Work Text:
Day 1
The first day of the week Papyrus texted Sans informing him he was working late tonight and wouldn't be home at his usual time, Sans didn't think anything of it.
Papyrus had a fairly flexible, but overall consistent schedule; Get up at 6:30 AM sharp (assuming he wasn't already awake that is,) get Sans up at 6:31 AM sharp (occasionally with some involvement of nagging, dragging, and groaning at Sans' being too "bone-tired" to wake up on his own,) whip up the daily breakfast spaghetti, feed the rock, and head into town for work at which point the brothers depart for their respective jobs; Sans at his sentry station, Papyrus meanwhile off to recalibrate his puzzles and create new ones, as well generally keep watch for anything off-kilter - mainly of the human variety - to report to Undyne.
After said report to Undyne comes the training sessions at about 3:30 PM most of the time, around the same time Sans would either be working the hotdog stand or another odd-job depending on the day of the week and his own shifts, or heading home. Papyrus would barge in the door and announce his presence, narrowly avoiding knocking it off the hinges on more-zealous-than-usual days, at 5:30 PM sharp.
Such was a pretty much typical day in the life of the skeleton brothers.
As for now, it was late afternoon on a Tuesday. Having been scrolling half-heartedly through the latest Undernet posts when he'd dozed off on the couch, Sans strained to keep one bleary eye-socket open as he had clicked the notification that had woken him out of his sleep read over his brother's text. In bold letters of typical-Papyrus-fashion, it was short, sweet and to the point:
WORKING LATE THIS EVENING, BROTHER, DON'T WAIT UP FOR ME! TRAINING WITH UNDYNE IS RUNNING LONGER THAN EXPECTED, AND PUZZLES WILL NOT RECALIBRATE THEMSELVES!
- WITH GREAT LOVE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS
Sans chuckled, giving a tired smile.
There was the fact that Papyrus definitely wouldn't have forgotten to recalibrate his puzzles already, but raging puzzle-holic his brother was, he probably wanted to just make a few adjustments until it was perfected; Or he came up with some exciting new idea entirely on the way out of Snowdin. That happened sometimes too and it never failed to astonish Sans the way his brother could come up with dozens of creative ways to improve something in a matter of minutes, whereas Sans personally was more likely to just slap a word search on it and be on his way.
Papyrus was just cool like that, though.
Drifting off into another nap that was just that much more content than his previous one, Sans wasn't worried.
Day 2
The second day that week that Papyrus informed him he would be home late was a little more odd, but still nothing outright worrying.
Sans had been at his station several hours into the morning, once again with his phone out and this time texting a particularly rib-tickling meme he'd found while slacking off and decided he'd send off to his brother without even waiting for their shifts to be over; A guy's gotta get a little entertainment, right?
And entertainment he got when less than a minute later Papyrus had texted him, scolding him for being on his phone during work-hours.
Sans cheekily replied that Papyrus was now on his phone during work-hours too, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to text him. Then he grinned like an idiot as Papyrus went silent, imagining his brother now having an early mid-life crisis while staring wide and googly-eyed at his phone, spluttering.
That all was par for the course, naturally. Then though, during their lunch break a half hour later as Sans was off at Grilby's drowning himself in ketchup, Papyrus texted him again saying that he had "MANY ERRANDS TO RUN THAT ARE VERY IMPORTANT UNLIKE THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE DRIVEL YOU PLAGUED ME WITH EARLIER," and that he'd unfortunately have to pass up on their plans from last night to watch MTT together tonight.
Sans was a bit disappointed, but again, not too worried or even surprised, really. Two days working overtime in a row wasn't weird for Papyrus either; Even as a kid, his bro always was a busy monster, always hopping from one task to another throughout the day. Granted, it was in a bit more haphazard a fashion then as opposed to his habit of making each endeavor he partook in just perfect now as an adult, but he hasn't lost an ounce of enthusiasm.
With some dim fondness, Sans recalled frequently having to put up with a fuss from Papyrus even as young as the tender age of three, due to claims from the then-toddler whenever naptime rolled around - in an exasperated tone, as if speaking to someone that was particularly slow - that sleeping was for night time, and being awake was for daytime.
Sans smirked. Talk about "incomprehensible drivel," if he did say so himself.
If anything about this development classified as unusual to Sans, it was fact that Papyrus would be passing up his bedtime story two nights in a row and therefore would probably be cranky for a while. Now that had the potential to be an Underground wide de-bed-cle, he jokes that night with the usual crowd at Grilby's when his brother's name briefly comes up.
Unbeknownst to Sans that night, Papyrus does not, in fact, come home late.
Day 3
Papyrus instead comes home early.
Or, early in the morning, to be exact, but not early enough to wake Sans up for work as on any other day.
Thus, at around quarter of 8:00, Sans awoke to the sound of Papyrus slamming his bedroom door open wide - pretty sure those hinges were a goner this time, he'd thought dazedly as his mind zapped into consciousness unexpectedly - and before he could ask what was going on, his brother was profusely apologizing for his "unbecoming" behavior and borderline begging for forgiveness.
Sans, blinking, had asked what Papyrus was talking about, to which the ladder shamefacedly explained to him that he had gotten carried away in the construction of his latest puzzle and was regretful to inform him that coming in to wake him up for work that morning had completely slipped his mind, thus, his late arrival.
Sans was surprised at that, to say the least... but ironically enough, not nearly as torn up about his own tardiness as Papyrus was, honestly.
Which largely came down to his own more laid-back work ethics, but that wasn't even the only reason. For starters, Undyne had no way of knowing he was even missing from his station at all unless one of the dogs tattle-tailed, so it was unlikely that he would get in trouble with her. Even if he did, Undyne clearly had a soft spot for Papyrus, and was less likely to fire Sans for his sake anyway. Not only that, but he spent a good majority of his time at his station napping the day away anyhow, plus he was able to slip away from it entirely the other half of the time to head off into the forest to hang out and joke around with the old lady behind the door.
(Not that that last part had actually come up in the conversation, of course.)
After hearing this, plus some more reassurance that even if it were a bigger deal to him, Sans just generally wasn't the type to get angry anyhow, and even if he were how could he stay mad someone as awesome as The Great Papyrus, Papyrus had relented some. With one last apology - and a notable lack of scolding for his sleeping in, which probably boiled down to some remaining guilt, Sans deduced, they were off to work as usual.
Albeit, with a little less chattering than usual from his normally sociable brother.
It was strange. Papyrus was extremely punctual; Sans hadn't voiced his thoughts so as to not make his brother feel bad, but for Papyrus to forget a date or a time was absolutely out of the norm. For him to forget to wake Sans up at 6:31 in the morning after a rigid routine for months on end was enough to make him raise an eyebrow questioningly.
Even more so when Papyrus nearly slipped and fell face-first onto the ice when they'd gone their separate ways that morning.
Then on the way to his station it had belatedly struck Sans that, in order for Papyrus to have been over an hour late to wake him as a result of "getting carried away in the construction of his latest puzzle," he probably had to already be awake and out and about to be working on said puzzle well before their usual 6:30 wake up time.
Papyrus must've gotten up pretty early for him to had the time to become that deeply absorbed... if he had even slept at all.
Then suspicion struck Sans again in the afternoon much later on when Papyrus had absorbed himself so deeply in an at-home "project" that Sans hadn't really been able to gleam much detail on (other than it was somehow puzzle-related) that it had taken almost ten minutes for him to get his attention to remind him it was almost time for dinner.
And again at the fact that he needed to remind Papyrus at all.
If that all wasn't enough to tell him something was off, Papyrus once again refused a bedtime story that night, in favor of completing this new project.
"bro, are you sure you wanna stay up?" Sans had asked, feeling a twinge of concern. "this is the third night in a row you've gone without a bedtime story. might wanna look out; i think fluffy bunny's jealous." He added with a wink.
"MMHM." Papyrus replied distractedly from his desk, scribbling away at whatever it was he was working on and not even looking back at Sans, who was leaning on the doorjamb. "NYES, I SUPPOSE SO."
"...you've been working pretty hard lately. why not take a load off?"
"NOT RIGHT THIS MOMENT, BROTHER, I'M FAR TOO BUSY."
there's that crankiness...
"i could read you the one on puzzle construction, if ya prefer that one tonight."
"THAT WON'T BE NECCESARY, SANS, I ALREADY READ THAT ONE TODAY."
"yeah?"
"ONE TYPICALLY MUST READ UP ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF PUZZLES IN ORDER TO CREATE A SATISFACTORY BLUEPRINT FOR ONE, YOU KNOW."
blueprint, huh?
"ah... is that what you've been working on?"
"YES! YES IT IS! HADN'T I ALREADY MENTIONED THAT? REALLY, SANS, YOUR FAILURE TO PAY ATTENTION ASTOUNDS ME SOMETIMES!"
"good to know i blue your mind."
"SANS!!"
"heh."
Sensing the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Sans had opted not to push too much further. The brothers had shared their goodnights, and Sans had reluctantly headed to bed, hoping that Papyrus would follow suit soon enough.
Day 4
The next morning, Sans wondered if that was a wise decision.
"pap, are you feeling okay?" Sans asks this time, cutting to the chase.
Papyrus stares blankly at his plate of burnt breakfast spaghetti, which was largely untouched.
"papyrus? anyone home?"
Papyrus continued staring.
Apparently not.
Sighing, Sans eyed his fork for a moment, then gave the currently zoned-out Papyrus a dry, challenging look. Receiving no comment, he nudged a large portion of his own noodles to the edge of the plate, exposing the glass. Then, he lifted an index finger and surrounded the utensil with a cyan glow, rising it into the air all while never changing his deadpan expression towards his unresponsive brother.
With a snap of his fingers, he let-up on the telekinesis, causing the fork to land with a loud clang!! onto the plate.
"NYEH??" Papyrus yelped, snapped out of his trance by the sudden racket. "SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"
"to grab your attention," Sans said casually, propping his chin up with his left hand. "you were spacing out for a while, pap."
"YOU COULD HAVE SIMPLY ASKED FOR MY ATTENTION, LIKE ANY NORMAL MONSTER!" Papyrus said chidingly, giving a huff. "AND I WAS NEVER IN ANY SPACE!"
"right," Sans drawled, unconvinced. "listen, bro. i knew you said you were fine last night, and it's not that i don't think the great papyrus knows what he's doin' and all..." He raised both hands as if to stave off any incoming protest. "but, i'm starting to worry a bit? you haven't taken any breaks for a while, you keep zoning out and after yesterday morning's little fiasco i really think you should take it a little easier today. maybe you're overdoing it."
"OVERDOING IT??" Papyrus questioned, sounding affronted at the very idea. "NONSENSE, BROTHER! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "OVERDOING" IT FOR AN AMBITIOUS FUTURE-ROYAL-GUARDSMAN!" He insisted, adamant as usual. "IF ANYTHING, YOU'RE PROBABLY UNDERDOING IT!"
"heh. maybe." Sans couldn't deny that one. "doesn't that mean though that i'm the expert when it comes to taking breaks?"
"I- YES? UNFORTUNATELY."
"so i probably know when it's a good idea to take one."
"NO OFFENSE, BROTHER, BUT THAT'S ALL THE TIME FOR YOU." Papyrus rolled his non-existent eyes. "BESIDES, I HAVE A VIGOROUS TRAINING SESSION WITH UNDYNE SCHEDULED LATER ON TODAY; LAZING ABOUT ALL DAY TAKING SO-CALLED "BREAKS" WOULD BE SIMPLY UNFORGIVABLE! ESPECIALLY AFTER HER EARNEST REQUEST TO SEE THE GREAT PAPYRUS' TRUE POTENTIAL YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!"
"oh? that's breaking news to me."
"INDEED! SHE- WAIT WAS THAT A PUN???"
Sans winks.
"FORGET I ASKED..." Papyrus mutters. "ANYWAY, SHE WAS... QUITE IMPRESSED! WITH MY GREAT AND INCREDIBLE STRENGTH! WHICH I WIELDED VERY RESPONSIBLY AND ROYAL GUARDSMEN-LIKE! SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU TO WORRY, BROTHER OF MINE."
"...frankly, i was a little bit less worried before ya said that."
"NO NEED!" Papyrus gritted his teeth. "TO WORRY!" He spoke in a tone that left no room for argument and rigidly stood up from the table as if to accentuate his point. "NOW, IF WE DON'T HURRY UP WE'LL BE LATE TO OUR DUTIES, SANS!"
"you barely even touched your food." Sans pointed out. "shouldn't ya get something in your stomach at least?"
Papyrus blinked at his plate of charred spaghetti, as if he only just noticed it. He stared at it for a whole five seconds or so before responding blandly.
"WE DON'T HAVE STOMACHS, SANS."
Day 4 And A Half
"Sans?" Undyne gawked at him in disbelief later that day during his Waterfall shift, pausing in... whatever it was she was doing currently, hauling a dummy over her back. "You're actually AWAKE at your station?"
"bone-chilling, isn't it?" Sans hunched over his station lazily, gave her a wide smirk. "feel free to stop and take pictures of this once in a millennium event. i'm even selling tickets."
Sans holds up a piece of toilet paper.
Undyne narrows her eyes at it, unimpressed.
"Tch." Undyne scoffs, "Whatever, as long as you're doing your job, and not keeping me from mine!"
"Bench pressing dummies?" Sans took a guess, throwing the piece of toilet paper behind him, whereupon it floats into a puddle of water.
"HA!" She snorted, waving her free hand dismissively at him. "If I was gonna do that, I'd have bought a lot more than one! No, this one's a replacement for my old one."
"what happened to the old one? actually," Sans grinned. "never mind, if it was yours, i can guess. so spear me the details."
"Ha. Ha. Hilarious." Undyne deadpanned. Then she rolled her eyes, before eyeing him questioningly. "Didn't Papyrus tell you, though? HE happened to my old one, as a matter of fact!"
...Huh. That was news to him.
"that so?"
"Heck yeah it is!" Undyne grinned widely. "It was INTENSE! Your brother straight-up wrecked my front lawn yesterday, it was AWESOME! He seriously didn't mention anything about it??"
Papyrus had mentioned it, of course. He always goes on and on about his training with Undyne, whether it involves actual training and sparring, or borderline blowing up Undyne's kitchen. And he did tell him during breakfast this morning about his greatly incredible strength which he had "wielded very responsibly and royal guardsmen-like."
Shish-kabobbing Undyne's dummy and demolishing her front lawn hadn't exactly popped up in the conversation though, interestingly enough.
"he did, actually." Sans told her. "just not with as much, uh. explosiveness."
"Well, I can't imagine why!" Undyne said genuinely, pumped as per usual. "It was HARDCORE! ...We are gonna be working a bit on his aim today, though."
his aim?
"something wrong with it?"
"No!!" Undyne denied quickly. Then she seemed to hesitate slightly. "Well. Not like, 99% percent of the time, anyway!!"
"...and the one percent?"
"...That was yesterday."
Sans furrowed his brows, suddenly feeling more than a bit skeptical on the truth of Papyrus words' of reassurance this morning.
Day 5
Honestly? Sans really hated to break out the 'Big Brother™' tone.
He didn't like it on the odd occasion he had to when they were younger, and he didn't consider himself a nagging type by any means, especially now that Papyrus was an adult; So long as he wasn't getting hurt, how Papyrus spent his day wasn't really Sans' business to meddle with. In fact, he did about everything he could to avoid being a meddler, really. But at times like this, well, it was necessary.
Not every problem in life could be solved by jokes and puns... of course, Sans usually failed to follow his own advice there, but still. Papyrus has always been ambitious - one could say the trait... ran in the family, skipping him of course - but there was a fine line between healthy ambition and...
Well.
It was ridiculous to even consider Papyrus would cross that line, Sans didn't even think of it. But that sure didn't mean his brother couldn't get carried away and neglect his health a bit every now and then.
So, Sans went to knock on Papyrus' door the next day, only to find himself swinging it open with the lightest touch halfway through the first knock. Almost as if it knew he hadn't been planning on pulling a knock knock joke for once in his life.
"uh, bro?"
"RE-SHELVING THE BOOKS, HM... "NYES, I'LL HAVE TO GET TO THAT AS WELL--"
"...mind if i come in for a minute, or am i better off booking it?"
"ALPHABETICALLY, OR CHRONOLOGICALLY? OR PERHAPS I COULD MAKE THEM ALPHABETICAL ON THE TOP SHELF AND CHRONOLOGICAL ON THE BOTTOM- NO, NO! THAT'S FAR TOO INCONSISTENT FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS--"
alright, he's ignoring the puns. enough's enough.
"pap."
"SPEAKING OF!! MY ACTION FIGURES!!! I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF RE-ARRANGING THOSE AS OF LATE AND THERE'S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT, REALLY--"
"papyrus..."
Finally Sans seemed to catch Papyrus' attention; Gripping a few papers tightly, the taller skeleton blinked and turned quickly to look at him, snapped out of his murmuring trance he'd been in for who knows how long.
"N-NYEH? OH, SANS." Papyrus sighed, slouching a bit in relief. "GOOD MORNING."
There was something off about his brother's voice, too. As if the lights were on but nobody was currently home, so to speak.
"it's noon, actually." Sans corrected.
"N-NOON ALREADY?!" Papyrus gasped, papers now flying everywhere as they slip out of his gloved hands in shock. "MY GOODNESS, I MUST HAVE LET THE TIME SLIP AWAY FROM ME! AND I HAVEN'T EVEN RECALIBRATED MY PUZZLES YET! OH, THIS IS SO UNBECOMING OF A FUTURE ROYAL-GUARDSMAN! UNDYNE WILL--"
"it's saturday, remember?" Sans prodded, trying to stop him before he could start pacing. "plus, even if it wasn't, you'd still have off. undyne said you earned it after this week's training; you really blew that fish outta water."
"I DID? I... OH." Papyrus seemed to remember, once again ignoring Sans' attempt at humor. "YES, YES, THAT'S RIGHT. I SUPPOSE I DID." He conceded after a moment, gazing at the red walls of his room emptily. He then started crouching down to pick up the papers that were now scattered on the purple rug, murmuring to himself yet again.
Sans sighed, crouching down as well to help.
"IT'S JUST AS WELL. I DO HAVE A FEW OTHER PLANS IN MIND; PERHAPS I COULD GET TO WORK ON THAT NEW SPAGHETTI RECIPE, THE ONE WITH THE DINOSAUR EGGS, EVEN IF UNDYNE DIDN'T SOUND PARTICULARLY ENTHUSED THEY ARE VERY--"
"Papyrus." Sans cut in sternly, looking at him eyesocket-to-eyesocket. "You need to relax."
Papyrus froze mid-movement to grab another paper, staring at Sans in blatant surprise.
"you've been working yourself all week, bro." Sans said seriously, sighing again at the look Papyrus was giving him; He hadn't meant for it to come out that stern. "believe me, i'm a live and let live type of guy, but i can see it's starting to take a toll on you. i can't afford to ignore that."
"S-SANS, I'M PERFECTLY FINE--"
"you've been zoning out like a zombie every five minutes, and that's just when i've been around." Sans stated factually. "you're practically slurring right now. you were out all night last night, too; i noticed. plus, undyne passed by my station yesterday afternoon. said somethin' about you leveling her dummy?"
Papyrus's eye-sockets widened. He looked away at that comment, cringing a bit.
"OH, SHE. TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT. DIDN'T SHE." Papyrus muttered, sounding chagrined, not to mention guilty. "I-I DID GENEROUSLY OFFER TO PAY FOR A REPLACEMENT FOR HER!! BUT SHE SIMPLY WASN'T HAVING ANY OF IT--"
"i'm not mad about the dummy, pap." Sans interrupted, "i'm just lookin' out for you. i know you've got strong magic, but you usually always have a decent handle on it. again, i'd pass it off as a bad day normally, and i also wouldn't normally harp you about being late to wake me up - which you don't really have to do anyway - or staying up late or losing your appetite every now and again, but these things pile up, bro. i can connect the dots and tell when you're not takin' care of yourself like you ought to."
Papyrus seemed to be listening intently, and he seemed less inclined to make a counter argument the longer Sans went on. But that wasn't saying he seemed happy about what he was hearing. He rubbed his arm sheepishly.
"AREN'T I A BIT OLD FOR LECTURES, SANS?" Papyrus sighed, though there was no real irritation in his voice. Just fatigue. He looked like he could sway over and collapse any moment, now that Sans was looking at him closer.
"sure, maybe." Sans shrugged. "but you're also a bit too young to be driving yourself into an early grave."
"I KNOW, I KNOW." Papyrus said, crossing his arms. "THERE JUST... SIMPLY AREN'T ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY TO BE AS PRODUCTIVE AS I WISH!! IT FEELS LIKE SUCH A SORRY WASTE OF TIME TO DO NOTHING FOR SEVERAL HOURS! I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CAN STAND IT, REALLY..."
"that's why there's a total of 8,760 hours in a year, y'know." Sans smirked at him. "8,784 counting leap years. think that's plenty of time to get in the things you need done with spare time to at least take a nap, bro. source: a guy who's so good at napping he can do it in his sleep."
"DON'T I KNOW IT." Papyrus shook his head good-naturedly.
"y'know i'd never wanna drag you down, pap." Sans told him genuinely; And he meant that. "you got a lotta passion for life; and that's somethin' i admire about ya. not everyone in the underground has that nowadays. just..." Sans grinned. "you know."
"...SANS."
"make sure ya don't end up workin' yourself--"
"OKAY, I SURRENDER!! I'LL LAY ON THE BED AND DO NOTHING FOR TEN MINUTES JUST HAVE MERCY--"
"--down to the bone."
Sans winked.
Papyrus took a deep breath.
Nearby Snowdin residents didn't even turn or flinch as the sound of Papyrus loudly groaning rang from the brothers' household, more than used to such skeleton-related pandemonium as part of their daily routine.
And thus, normalcy was restored.