pinpricks had disappeared and that the eggs were probably growing cold. They looked up to Papyrus with another shrug. Maybe Papyrus wasn't old enough to know the truth yet.