Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  He was a bad brother. He knew that. He didn’t need all of this shit to happen for him to acknowledge that.

  ...Whatever it is that’s happening at this point.

  Everything was like any other day. He did his routine – wake up, make breakfast, wake sans up, eat with him at the table (and make sure he actually eats), leave the [Blasters] at home with sans and go to work – If anything was different at all it would be that meddling canine.

  The [Anoying Dog] approached him when he left the house, nothing noteworthy of course. The unusual thing wasn’t exactly the canine, but he himself.

  When he saw the canine, he reminisced – he seems to be doing a lot of that lately – He got lost in thought. About sans of course, he can’t seem to take him out of his head lately, either.

  He remembered sans’ relationship with the canine before anything got messed up.

  They… were friends- kind of.

  Well, anyways, sans liked this “dog” and, however infuriating it may be to keep that thing around, it might be a good thing for sans to have another living being to interact with other than him. After all, sans didn’t like to be alone, and the [Blasters] just weren't cutting it anymore.

  So… He decided to reclaim it. He made a plan for it and all. He’s always thorough with anything and everything he does. Always. Even more so if it involves sans.

  It goes like this. He goes to the capital, buys a [Claiming Collar] or two (it’s [Anoying Dog] he’strying to claim after all), find the canine – the hardest part of his plan really – and make it submit to him by any means necessary, whether it is with violence or words he uses – all of sans’ friends are so weird seriously –, he would then place the collar on the canine’s neck to make sure it can’t escape his grasp. He’d take it to the shed in the afternoon on his break, have a talk with sans about the “dog” itself and the collars – he would not let his brother be a victim of idiocy – but, everything went downhill from there on.

  He doesn’t know exactly what happened, but he had an idea as to what. Things were going fine when he told sans he had brought something home for him. He had seemed genuinely happy, more so than he’s been for a while – he should start giving sans more gifts if it gets him like this –, the thing seemed to be not the talk or the gift, but the collar itself, that atrocious thing. It might have brought some bad memories back.

  Sans wasn’t stable enough yet, what the hell was he thinking?! Bringing things that might trigger his memory home, yeah that’s sounds like such a good idea. Put a little more mind to it next time Papyrus.

  What’s important now is that there might not be a next time if he doesn’t find sans quickly.

  The thing is, sans went into hysterics. None of the things he was saying made any sense. Things like “you wouldn’t”, “it’s a lie”, “you are not like that”, “this is a different story”, and so on repeatedly with no order to his words whatsoever and with his voice stepping over itself.

  He couldn’t make most of what sans was saying, but he could pick some parts up.

  Right now he was battling with himself over if he regretted not teaching sans magic properly or if he thinks that was the best course of action. The answer? He obviously regrets it. So what if his magic could have gone out of control and he might have possibly hurt himself or his soul in any way possible. He could handle that as long as he was somewhat around.

  But right now is a situation he can’t exactly handle with the little preparation he had done before in case something like this happened. To which he didn’t pay much attention because he ruled out any possibility of getting sans out of his sight. What a useless train of thought, really.

  sans had just used what he used to call a “unconventional shortcut”. From the little information Papyrus has about his brother’s magic, he at least knew that these kind of shortcuts were called "unconventional" for a reason. They were shortcuts without a destination in mind, normally used in extreme situations in which you feel life-threatened and it is used automatically or you are in a bad mental state when trying to use a normal shortcut. They also use a shit ton of magic, so if you didn’t have enough magic reserves the shortcut in itself could kill you. Truly unconventional. Even more so when sans hasn't recovered even 1/4 of his original magic reserves. If he's not already dead he'll be in a couple hours.

  Papyrus knew it had been a “unconventional shortcut” because it was the first shortcut sans had used ever since, well... That since he couldn’t teach teach sans about shortcuts, he didn’t really know how they worked. And he was also partially expecting sans to never learn about shortcuts. At least not the way his brother previously had, pretty much in the same manner as sans has now done, under a very stressful situation in which he would consciously or unconsciously try to get away for the life of him. Not like that. Never.

  sans didn’t have his phone on him right now, as Papyrus couldn’t see where he is with his personal magic. He would have to rely on their bond to try and find sans. Said bond is also very weakened as of now because of sans’ delicate Soul state. So he has practically nothing to go off of in his search for sans. Just Great.

  This day can’t get any worse.

Chapter Text

  Their mind was foggy.

  What had happened?

  Where were they?

  They knew something had happened, something important. They just couldn’t pinpoint what.

  They couldn’t remember. Yeah, that’s what it was, they just couldn’t remember.

  It wasn’t just what had just happened though.

  They couldn’t remember.

  Their age. Gone.

  Their name. Gone.

  Their face. Gone.

  Thought, there was one thing that they could remember. They were looking for someone. No. Not looking from someone. Hiding from someone.

  They won’t try to remember who they were hiding from. Remembering was too painful.

  And so. They stopped.

  They were now trying to understand where were they.

  The place felt familiar, but didn’t look familiar. Is that even possible?

  No. They wouldn’t burden themselves with such a question. That wasn’t important now.

  Something was wrong with this place. They could feel it.

  They could also feel they were tired, exhausted even.

  Maybe they should try to go away. This place didn’t felt safe.

  But… they want to stay?!

  Why? Why won’t their body listen to them. They could go on and say “it’s because of exhaustion”, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  They could feel they were able to move, even if they didn’t remember how to. But they could.

  Why would they want to stay? This room… Yeah, this is a room. His room.

  They definitely couldn’t stay here, if he found them there would be hell to pay.

  They knew this for sure. They could feel it.

  They could only rely on their strange feelings. They knew nothing. Not really. But they knew their feeling was right.

  There was a he they must avoid. He was who they were hiding from.

  They willed their body to move even if it didn’t want to. They were making progress. They didn’t do any noise either, they surprised themselves with how stealthy they were.

  Maybe it was the right choice to hide from him. That, they could do just fine.

CREAAAAKK~

  no

  They hadn’t made any noise, they were sure of it. Then that meant that the one going in was either exploring the place or were the owner. In which case the owner is who they had been hiding from. It was him. That also meant that he had either come to his room to look for something, since they could feel it wasn’t that late already, or he had brought them here himself and had been checking on them periodically so this would be just one of those times. Luck just loved them didn’t it?

  They had thought too much, too quickly, and now their head felt heavy.

  He was getting closer.

  It seem like they are totally at his mercy. So they might just want to take a quick rest.

  What expression was he wearing at such a time they couldn’t tell.

  Seems like their gut feeling wasn’t able distinguish just anything.

  Welp.

Chapter Text

  “Hey man, look what I found” said one of them with a squeaky voice.

  “Stop playing around. We’ve got work to do”, “But this is important I’m telling you!” interrupted the squeaky voice.

  Something was happening, they were moving. Somewhere.

  There was some shuffling and then silence. They had stopped moving.

  The people talking had put them on a hard, cold floor.

  It felt as if they were showcasing them. It was uncomfortable.

  They wanted to go away, but they were defense less.

  They had no magic and were tied up. They couldn’t even see.

  If the situation wasn’t as serious, it might even be interesting. Something new to pull apart. Like the new magic they had just used. That was interesting.

  The voices kept talking, so they paid attention, to assess the matter at hand and make sure they weren’t in any immediate danger.

  Their brother, like any other time, had enlightened them as to what to do in the stance of them being alone with strangers. Truly admirable.

  …Now was not the time to get lost in thought. Pay attention to what these people are saying.

  “It’s a skeleton! A skeleton you hear?!” /squeaky/ sounded rapt talking about their race “, and do you know who else is a skeleton?!” There was a pause, like they were expecting the other person to figure it out.

  “Holy FUCK!” well that was loud, if they had ears they would have surely exploded, “Where did you find it?, I mean, I thought the captain was the last one of his species” “The Captain”, they would keep that in mind.

  These people had someone over them. Someone they were willing to kidnap a person for. That’s not good news.

  This “Captain” wasn’t good news.

  They kept going, obviously undisrupted by the skeleton thoughs. Not like they could hear them or anything.

  /squeaky/ spoke first “You thinking what I’m thinking?” another pause. If /squeaky/ always speaks like this then there would be a hell lot more dramatic pauses. Which weren’t dramatic at all too, considering /squeaky/’s voice.

  “I guess, but we could get into big trouble if we don’t handle this correctly. We should think this through before-” “Are you seriously going to turn down some good money because you don’t wanna “risk it”?, com’on man, it’s not like it would be our first time in the market”

  A market, huh? So they were doing this for money, not for “The Captain”. There was also the fact that one of them feared repercussion.

  This was either illegal or “The Captain” was someone unpredictable and a variable that could be either on their side or against them.

  Not a simple picture at all. It might be harder to get out of here than they’d like it to be.

  “Alright, have you at least checked it? If not then go on and do it quickly. We need to know how to handle the product” That didn’t sound good at all.

  Another one of the things that their brother had taught them was that, “IN ANY AND ALL CASES YOU THINK OR FEEL SOMEONE IS TRYING TO CHECK YOU, DON’T LET THEM. THAT IS EITHER A WAY TO DECLARE THEY WANT TO FIGHT, SELL YOU, EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR BODY AND SOUL OR WANT TO HEAL YOU AND THEN MANIPULATE YOU. IN WHICH NONE OF THE INSTANCES ABOVE ARE A NICE THING, SO BETTER TO SIMPLY NOT ALLOW IT AND AVOID ANY SITUATION THAT MIGHT LEAD TO SUCH AN OUTCOME”.

  Admittedly, it had been a long explanation and they hadn’t paid that much attention, but they did know that whatever a check meant, it was still something they wanted, needed to avoid.

  Seeing as they had talked about a market it was most likely they wanted to sell them. Not good at all.

  They needed to-“It’s fine don’t worry” /squeaky/ cut through their thoughts “, I checked it beforehand. Nothing to make a fuss about, it’s just like any other monster”

  They couldn’t tell if /squeaky/ had told the truth or not, and wether that was a good or a bad thing.

  The thing is… they, once again, were unable to recall what had happened. It was frustrating.

  The last thing they could remember was playing with the [Blasters] at home, and then.. their brother had come. Maybe. They weren’t sure, the memory was blurry. But it was around the time their brother had his break and came home to have lunch with them.

  Wait, did that mean they had left their brother? Had they just ditched their brother?! How terrible. Would their brother even want to look for them after they had left him on their own accord? Because-

  That’s what had happened. They had left the house with that new magic of theirs, that they could remember. They just couldn’t find rhyme or reason for it to activate.

  There must have been a reason though, and that reason left a burning ache in their soul.

  Really, what was the cause for all of this?

Chapter Text

  Ok.

  It’s ok.

  Everything is ok.

  This day he’s doing just dandy.

  He had calmed down from his initial panic. He had to think logically.

  He knew sans better than anyone (or so he hoped).

  sans had mentioned that his first instinct when in danger was to hide, not to run away. So if he looked in places he knew sans considered “safe” it would be easier to find him.

  At least he had a lead.

  If looking through his hiding places lead nowhere, then he would have to ask for help –it’s not a choice he’d normally make, but this is a urgent situation– Surely Alphys wouldn’t mind helping and old friend out.

  She didn’t have a choice.

  When he was going through the places in Waterfall, suddenly a thought came to mind. The flowers. The flower.

  There was a sentient golden flower he had met right after sans had disappeared for the first time. The flower had been looking for sans.

  The flower had helped him in that matter at the time, but he hasn’t seen it ever since he got sans back.

  The flower had been actually useful, and it seemed willing. Maybe if he told that flower about the matter at hand it would help him again.

  Not like he couldn’t do this himself. Of course he could. What he couldn’t do was risk it.

  This wasn’t a matter of if he found sans or not –He will find him, no doubt– This is a matter of time.

  The problem wasn’t where sans was. But with who he was.

  No. He can’t risk it.

  He will ask for help.

  It’s not a choice he wanted to make. It’s a choice he had to make.

  And so- lo and behold, The Great And Terrible Papyrus, Captain of The Royal Guard, only below The King himself, the fastest to ever reach that position; here, on his knees, and to a flower at that. Ridiculous.

  He was ridiculous. He was pathetic. Acting like a buffon. But if it was for him…

  If it was for sans he’d become even the dirtiest of worms in rotten soil.

  He’d do anything for sans.

  So he did. He went after the flower –Flowery was his name, maybe–

  Nothing can ever escape him –He’s excellent at looking for people and things. Like a dog–

  He found Flowery.

  He was at an abandoned park in Hotland, seemingly watching a couple being gross with each other. Flowery was under a decaying bench, not hiding all that well if you ask him.

  He had no time to waste, so he appeared imposingly in front of the couple and they scurried off.

  He kept his gaze fixed on Flowery to make sure he didn’t escape. Flowery was warily observing him in exchange.

  This wasn’t a “Fight your way out” situation. He wasn’t in any position to complain, order or dictate any action.

  So the most sensible take here, he thought, was to lower himself to this flower. Make it lower his guard and appeal for his compassionate side.

  It was a tactic he despised, because it was one that could easily be used against sans too. It was reasonable to think the same would be the case for his friends, that including Flowery.

  Or so he thought.

  He had started polite and humble, trying to sound more desperate by the second. Not that he wasn’t, but he would never show it so openly as he was doing now.

  Flowery didn’t believe him. He sounded annoyed even.

  Well he knew it would never be an easy feat to get on the flower’s good graces. Flowery knew exactly what kind of person he was better than anyone after all. But he had never expected for him to show his disgust for him so eagerly.

  “YOU’RE NOT THINKING CLEARLY, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT’S AT STAKE HERE?!” He had refuted in answer to Flowery’s negative. “I DO! And I don’t need your meatless butt interfering with my search! S-so…” Flowery’s outburst didn’t last long, and his piercing gaze had turned into a much more fearful one. He was still a kid, after all.

  Papyrus tried and failed to understand why would Flowery want to do this alone when he was so useless by himself. It greatly threw him off, and he could only express his frustration with the matter through angered words.

  “OHH. THEN ENLIGHTEN ME YOUR HIGHNESS” He said, holding on the s’ to sound more sarcastic, and maybe so it would hurt more. “WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY DO FLOWERY! THROW SOME HEALING PETALS WHEN HE TAKES A BLOW?! HELP HIM HEIGHTEN HIS STATS SO HE CAN FIGHT?! SEE WHERE HE IS TO JUST LEAVE HIM THERE AGAIN?!

  YOU CAN’T DO NOTHING! YOU’RE USELESS WITHOUT A STRONGER MONSTER TO FIGHT FOR YOU!” He still kept talking, skeleton monsters don’t need to breathe anyways. “TELL ME MR.IMPORTANT, WHERE WERE YOU ALL THESE YEARS IF YOU THOUGHT sans LIVING ANYWHERE NEAR ME WAS SO BAD, HUH?! WERE YOU TOO SCARED TO EVEN FACE HIM BECAUSE YOU KNEW YOUR SHITY RESETS COULDN’T FIX HIM?!”

  He had so much more to say, but he stoped himself from doing so. He still needed Flowery’s help.

  …

  Flowery stayed silent. His petals dropped.

  “ANSWER ME DAMNIT!”

  He was getting more impatient by the second. So what if he needed Flowery’s help, he could still call Alphys and- Shit! It was not the same.

  He would still go to Alphys, but he needs to get Flowery’s help first.

  He had a strong feeling sans was not only missing.

  Apparently the last accusation must have cornered him enough, cause that was the first thing he defended.

  “I wasn’t scared” He said in a small voice. Papyrus tapped his foot, urging for him to continue. He needed this problem solved, better now than later.

  “I had told him” He said with a slightly steadier voice. “I had told him” He now sounded like he was talking more to himself than to Papyrus.

  “He didn’t listen to me. I told him if a single mistake was made with that…” Flowery shuddered- or so it seemed, it was hard to tell. You can’t exactly read a flower’s body language.

  “You wouldn’t understand-” “LIKE SHIT I WOULD, YOU KNOW IT” Flowery looked the other way. He wasn’t pissed, but he’d take what he could from the flower.

  “NOW STOP THAT STUPID MONOLOGUE OF YOURS AND LET’S ACTUALLY TRY AND LAY A PLAN FOR FINDING sans” He quickly added.

  “I already said I would not ‘help’ you” He said just as quickly and slightly recoiling as he ended the sentence.

  “YOU ARE JUST BEING STUBBORN, I KNOW YOU WANT TO HELP sans ALMOST AS MUCH AS I DO” Papyrus retorted, putting as much force as he could on saying sans’ name without feeling like he ruined it. It was a soft name for a soft person, and no form of strength should ever be used for any of them.

  Papyrus didn’t want Flowery’s help, but sans needed it.

  Flowery seemed resigned, but he accepted nonetheless. He understood what Papyrus had meant to say.

  He didn’t win, not by his books- but he’d take it.

  Nothing can ever go the way he wants when he’s dealing with sans’ friends, can it.