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“Mettaton... I need to talk to you about something.”
“Can it wait, darling? I have to take an important phone call soon,” Mettaton said, not even looking up from his phone.
“…How soon is soon?” Papyrus asked, shuffling his feet.
“Oh, I don’t know, a few minutes, an hour, maybe?” Mettaton shrugged.
Papyrus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I would like to talk now.”
Mettaton sighed and put his phone down. “Alright, what is it?”
Papyrus hugged himself and swallowed. “What am I to you?”
“What are—?” Mettaton blinked. “What do you mean? You’re my boyfriend, obviously?”
“Am I?”
Mettaton had never heard Papyrus sound so cold before. “I don’t understand. If there’s a problem, just say so.”
“Alright, fine. Mettaton, sometimes, I don’t feel like your boyfriend.” Papyrus paused. “Actually, make that most of the time. Most of the time it feels like—like I’m just there so you can flaunt the fact that you’re taken to the public. You’re always showing me off in front of people, but when we’re alone, all you ever do is make calls and plan your shows and make a mess in the house that I have to clean up. Whenever I ask if we can do something together, you always say you have some… career thing going on. And the few times we have done something together, you’ve still taken long calls and tried to cut things short so you can get back to your job.” He swallowed again. “I don’t get why you even keep me around. At all. I’m clearly not of any importance to you.”
Mettaton gaped. It took him a few seconds to even think of anything to say. “Are you kidding me? I don’t—I just told you I have an important phone call and now you want to drop this on me?”
Papyrus looked like he’d been slapped. Mettaton could see tears forming in his eyes. “Th-thanks for proving my point!” He sniffed. “You know what, never mind. I knew this was going to go badly, but I wanted to believe you cared just enough to hear me out. But—really, I can’t do this anymore.” He began to walk away, still hugging himself. “I don’t feel like you actually want me at all.”
“Papyrus, wait—”
Papyrus shook his head jerkily and disappeared down the hall into the bedroom he and Mettaton shared.
And that they were in danger of not sharing soon, Mettaton realized.
He looked at his phone, sitting silently on the coffee table. For a few minutes, he found himself actually angry at Papyrus. Didn’t he realize how important Mettaton’s career was to him? And how hard it had been for him to get his foot in the door in the movie and music industries here on the surface. Of course Papyrus was aware of that—he’d been there for Mettaton practically every step of the way. He’d been there in the long nights before auditions when Mettaton couldn’t sleep, and the similar long nights after auditions when he was anxious about the results. He’d been there every time Mettaton had cried about not getting picked for a role or about a studio deciding not to pick up his music. He’d been there that one time, a week before Mettaton had finally gotten his big break, when he'd almost decided to stop pursuing stardom, encouraging him not to give up, to give this one last audition a try.
Of course he’s important to me! He’s been my number one shoulder to cry on for months! he thought. Honestly, this is ridiculous.
He ended up marching over to the bedroom door and opened it without knocking. To his shock, Papyrus lay on the bed on the right side where he always slept, his face buried in his pillow.
Mettaton had entered fully intending to give Papyrus a piece of his mind, but now…
He bit his lip. Well, maybe he could say his piece… but he’d be nice about it.
He came around and sat on Papyrus’s side of the bed carefully. “Darling, I want to talk about this more,” he said softly.
Papyrus lifted his head from the pillow. Mettaton could see wetness on his cheekbones. “Alright, then,” the skeleton said stiffly, sitting up and pulling his knees to his chest.
“Papyrus, I promise you are so important to me. You’ve been there for me from day one, even before we started dating. I’ll never forget what you said to me that night I wanted to give everything up. How I’d always be your starlight, no matter what happened. And you pushed me so hard not to give up, and sure enough, I got that part. I would have completely missed out on everything if it weren’t for you.” Mettaton’s voice was gentle. “I really have you to thank for everything I have now.”
To his surprise, Papyrus did not look comforted. In fact, his face had darkened significantly by the time Mettaton finished. However, he didn’t say anything.
“Papy, what’s wrong? Don’t you get it? I—”
“Don’t I get it? What about you? I’ve been there for you, Mettaton, but how often have you been there for me?” Papyrus burst out, sounding as if he were about to cry again.
“What are you talking about? Of course I’ve been there for you! Remember—remember that one time—” Mettaton quickly searched through his memories for a time he’d comforted Papyrus before now.
And just as quickly realized… he couldn’t think of many at all.
“Well, when Sans was deathly ill, I called you that night we weren’t sure he was going to make it, didn’t I?” he tried weakly.
“I asked you to come be with me. But you said your rehearsal was too important.” Papyrus gritted his teeth. “And that time I got laid off from my dream job, I tried to talk to you about it, but you had to take a phone call, and all you ended up doing was sending money to my bank account. And every time I’ve had a nightmare and tried to wake you up just for a hug, you just grumbled at me and ignored me.” He sniffled. “It seems I’m only important because I do things for you.”
Mettaton wanted so badly to rebut every point, to deny every single thing his boyfriend (were they even still boyfriends?) was saying. He struggled for several minutes, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly as he tried to think of anything to say to defend himself.
Finally… he came to the conclusion that he couldn’t.
Papyrus was right. Papyrus did so many things for him… how many things could Mettaton list off in return?
Not nearly as many that actually had thought put into them. Not many at all, really.
Mettaton stared off out of the window on that side of the bed. “Ha… I’m really a horrible boyfriend, aren’t I?”
He heard Papyrus shift next to him. “Well… I wouldn’t say horrible, but you could definitely do better.”
At that moment, Mettaton’s phone went off in the other room. Probably what I’ve been waiting for, he thought. Should I…?
That phone call was supposed to be pretty important…
No, he decided. Papyrus is more important than anything else.
He turned around on the bed and crossed his legs, fully facing Papyrus.
“Sunshine, you’re right. I can do better. And I’m going to, starting right now.”
“But your call…” Papyrus said doubtfully.
“Fuck the call. I can probably take care of it tomorrow. Right now, I want to talk about us. Because you are important to me, and for way more than just because of what you do for me.” Mettaton cupped Papyrus’s hands in his own. “Have I ever told you what first attracted me to you?”
“Not that I remember…”
“I remember the exact moment I fell in love,” Mettaton said. “It was at the cookout at Asgore’s house. I don’t remember exactly what she was doing, but Undyne was being goofy about something, and I heard you laugh. Not your signature nyeh-heh-heh, though that’s adorable, but—your real laugh, that one everyone has that we never want anyone else to hear. You were snorting and cackling—and we’d been friends for a while at that point, but I realized—I wanted to hear that laugh every day for the rest of my life.”
“My snorting and cackling made you fall in love? Really?” Papyrus said skeptically, but Mettaton could see a glimmer of hope in his eye.
“Come on, you know I think sincerity in other people is really hot.”
A little laugh escaped Papyrus. “True… I do.”
“But really,” Mettaton continued. “Every time you laugh, or smile, I feel like waves of sunlight just… radiate from you, and it makes everything so warm and joyful. That joy is so, so important to me. And I am so, so sorry that I’ve been so horrifically awful at making you feel loved. Because I promise you, you are so loved.”
Papyrus flipped his hands over to intertwine his fingers with Mettaton’s. “I kind of feel that now,” he said carefully. “Can I trust you to keep this up, then?”
“You mean… I mean, Papyrus, if you don’t want to be boyfriends for now, or anymore at all, I understand.” Mettaton swallowed.
“Mettaton, I want to stay boyfriends so badly. I just also want to make sure this isn’t a one-time thing.”
“Of course.” Mettaton kissed Papyrus’s knuckles. “I’m so sorry I tried to brush you off earlier. It was unacceptable.”
Papyrus threw his arms around Mettaton, to the robot’s surprise. “Thank you for listening now,” he whispered.
Mettaton pulled Papyrus fully into his lap and held him. “You can trust me to keep doing so.” He ran his fingers over Papyrus’s skull and kissed his cheekbone.
They stayed that way for a long time, and all the while, Mettaton strove to find in himself the power to keep his word.
Papyrus was important to him. And he was going to make sure he felt like it, every day from now on.