Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Repeating the same period of time over and over can really have an effect on a person, or in this case, a skeleton. What is he supposed to feel? There is nothing that he can do to stop this endless repetition, and nothing he does or says will change the mind of the one in control. They just keep repeating their “adventure” over and over.

No one can know this though. No matter what happens, he just has to keep smiling and pretending and acting the part. It doesn't even matter what he has to do to keep himself going. Nothing matters in the end. Nothing stays and nothing changes. What a contradicting sentiment.

With a quiet sigh (and yes, he can be quiet when he wants to) to himself, Papyrus lifts himself from his racecar bed and walks down the stairs. He really didn't feel up to cooking today, so he just took one of the spaghetti tubs out of the fridge to reheat. It was only one day or a few years old, depending on how one wanted to count the time. Sans would never know the difference. Sans couldn't know the difference because that would mean noticing something that isn't directly related to himself.

The irony was strong with that statement. Papyrus took a moment to appreciate the thought. He put the spaghetti in the microwave to reheat. If only there was an outlet in the forest so that the human could try some too, when they show up. The microwave was perfectly functional, after all.

Speaking of functionality, it was almost time to wake up Sans. At 9:37 exactly, he would call out to his brother. No need to worry him further. Sans was already a depressed wreck, and he didn't need any more stresses to deal with. As the more responsible brother, the “ Great Papyrus” would act the part of clueless to keep his brother in slightly better spirits.

Not that it mattered to begin with. Sans tended to just ignore everything that Papyrus did anyways, falling back on his default false praises and unfounded ego-boosting confidences to pretend that he was being a good brother.

Anyone could be a good person if they just tried. Papyrus himself did his best to live up to that philosophy, and so far seems to have been successful. No one has noticed any of his own problems yet.

Well, that might not be completely true, nor completely his own doing. There was the one time that Undyne caught a glimpse of one of his scars. His glove had slipped a bit during training. Undyne's spears, when combined with the strength and speed at which she threw them, were enough to rattle his arm, even when the projectile was blocked by one of his own bone attacks. As the good friend and superior officer that she is, Undyne was concerned when she saw the injury.

Thankfully, Papyrus had a strong enough reputation that he was able to brush away her concerns by talking at her quickly and loudly about some nonsense involving experimenting with the spaghetti instructions by using larger and sharper (and therefore more passionate) tools to chop and stir and heat.

She seemed to buy it.

And then time reset.

And then she forgot that it had ever happened.

Papyrus still didn't know exactly why he and Sans were the only normal monsters to remember through the time resets. Perhaps if he could talk to Sans about it, his sciency brain would have some theories. Then again, it's unlikely that Sans would even try to think that much.

The microwave timer beeped. Conveniently, it was 9:37.

“SANS! YOU LAZYBONES! TIME TO GET OUT OF BED! IT'S ALREADY SO LATE IN THE MORNING! I CAN'T HAVE YOU NAPPING THE WHOLE DAY AWAY! IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE FOR ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO LET ANYONE MISS OUT ON SUCH A WONDERFUL MORNING!” Papyrus called. He hoped that this would be one of the morning where Sans blows him off and leaves early. As much as it hurt to see his brother so shamelessly and casually brush him aside, he really felt like he needed the alone time right now.

While the last repeat wasn't the worst one (and thank the stars that the human was unsuccessful in that worst repeat), it certainly wasn't one of the best. Papyrus hated it when Sans told him that Undyne and Alphys were “on vacation.” Did Sans really think so little of him?

“sure thing bro. gimme a moment.” Sans mumbled. No puns, but still a response. This meant that Sans was having a bad day, which was not to be confused with a terrible day, a less bad day, a new average day, or a slightly better day. There were no good days anymore. This meant that Papyrus was in luck.

A few minutes of quick foot-tapping later, Papyrus shouted to his brother again, “NO MORE BOONDOGGLING, SANS! YOU MUST HAVE BREAKFAST SO THAT YOU HAVE ENERGY TO WAIT FOR HUMANS! WHAT IF A HUMAN APPEARS TODAY?”

Like clockwork, Sans opened his bedroom door and made his way down the stairs. “sorry bro, guess my alarm didn't work.”

“YOUR ALARM ISN'T THE ONLY THING NOT WORKING SANS! YOU AREN'T AT YOUR STATION YET EITHER. YOU NEED TO EAT YOUR BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI QUICKLY IF YOU WANT TO BE ON TIME!” Papyrus checked the mandatory “mothering statement” and “work reminder statement” off of his mental how-to-fake-being-clueless list.

“then i'd better just go now. i'm not big and strong like you bro. i'll grab something from grillby's to go so i can make short time.” It was a very weak pun, but at least Sans had made the tiniest effort this morning.

“NYEEEEEH IT'S TOO EARLY FOR YOUR TERRIBLE JOKES, SANS! I'LL PUT THIS SPAGHETTI AWAY SO YOU CAN EAT IT LATER.” Microwaving was a waste of time this morning, it seemed. At least the scent of the spaghetti was enough to convince Sans that there was nothing wrong. The facade wouldn't hold up if Sans had walked into the kitchen to see the lack of dishes.

“sure thing bro. i'll see you later.” Sans gave Papyrus a small wave before heading out the front door. Papyrus finally had the house to himself without a worry of being caught doing things that he shouldn't be doing.

As quickly as only the fittest skeleton in the underground could, Papyrus was in his room, door closed, and phone in hand. Undyne always calls Alphys at 9:52, so Papyrus is just in time to get her when he calls.

“SORRY UNDYNE, I AM CURRENTLY ENGAGED IN OTHER IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES THIS MORNING AND UNFORTUNATELY CAN NOT BE PRESENT AT MY POST. NEVER FEAR THOUGH, FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL BE PRESENT FOR THE AFTERNOON ONCE THIS... ENGAGEMENT IS HANDLED. THERE WILL NEVER BE A POST THAT IS MORE GUARDED THAN MY OWN! NYEH HEH HEH! OH YES, THIS IS PAPYRUS, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING.” Papyrus quickly hangs up the phone. He was glad that he wouldn't be lying to his boss. These activities were important and necessary today if he was going to be functional at all later.

Papyrus takes removes a small chisel from a box on the upper shelf in his closet. He lays it on the bed and removes his favourite mittens. He is very glad that he is known for always wearing mittens on his hands. No one will think twice about them.

He sets down his gloves and take a few minutes to stare at his arms and hands. The next several moments are spent admiring the newly clean carpals, radius, and ulna. He stared at each one and took the time to feel how smooth each one was.

Once satisfied, Papyrus picks up the chisel and begins his work, blissfully unaware that he had just made two of the three mistakes he would make that day, and consequently, the worst that he could make at this time.

---

Mistake #1: Calling Undyne

Undyne was confused and somewhat concerned by the call that she had received this morning. She noticed the voicemail immediately after hanging up the short call with Alphys. First, Papyrus didn't apologize or sound sad in any way about getting her voicemail instead of talking to her in person. That was suspicious. Second, he was vague in his explanation. There were no details at all, and Papyrus was usually explicit and to the point in his explanations. Dodging a subject was something that he was usually not very good at and tended not to do.

Third and finally, he had said that he was going to the late for work. Papyrus never skipped work for any reason. Papyrus had shown up for work sick as a dog only a month ago! The only reason Papyrus might consider not showing up for work or a training session is if Sans was having a hard time. Even then, he would be more likely to do all he could for his brother, and get Sans to call him every twenty minutes to make sure that he's doing okay.

Something must be really wrong with Sans today if Papyrus was actually staying home for a couple of hours.

As their boss (and friend), Undyne felt obligated to at least check up on the two skeletons and make sure that they were doing alright. If nothing else, she could order them to stay home so that they get the proper rest to get better, either physically or mentally.

Undyne didn't know which of those she would prefer.

It didn't take too long to get to Snowdin since she was patrolling that edge of Waterfall already. A brief visit to the skelebros house wouldn't put her significantly behind.

She opened the door to the house quietly so as not to disturb the inhabitants and quickly went inside. It was cold outside! Much to her surprise, the house appears empty. If Papyrus was helping Sans, she should have seen at least one of them in the main area and heard Papyrus shouting at Sans for his endless stream of bad jokes.

Instead, the only sound Undyne could hear were very soft grunts coming from Papyrus's room.

Mistake #2: Leaving the door unlocked

The grunts sounded painful. As a friend, she couldn't let one of the brothers get hurt. Not while she could do something about it.

It took seconds for Undyne to run up the stairs and kick open Papyrus's door, her stance read for battle. In half the time it took for her to do all of that, Undyne assesses the situation in front of her, and is already smacking the chisel out of the dusty hand of a completely shocked Papyrus.

Papyrus heard the loud bang as his door slammed against the wall, and he felt the sharp sting on the back of his hand as Undyne's own hand hit it. The chisel flew across the room and embedded itself in the wall beside his computer. Just what was she doing here?

Papyrus didn't have to wait long for the answer.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Undyne's voice radiated anger. Her question didn't need to be answered. What Papyrus was doing was fairly obvious. What she couldn't understand was why. “What's wrong with you? Why would you ever think of doing something like this? I don't get it. This behaviour isn't like you at all! What are you even trying to do with it? What if a human comes by and you're too injured to fight them? Where did you hear about doing something like this? Is someone forcing you to do this? Papyrus, I demand that you tell me right now what's going on.”

I t took a moment for Papyrus to process the situation and what Undyne had just said. He almost felt insulted by some of the implications of her questions.

In that moment, Papyrus almost considers dropping the facade. What would he have to lose? Unless Undyne tells Sans. He would always remember.

Well shit. Time for some deflection.

“UNDYNE! WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE? I KNOW THAT I AM GREAT AND THEREFORE MUST ALSO BE GREAT TO BE AROUND, BUT I TOLD YOU THAT I WAS BUSY THIS MORNING SO THAT YOU WOULDN'T NEED TO CHECK IN.” Papyrus hoped that this would make her back off a little. Technically, she was breaking and entering.

Unfortunately for Papyrus, this only fuelled the fire. “Are you kidding? That message only made me worry about you! You barely sounded like yourself, so I thought that maybe Sans was having a hard time and that you were trying to cover for him. I came by to make sure that you two were doing alright and then I see this! NGAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ?”

Papyrus stayed silent. He didn't really have an answer that would satisfy the angry fish woman.

“Is this because you aren't in the Royal Guard yet? Is Sans doing something to make you upset or something? I don't understand why anyone does this stuff, but least of all you! I mean, you're happy all the time and you're one of the most optimistic people I know! What could be so wrong with you that you have to resort to... to this! Do I need to assign someone to watch you and talk to you and stuff? Do you want me to schedule more training sessions? It's not a problem! What do you need to fix this thing?” Once the raging storm that is Undyne is unleashed, it is hard to get her to calm down again. She is also not known for being the most tactful.

Papyrus can hardly control his own anger at some of her questions. “DO YOU REALLY THINK SO LITTLE OF ME, UNDYNE? I'M NOT A CHILD WHO NEEDS MOLLYCODDLING!”

The down side to this facade that he puts up is that people tend to lie to him. They lie a lot. For some reason, many monsters in the underground don't see him as someone who can handle difficult information. In reality, he has been killed several times and seen each of his friends and idols dusted many more times. The insistence of others trying to “protect” him from anything negative just made him feel more worthless and pointless than he normally does.

Even though he can say that he finally has friends (or rather, friend and soon-to-be friends), he still doesn't have what he really desired from the friendship. It isn't as though he didn't shout it to the high heavens either. Respect. Recognition. That's what he wants. Not as a Royal Guardsman, but as a person. Did others really view him as so one-dimensional? So clueless?

To be fair, he wasn't helping his own case most of the time.

How was having a friend in Undyne any better than when he was alone when she didn't respect him enough to tell him that she would never enlist him in the Royal Guard? Or even let him handle his emotions himself.

“Obviously you aren't a kid, but you still need help! That's all I'm trying to do for you, Papyrus!” Undyne yelled.

“THEN WHY WON'T YOU LET ME TALK? RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE DOING THE TALKING FOR ME!” Papyrus shouted back.

“I asked you to tell me what's wrong!” Undyne retorted.

“NO, YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE GOING TO “FIX” ME.” Papyrus shouted back, “FIXING MY PROBLEMS FOR ME DOESN'T HELP THEM GET BETTER.”

“NGAAAH! FINE! If you won't let me try to help you, maybe you'll let your brother help you instead!” Undyne stormed out of Papyrus's room and made her way out the door. The stomping could be heard clearly, even though the snow should have have been dampening the sound.

That was Mistake #3: Letting Undyne leave.

Chapter Text

In Which Undyne Is Aggressive

Undyne was extremely ticked off. So ticked off, that one might have even called the emotion “absolutely freaking pissed .” Papyrus was fucking hurting himself and he wouldn't let her help! All she wanted to do was help him fix his problems so that he'd go back to being the normal happy skeleton that he was yesterday. Why was he suddenly like this? What could have possibly happened in a single day to take him down so far?

Undyne huffed to herself as she stomped through the snow. Sans was never at work on time. Most likely, he was still at Grillby's since his shift started ten minutes ago.

She'd have to have a word with him about that some other day.

Knowing that she'd incur the wrath of the flame monster if she actually broke his door, Undyne settled for slamming it open with just little enough force that the wall only cracked slightly. It took a lot of willpower to keep her anger under control.

“SANS! What the hell are you doing here!? You'd better have a damn good reason for not being with Papyrus right now!” Fortunately, the only monster in the bar besides Sans was Grillby, or this shouting could have easily and quickly gotten embarrassing for the skeleton.

Sans shrugged as he turned to face his fuming boss, “ i know, i 'm supposed to be at my station right now but my shift only started ten minutes ago. being fashionably late is my style .” He made a mental note to try that line on the door lady.

Normally, humour would serve to defuse a situation like this, but the joke had the opposite effect on Undyne. She strode closer to Sans so that there were only inches between their faces. “Do you have any idea at all about what Papyrus is doing right now? Maybe not, because it's probably all your fault that he's like this now with your lazing about and never doing your work and- and- I can't even THINK of anything else to say to you right now! Your brother is at your house like that and you're just SITTING HERE AND MAKING JOKES!?”

Sans's eye lights shrink a little in surprise. Papyrus was doing something different? Normally, his brother would be on his way to recalibrate the puzzles around now, but Undyne seems to think that he isn't. That was worrying. Variations like this, while they had the potential to occur, generally shouldn't and wouldn't happen.

He grabbed Undyne's arm tightly. “ let's take this outside.” He turned to Grillby, “ put it on my tab.”

Once the two left the establishment, Undyne wrestled her arm out of Sans's grip. The smaller monster kept walking west. Was he even going to listen to what she was trying to say?

“Where the fuck are you going now? Did you not hear anything I said back there? It's cold out here and you're just WALKING AWAY! Don't you care about your brother at all? There's something wrong and you need to do something about it.” Undyne seethed.

Sans paused and turned, “look, you want to talk, and we will, but i think that this is something you want to keep private, yeah? so we're not going to do this in the middle of town.” He turned back again and continued walking west.

As angry as she still was, Undyne reluctantly followed.

Sans stopped a short ways past Greater Dog's post. There was nothing in sight but the empty station and several snow poffs.

“ So this is where you want me to shout at you? It's as good a place as any. Why haven't you noticed what's going on with Papyrus? He's your brother for crying out loud! Don't you at least care a little- Oomph!” Undyne was roughly thrown into a nearby snow poff. Her soul was suspiciously blue.

Sans glared at her, “i think you need to chill . and once you've cool ed off, you can ice ly explain to me what you think is going on.”

Undyne glared back and began to shout again, “Are you so blind that you CAN'T EVEN SEE- AGH!” Once again, she was dunked under a snow poff. The snow was starting to get into her armour, and it was really cold.

“ it's snow problem for me. i can keep this up all day.” Sans said, his eye lights shrinking with the threat.

Undyne stood up and brushed herself off. It was fine, she could play by his rules this once. Papyrus is more important than maintaining her authority over a single sentry in this moment.

After some deep breathing (because that's what the most awesome human historical figures did before they engaged in a battle), Undyne spoke calmly, but with obvious anger and annoyance, “I came to get some information from you because Papyrus isn't acting like himself.”

“ you were screaming at me because you wanted to ask me about papyrus. maybe not the best way to go about getting information, but everyone has different methods. he's doing fine, never better. he was wearing his battle body, shouting at me to wake up, and made breakfast spaghetti this morning and everything.” Sans thought back to earlier that morning, and Papyrus had done exactly the same things as he always had. Sure, his words changed from reset to reset, but the thoughts and ideas behind them were always the same.

“ Are you absolutely sure that there was nothing different about him this morning? At all?” Undyne asked.

“not a thing.” There was no way Papyrus was that good at hiding anything. Was Sans really so blind to his own brother's obvious emotional distress?

To be fair, she had been too, until that morning.

“There were absolutely no sudden inexplicable changes that started this morning?” Undyne pressed again.

Sans had to pause for a moment. The only thing special about this morning was the beginning of a new reset. Papyrus didn't know about those, though, so there was no reason for him to act any differently than he normally would. There was certainly some variation in his morning behaviour, but it was entirely dependant on Sans's own mood that morning. Papyrus reacted differently to his terrible mornings and his slightly better mornings. Things like that wouldn't be caused by the resets, since they were just reactions to the current situation. Even Papyrus's reactions were fairly consistent across resets, though he did seems to act with more care and subtlety on the bad days and terrible days more recently than he used to.

Perhaps there was some subconscious information transfer between his selves in different resets? It would seem to behave almost like intuition and could make for some fascinating research. Some sort of strange simultaneous but also somehow longitudinal study?

That might be too much work, though. Papyrus was fine, after all.

Sans spoke with confidence, “papyrus is completely happy and healthy. i don't know why you would keep saying otherwise.”

Undyne's hold on her anger started to slip, “HAVE YOU EVEN LOOKED AT YOUR BROTHER TODAY?”

“yeah. saw him this morning. tall, loud, and wearing his battle body. breakfast spaghetti. you not paying attention?” Sans asked.

Undyne was floored by Sans's lack of concern. Certainly he didn't just look at these superficial details when determining whether or not his brother was actually doing fine . “You know what? Don't listen to anything I have to say. Listen to his own words, and maybe you'll see why I'm worried.”

Undyne took out her phone and played the voicemail that Papyrus had left for her that morning.

Sans certainly found it odd. Papyrus wasn't ever busy at this time. After he had left the house, Papyrus was supposed to finish cleaning up breakfast and then make his rounds through the puzzle areas in Snowdin Forest. There was most definitely no previous engagement for Papyrus to take part in.

It only begged the question, “what changed?”

If there really was some sort of intuition subconscious information transfer between resets happening with Papyrus, then maybe he was feeling unusually down since the last timeline had the most difficut events for Papyrus to come to terms with. Sans really hated having to tell Papyrus that Undyne and Alphys were only on vacation.

He couldn't explain any of this to Undyne, so he looked up at her and shrugged. “bro's just busy. isn't he allowed to do other things? have a life?”

“Papyrus doesn't miss work or training for anything .” Undyne argued.

“ fair point, but how do you know that something really important didn't come up?” Sans countered. It wasn't as though he believed his own arguments, but it would be easier to figure out this timeline stuff if Undyne wasn't getting in the way.

“I went to check on him. I suppose you could say that something important 'came up.'” Undyne growled.

“uh, really? what was it?” Sans asked. He was genuinely curious. What was going on with Papyrus that he didn't know about? After so many resets, he had thought he knew everything. Were there other timelines where Papyrus hadn't gone straight to work after cleaning up the kitchen? This could be very concerning.

Undyne couldn't hold herself back anymore. The nonchalance coming from Sans had pushed her back over the edge. “Do you really need me to tell you the whole story?! I broke into your house this morning after Papyrus called me and then I saw him- You know what? NO! IT MAKES ME TOO MAD TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! YOU'RE HIS BROTHER! YOU SHOULD GO TALK TO HIM YOURSELF! MAYBE YOU'LL HAVE A BETTER TIME FIXING HIS PROBLEMS THAN I DID!”

A jolt of fear coursed through the small skeleton's body. “what problems, undyne?”

“ASK HIM YOURSELF! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE REALLY CLOSE, RIGHT?! I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I CAN TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT'S JUST THAT FUCKING TERRIFYING!” Undyne was wearing a torn expression. Her voice dropped so low that it was almost mumbling, but the anger remained, “I need to go talk to someone with some sense.” She turned and stomped back towards Waterfall.

Sans was stunned. What could Papyrus possibly do that would scare Undyne so much? His bro was the sweetest and coolest person in the Underground. Even if Papyrus was capable of scaring someone (and scaring people off with his spaghetti didn't count), he wouldn't. He was just too nice.

With a sigh, Sans teleported to the Ruins door. He needed some advice and some knock knock jokes to take his mind off of all this. He was already late to met his pun pal. He knew that she would knock every two minutes for half an hour until he showed up, so he hadn't missed her completely yet.

Sure enough, as he appeared, Sans heard the two knocks against the large stone door.

“who's there?” he answered.

“Orange.” said the mysterious door lady.

“orange who?”

“Orange you going to answer the door? It's been a long wait here.”

Sans chuckled weakly. “i know, i deserve that. I should let you know though, that being fashionably late is my style. ”

The lady laughed at the weak joke, at least. “Is something the matter? You have never been late before.” the lady sounded concerned. How could she care so much for someone she didn't even know?

Sans sighed again, “i don't even know.”

“Do you wish to talk about it?” she inquired.

“i dunno. It's probably not going to make a lot of sense. i just heard that my bro's been acting off today, and i'm not sure why. i don't even know what's up, if there's anything up at all.” he admitted.

“Sounds like it is a very confusing situation. Perhaps you could talk to him and clear the air?” she suggested.

“maybe. usually, he's a pretty good talker when something's on his mind.” Sans replied.

“Then it is definitely worth trying at least once. You are a good brother, to be so concerned without even knowing what's wrong.” she said.

“i wish i could agree with you about that.” Sans rested his head against the door. His phone buzzed.

“What was that sound?”

“i just got a text. looks like it's from my boss.” Sans opened the message. Undyne was certainly very... passionate in her communication.

*SANS, I AM GIVING YOU A DIRECT ORDER TO TAKE THE DAY OFF! STARTING NOW!

*YES, I AM TELLING YOU TO SLACK OFF!

*BUT NOT REALLY! YOU'D BETTER HAVE THE MOST FUN DAY EVER WITH PAPYRUS! OR ELSE! NGAAAH!

*TELL HIM I'M ORDERING HIM TO TAKE THE DAY OFF TOO! OR HE'LL HAVE TO DO AN EXTRA 50 LAPS AT OUR NEXT TRAINING SESSION!

*SHOW HIM THE MESSAGES IF HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IT!

“ apparently i've been ordered to slack off with my brother today.” Sans said, “i guess i'll have to leave you early.”

“ That's too bad. I hope it goes well, though! You'll have to tell me if you're brother is feeling better tomorrow!”

“sure thing. thanks for the advice. i really needed it.” He really appreciated it.

“Any time. I will always be here to listen and help when I can.” the lady said kindly.

“welp. i'd better get going. i'll come back to knock your socks off tomorrow.” Sans heard the lady laugh briefly before teleporting back to his house.

Chapter Text

In Which “BROnding” Occurs?

There were two things that could have happened after Undyne left the house. She said that she had gone to find Sans and tell him to come back here to talk things out. Sans would either be back in less than five minutes – as soon as Undyne mentioned to him that something was wrong – or he would take probably closer to half an hour while Undyne explained things to him.

If it was going to be five minutes, then Papyrus knew he had some very quick cleaning to do.

Before anything else, he had to heal his bones enough that they would stop leaking dust. Even the smallest bit on his clothes could tip Sans off and let him realize that something was wrong. As a potential future Royal Guardsman, he was armed with the knowledge of basic healing magic, so it was less than a minute before his bones were solid again. The chips would remain – those would be permanent if time wasn't going to reset – but they would easily be covered by his mittens and the stretchy black sleeves of his battle body. There weren't any chips high enough on his arms this time that he needed the sleeves to cover them, but pulling them as close to his hands as possible made Papyrus feel just a little bit more secure.

Next, he had to tidy up the dust.

One of the perks of living in Snowdin is that the snow was the same colour as monster dust. What had gotten on the floor was easily swept up and brushed out the window.

Giving his room one last look over, the only things that were out of places were his chisel and his mittens. The chisel was soon replaced in the box at the top of the closet, and the mittens were snugly fit back over Papyrus's hands. He didn't notice the small amount of dust that rubbed off of his arm and onto the edge of one of his mittens.

With all of that taken care of, Papyrus knew that he might have only a minute left to appear as having been doing something completely normal when Sans walks in. Fortunately, his brother is messy enough for two skeletons, so there is always plenty to clean.

Yesterday or a few years ago, Sans had skipped his day to clean the house. Between the dusting and vacuuming and tidying and washing and organizing and fluffing and anything else he could think of, there was a lot of work to do.

Some twenty minutes later, Papyrus is just finishing up with the duster when Sans walks into the house.

“'sup bro?” Sans asked casually as he entered.

“YOU KNOW WHAT'S “'SUP” BROTHER. IT IS ALREADY LATE IN THE MORNING AND YOU ARE NOT STANDING WATCH AT YOUR SENTRY POST.” Papyrus replied.

“so are you, bro.”

“YES, BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE ALREADY INFORMED UNDYNE THAT I WILL BE LATE TODAY. I HAVE RESPONSIBLY LET HER KNOW THAT SHE SHOULD NOT EXPECT TO SEE ME UNTIL THIS AFTERNOON.”

“i heard about that. undyne seemed real worried about it. scared too. wanted me to check up on you. any idea why?” Of course, Sans already knew the reason, kind of. “skipping work isn't like you.”

“YES, WELL I WOULDN'T HAVE TO SKIP WORK IF SOMEONE WOULD JUST CLEAN UP THEIR MESSES WHEN IT IS THEIR DAY TO CLEAN!” Papyrus retorted.

“uh... was it my day to clean?”

“YESTERDAY! AND I COULD NOT JUST LEAVE THE MESSES SITTING HERE TO GET MESSIER! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE TIDY IN CASE SOMEONE COMES OVER TO HANG OUT OR TO DATE!”

Sans had to chuckle at that. If the human was behaving itself this round, then Papyrus would get to have his date/hang out tomorrow. He figured that Undyne must have been overreacting. Papyrus seemed completely fine.

Still, he couldn't quite let go of the niggling feeling that she might have been on to something. This was a completely new change in the routine that he had grown accustomed to. Sure, it wasn't uncommon for Papyrus to spontaneously clean the house (except for Sans's own room) from top to bottom until everything shone, but this was the first time that he had done so now. This was the first time that he had skipped work to do something that could wait a few hours with absolutely no consequences.

Or maybe Papyrus had found his secret prank plans hidden deep in the couch cushion.

It was more likely that this was just a very unlikely possibility that hadn't come to pass in any of the previous resets. Time is in flux, and any number of things can happen in a given situation. Papyrus has an almost compulsive need to keep things clean, and he also refuses to take time off from work for any reason barring death. Sans inwardly winced. Perhaps this time, his need to clean won over his need to prove himself worthy of the Royal Guard.

Only staying to clean once in over one hundred resets proved that Papyrus had a lot of dedication. Nearly 100%. If only Undyne could see this and be proud.

“speaking of hanging out, i got some weird orders from undyne. she told me that the two of us needed to slack off today. nice of her, huh?” Sans walked over to the couch and fell onto it face first. He intended to slack off to the fullest today.

Papyrus frowned, “THERE IS NO WAY THAT UNDYNE WOULD SAY ANY SUCH THING. JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO NAP THE DAY AWAY, DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN JUST MAKE UP EXCUSES TO GO DO IT.”

Sans took his cell phone out of his pocket and gestured in the direction he thought Papyrus is standing, “she ordered it by text and everything so you can't refuse. i don't think anyone could manage to fish her phone away from her to prank us.” His voice was muffled a bit by the couch.

Papyrus ignored the terrible wordplay and took the phone from Sans's hand and read the messages himself. With the way that Sans was acting, it was impossible that Undyne had told him any details about what she had caught him doing earlier. Did she expect him to slip up in front of Sans or talk to him about it? As smart as Sans was, he just wasn't observant when it came to other people. Papyrus had to smile a little. He was safe.

“I SEE. YOU ARE STILL WRONG! UNDYNE DID NOT ORDER US TO SLACK OFF AT ALL! SHE ORDERED US TO HAVE THE MOST FUN DAY EVER! THIS CAN NOT BE ACCOMPLISHED IF YOU SPEND THE WHOLE DAY WITH YOUR FACE IN THE COUCH!” Papyrus picked his brother up by the hoodie and forced him into a sitting position, “NOW WE CAN BEGIN HAVING FUN!”

As he was being manhandled, Sans noticed the white flecks on Papyrus's mitten. It was odd because Papyrus would never let his clothes get dirty. They were always cleaned before the house was. Something was definitely not right. “hey bro, what's that on your mitten?”

Papyrus looked down to see the dust and inwardly panicked a bit, “OH. THIS? THIS IS... FLOUR! FROM THE SPAGHETTI NOODLES THAT I MADE THIS MORNING FOR THE BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI THAT YOU DID NOT EAT! MAKING THE NOODLES YOURSELF ALLOWS FOR AN EXTRA PASSIONATE SPAGHETTI! AND EXTRA PASSION MEANS EXTRA GREAT FLAVOUR!”

Is that really all it was? He had worried for nothing. “i see. you might have to show me that then. wouldn't making pasta with your bro count as a fun day? you would even have a trofie to show undyne that you were following her orders.”

“SANS! THIS WORDPLAY OF YOURS IS MOST CERTAINLY THE OPPOSITE OF FUN!” Papyrus protested. At least Sans was dropping the subject.

“you're smiling.”

“I KNOW, AND I HATE IT! I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO TAKE UNDYNE UP ON HER FIFTY LAPS!”

“aw, c'mon. don't be like that bro.”

Sans did look a little bit closer at Papyrus, though. Even if this was just an uncommon timeline with unusual events, the theory didn't explain everything. Undyne, while she could be aggressive and while she tended to jump to conclusions, was never scared for no reason. She thought that something was wrong with Papyrus, and she said that whatever it was was terrifying . Sans didn't know if she was right about Pap, but she always needed a very strong and very good reason to be scared.

What could have gotten her so worked up?

Some of Papyrus's habits could seem strange to people if they weren't used to seeing him. When they were children, Papyrus would stack things, and sometimes they would fall over on him. Sometimes he'd pace and chatter to himself until his feet were scratched up. Sometimes he would rub or scratch his arm and leg bones until they turned a slightly different colour. He didn't do much of that stuff anymore (or at least he did it privately if he did), so Sans wasn't sure what Undyne could have seen.

Maybe she saw one of his old scars? The scratches of falling cans and rough ice would be old and mostly faded by now, but for someone who doesn't know about these old odd habits, he supposed the marks might possibly be considered scary to see.

...That was probably a stretch. Besides, Papyrus never removed his battle body. Even in front of Sans, who already knew about the marks. Something about needing to be ready if a human took them by surprise. Not that the human could surprise him anymore. Not that Papyrus would know that.

He certainly had come a long way since they were kids.

“SANS, COOKING PASTA REQUIRES INTENSE CONCENTRATION AND A LOT OF PASSION! I'M... NOT SURE THAT YOU WOULD BE... NECESSARILY... THAT IS TO SAY... IT'S A LOT OF WORK, AND YOU LIKE TO BE LAZY!” Papyrus explained.

“i'll be fine, bro. i think i can serve up some extra energy to cook with you.” Sans winked.

Papyrus stamped his foot in annoyance, “FINE! IF YOU INSIST ON LEARNING TO MAKE PASTA, THEN YOU CAN CUT THE NOODLES INTO THE RIGHT SHAPE AFTER I POUND THE INGREDIENTS INTO DOUGH! BUT ONLY IF YOU QUIT. MAKING. PUNS!”

“aw, you're so knife to me, bro. never forkget, i love you!” Sans said sincerely.

Papyrus was glad that he was turned away from his brother so that Sans couldn't see the pain flash across his face. It was brief, but it was there.

He had to keep acting happy and being the clueless brother. Papyrus didn't know what Undyne had said to Sans, but somehow he was in a better mood than before? It didn't make any sense at all, since Undyne had been very angry when she had left. Papyrus was sure that she would tell Sans everything.

No matter, he would just have to bless his luck and get through the rest of the day. The human would be showing up tomorrow, and then Sans would be distracted. Until then, he just had to be the best brother that he could be. He would laugh and tease Sans, and they would make enough spaghetti to last until the next repeat. Sans would fall asleep halfway through cutting a noodle, and it would probably get stuck in his eyesocket when he fell face first onto it. Papyrus would move him to the couch, finish cooking the spaghetti, then wake his brother up in time to eat dinner.

Later on, he would hide in his room and self destruct so that no one else has to. If Sans was happy, if everyone else was happy, then maybe Papyrus could be...

“I MIGHT START TO REGRET THIS... SPOON! NYEH HEH HEH! I LOVE YOU TOO. NOW LET'S MAKE SOME PASTA!”

Papyrus began to mix the dough for the noodles with as much energy as he could. Sans made some more pasta jokes, and inevitably fell asleep. He had at least managed to cut all of the dough into precise linguini shapes. It wasn't spaghetti, but his brother had tried.

Papyrus smiled to himself as he carried his sleeping sibling to the couch. He finished the pasta much more calmly and quietly than anyone would have believed if they were present (or conscious) to see. He woke Sans up just as the sauce was finished, and the two shared the meal. Papyrus figured it must have been the best he'd made so far because Sans actually asked for a second plate.

For the first time in who knows how many repeats, Papyrus smiled a real smile. If Sans was happy, then maybe he could be...

Or was that too much to wish for?

It wouldn't do to get his hopes up too high, only to be crushed again later.

Sooner or later, Sans would fall back into his depression because he thinks he knows everything and that nothing will ever change.

When that happens, Papyrus will...

He had to remember to wash his mittens thoroughly later.

Chapter Text

In Which Plans Are Made

Undyne took her time leaving Snowdin, making sure to make her footprints as deep as possible. With any luck, the stomping would help ease some of her frustration and fear about this whole situation. Since shaking the idiotic thoughts out of Papyrus was no longer a valid course of action at this time, Undyne wanted to talk to someone who might be able to give her some insight into this whole mess.

Who better to ask than Alphys? She's a doctor, after all. Doctors know stuff. That was definitely the only reason why she wanted to call the adorable lizard.

Thing is, Dr. Alphys tends to be nervous on the phone, and with the way Undyne is feeling, Alphys would probably hang up immediately and throw her phone against a wall. There were a lot of negative vibes coming from the fish woman.

Undyne figured that, before she makes the call, she should try to cool off a little. It had nothing at all to do with Sans telling her to “chill.” She just felt that she should be discussing this calmly with her favourite scientist instead of blowing up about it and scaring her off.

Undyne continued stomping from Snowdin and all the way through Waterfall. She didn't see any monsters on the way back to her house. They probably heard her coming and could tell that she was in a very bad mood. She briefly felt a little sorry for Napstablook when her stomping grew louder than his music.

Once back at her own house, Undyne made herself a cup of tea. Hot beverages are supposed to be relaxing, right? And drinking something hot would most definitely not count as “chilling.”

Three mugs later, Undyne's tongue was almost numb from the scalding drink. With something else to occupy a small corner of her mind, she was able to calm down a little bit and focus on what she was going to say when she called Alphys.

The goal was to get through this without shouting.

Yes, the situation was frustrating. Yes, Papyrus was scaring her a lot . No, she could not take it out on the person who might help her figure out what to do in this mess.

Undyne picked up her phone.

Maybe she should wait a little bit longer? Just in case. To sort herself out. It's not like she's nervous or anything.

Nerves would imply some small underlying fear, and Undyne had absolutely no reason to be afraid of Alphys. Definitely not.

The only thing that scared her right now was remembering that Papyrus was... doing that to himself. He was hurting that much, and there was nothing that she could do to help.

Was it possible that she was being too hard on him before?

No, Papyrus would always ask for more difficult training. If he didn't want something more difficult, then he wouldn't go out of his way to ask her to up the skill level. He was always enthusiastic and trying to go above and beyond her expectations of him. If she said one hundred push ups, he'd do two hundred on each hand. That's the type of person Papyrus is, always looking for more intensity, more passion ...

Except earlier. He'd all but told her to back the fuck off.

Undyne had to consider the small possibility that she might have been the tiniest bit too forceful when talking to Papyrus earlier. Passion is a good thing, though, and passion for one's friends is the best type of passion there is! Although, abandoning Sans to the situation without any information beyond “something's wrong with your brother so go talk to him” might not have been the best choice she'd made.

Sans was smart, though. He'd figure it out. He'd be an idiot not to. She would talk to Alphys, Sans would talk to Papyrus, and then they would collaborate and figure out how to fix this whole mess.

This plan was foolproof.

Undyne pressed her speed dial number 1 and waited to connect to her favourite scientist in the Underground.

“H-Hello?”

“Hey Alphys!” Undyne nearly shouts into the phone. It was too early to almost break the no shouting rule.

“Undyne! Hi, um, what are you calling for? It hasn't been very long since you called l-last time.” Alphys asked nervously.

“Just calling to ask you about... the weather!” Perhaps something small to break this ice before getting into the heavier topics?

“W-Well, here in Hotland it's, um, hot? I guess?” Alphys replied.

So much for small talk and ice breakers. The Underground doesn't even have weather! “Uh, yeah it would be. Say, is it okay if I ask you some questions? I'm really concerned about a friend and I think you might know how to help.” Undyne spoke quickly.

“I can try my best. What about your friend is concerning you?”

Undyne took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Well, the last time I visited this friend, I noticed that they were acting kind of differently. Differently in a bad way. And they said something that made me worried and then they did something that I wasn't supposed to find out about and I don't know what to do and it's really scaring the hell out of me!” Undyne's voice grew louder and more frantic as she continued.

Alphys was shocked for a moment. Which friend? Undyne couldn't possibly know about... She needed more details.

“Y-You will need to tell me a little more than that s-so I can know how to help you.” Alphys requested softly. Undyne didn't seem to be listening.

“I'm not sure I can even help them, you know? So I thought calling you might be a good idea because you would probably know something about stuff like this, right? You're you, so of course you know! Because you're so smart and awesome like that and this whole thing is really just-”

“Undyne! S-Stop and breathe!” Alphys requested loudly.

Undyne panted into the phone for a moment before Alphys continued.

“I-I understand that you're concerned for your friend, but, um, if you need me to help you, then y-you need to tell me more specifically what is going on.”

There was a short moment of silence.

“I really don't want to say this Alph, but what can you tell me about someone who is... intentionally harming themselves?” Undyne asked quietly. Alphys had never heard her speak more seriously or gravely.

Good. It wasn't about what was in her lab.

Still not very good, though. Alphys briefly contemplated some of the faded scars under her own scales. Was Undyne unlucky enough to have met a second person with this problem? At least she had stopped doing this a while back.

“W-Well, if s-someone has taken t-to harming themselves, then it is likely th-that there is something that they d-don't really like about themselves. That or th-they're having a hard time coping with s-something that is hard f-for them to, uh, cope with? Do you know which it might be?”

“I don't know! Just yesterday they were super happy and talking about everything they liked about themselves and then suddenly today they're just different! Today I... I saw them.” Undyne admitted.

“Y-You saw?” Alphys repeated.

“Yeah.”

Alphys felt some relief. It wasn't her. “I'm so s-sorry.”

“Don't worry about me. I need to know how to fix it, and you're a doctor right? Can you tell me how to fix their problem?” Undyne's voice held a lot of hope.

It was soon destroyed, “Th-The thing about self harm is that, uh, you c-can't really fix the problem for them. They h-have to want it to be fixed.”

“How does that work?”

“W-Well, if you want to look at it from your perspective, you can't actually s-stop them from hurting themselves. You c-can't be with them all the time. Y-You can't even be awake all the time. Th-They can always find s-something new to hurt themselves with if you take away their f-favourite tool.

“Then, uh, emotionally, from their perspective, if they want t-to keep hurting themselves, if they, um, like it or think that they n-need it, then they won't stop doing it. Why would they?” Alphys explained.

“Why would anyone want to hurt themselves though? Why would they like it?”

“I-It's hard to explain that part... but, um, you know when you're mad and you start stomping to get rid of th-the anger?”

“Yeah...”

“And then later when you're m-more relaxed, your feet might ache a little b-bit because of all the stomping you did?”

“Sometimes... What does this have to do with it?” Undyne asked.

“W-Well, if your feet ache later, th-then the stomping was clearly, um, hurting your body. Maybe it wasn't good for you? B-But you do it anyway to, uh, keep yourself g-grounded, I guess?”

“But stomping doesn't hurt when I do it! It's just releasing energy!” Undyne complained.

“Y-Yes. And when s-someone is hurting themselves, it doesn't hurt them either. It's uh, it's like the unhealthy v-version of stomping. I-If stomping is the vegetables, then self harm is l-like, uh, the popato chisps and instant noodles.” Alphys hoped the metaphor would make sense.

Undyne had to think for a moment, “So what you're saying is that he's got all this bad energy inside and he has to get it out but he's just choosing the wrong way to do it?” He? Undyne's voice grew in confidence, “Then that should be super easy to fix! All I have to do is go tell him that what he's doing is a bad idea and tell him that there's lots of better ways to deal with stress!”

“N-No! Don't go say stuff l-like that to him!” Alphys quickly objected, “I-If you do that, then he might, um, just get upset and stop listening at all. He th-thinks that what he's doing is probably o-okay so trying to force him to think something else all of a sudden... It might, um, i-it's not a good idea,:

“Then what can I do? I can't just not do anything! He's my friend so I've gotta help him!” Undyne complained.

“The b-best thing you can probably do is just, uh, sit and t-talk to him? Let him talk to you, a-and, um, if he tries t-to lie and change topic, then just, uh, d-don't let it happen.” Alphys suggested.

“I already talked to him though, and he just shouted at me and told me to leave!”

“D-Did you really let him talk to you? Or d-did you just talk to him? The most important thing i-is listening and p-patience.”

“Patience, huh?” Undyne was quiet for a moment as she thought, “Yeah, I can give that a try.”

“S-So was that helpful? Or did you need something else?” Alphys asked.

“That was super helpful! You're the best, Alph! Don't you ever forget that. And we need to watch some more of those human history movies soon. They're super cool!” Undyne exclaimed.

“Y-Yeah. Just t-tell me when you want to come by.” Alphys said nervously.

“Will do. Thanks again!” Undyne hung up the phone. Listening and patience, huh? She would be the best listener the Underground had ever seen, with even more patience than the cyan human. Sans or not, Papyrus was going to get fixed.

---

One clean kitchen and two MTT nightly special programs later, the skeleton brothers appeared to be very satisfied. Sans was dozing on the couch, and Papyrus was organizing the living area to make sure that everything was neat and straight for tomorrow. If it was one of the good repeats, the human would be coming for a date or a hang out tomorrow, so everything had to look perfect.

That, and Papyrus just could stand a less-than-neat house.

Papyrus had just placed another sticky note on the dirty sock, perfectly aligned with the previous one, when Sans stirred from his half-slumber.

“'s getting late. you want me to read you a bedtime story?” Sans rubbed his eye socket and stood up from the couch.

“CAN IT BE FLUFFY BUNNY?” Papyrus asked.

“course, paps.”

“OKAY THEN! LET ME GO AND GET INTO MY BED WHILE YOU GET THE BOOK!” Papyrus bounded up the stairs.

Sans still couldn't quite figure out what he was supposed to learn today. Papyrus was acting completely normally, so what was Undyne so upset about? Yeah it was weird that Papyrus was skipping work to clean, and that the cleaning was happening in a different order than normal, but people can be spontaneous sometimes, right?

Papyrus was never spontaneous. He had his ways of doing things, and was loath to break from the routine.

Then there was the flour on his mitten. Papyrus was always meticulous in his cleaning, so how could he have missed that small spot of flour? It was cleaned at some point while he was sleeping earlier, but it really shouldn't have been there to begin with.

That small spot was really bothering him. Did it have something to do with what Undyne was talking about? How could flour on a mitten be terrifying, though? Something wasn't adding up.

Was the white dust actually flour? Papyrus wouldn't lie to him, and he generally wasn't very good at lying when he tried. What else could it have been? If it wasn't flour, then Papyrus would have told him. They are brothers, after all.

That mystery would have to wait for the next day. Papyrus was fine.

Sans made his way up the stairs and into Papyrus's room. Content with the snoring coming from his brother after the first five pages, Sans quietly left for his own bed.

Once he was certain that Sans was no longer in earshot, Papyrus sat up and crept out of his bed. He quietly opened the closet door and took his chisel from the box on the top shelf.

It had been bothering him all day, how his arms didn't match. Carefully, Papyrus made a few marks on his right side to complement the ones on his left. Sans had actually seen a physical clue, and still couldn't figure it out.

Papyrus was torn between disappointment and relief. The pain in his arm bones quickly smothered the disappointment. It was better this way. He had to keep Sans happy. His brother had far too much potential for self destruction.

This was all too clear after the worst repeat. Sans had spent the whole first day and night at Grillby's until Grillby had called Papyrus to retrieve his brother. Sans was intoxicated (probably fermented ketchup) and muttering what seemed like nonsense. He was talking about how “it” couldn't beat him, “ it” never beat him, and how he beat “it” at least a few hundred times.

In that moment, Papyrus was relieved that his brother hadn't died to the human, but greatly upset that the experience had caused this to happen.

Papyrus swore to himself to make these repeats as easy for his brother as possible, doing everything he can to make Sans happy and prevent him from figuratively imploding.

If that meant that he had to take on unnecessary amounts of stress by constantly lying and keeping quiet about anything that bothered him, then Papyrus would do it. If it meant that he had to secretly hurt himself to relieve some of that burden, Papyrus would happily do that too.

After all, nothing was more important to him than his brother. Not even the respect that he so desperately wanted.

At least he almost had that from Flowey.

Papyrus smiled. He'd be seeing Flowey again soon.

He replaced his chisel at the top of the closet, swept the extra dust out the window, and tucked himself back into his bed. Tomorrow was the day the human would come. Hopefully it would be better.

Chapter Text

In Which A BROtp Starts

It is 6:43 the next morning when Papyrus slowly wakes from his nightly nap. He feels like he's barely slept at all and his head feels like it's stuffed with Asgore's fur. As fluffy and soft as the king is, the feeling of having his fur inside one's skull is not the most pleasant feeling.

Despite how strange he feels this morning, Papyrus knows that he has to get up and start making breakfast. Maybe for the first day of a repeat he could get away with microwaving leftovers, but he has to actually make the spaghetti for real today. Sans would normally come to breakfast on the day that the human shows up, and this time he has some reason to be suspicious of Papyrus's behaviour. Papyrus knows that he has to act extra normal for his brother today to keep the suspicions off of him. It would only be a week at most until time repeats again, so he wouldn't get too exhausted by this acting. Probably.

He could always just chip his bones a little more than normal. It's not like his battle body didn't cover most of his body. Lots of space to choose from.

Shaking his head, Papyrus quickly dismissed the thoughts. He had to make spaghetti now. It would take an hour or two to simmer and cook, so he needed to get started sooner rather than later. Otherwise Sans wouldn't have the breakfast spaghetti and it would make him more suspicious.

Papyrus went down to the kitchen and started preparing the ingredients. As opposed to violence as he was, pounding the vegetables into paste felt surprisingly good sometimes.

He scraped the vegetable paste into a pot and turned on the heat. Just for fun, Papyrus decided to add some “spices” to the mixture. He wasn't sure what they do, exactly, but they looked kind of like glitter, just less brightly coloured. If glitter made spaghetti better, then maybe these spices would too.

The glitter could always be added later as a garnish or something. Wasn't experimentation and the ongoing need to improve his performance in any way he could think of something that he normally did? Adding these spices to the spaghetti sauce seemed kind of tame, but Papyrus wasn't feeling up to anything extravagant this morning. He needed to save that energy for the human when they showed up later .

Speaking of energy, a very quick power nap didn't seem too bad at the moment. Even though it contradicted Undyne's rule about more heat meaning more passionate cooking, Papyrus turned the heat down to a low temperature and sat himself on the couch. He did want the house to burn down while he napped. It wasn't as if Sans was going to wake up and catch him otherwise, so he felt reasonably safe just letting himself relax for an hour or so.

Papyrus let himself drift into a peaceful unconsciousness, the smell of spaghetti permeating the house .

It was actually more than an hour later when Papyrus was woken by heavy knocking on the front door. A quick glance at the clock told him that it was 8:34.

“JUST A MOMENT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL SEE YOU ONCE HE HAS FINISHED THIS IMPORTANT STEP OF THE SPAGHETTI MAKING PROCESS!” Papyrus jumped off of the couch and ran to the kitchen to fill a pot with water. No homemade noodles today. Store bought would have to do.

When Papyrus opened the door, he saw Undyne waiting for him, for once not wearing her armour. Why did she come back?

“UNDYNE! WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT TO THE MAGNIFICENT HOUSE OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS TODAY?” Papyrus asked. He was unnerved by her presence. She didn't have any reason to be here this morning.

“Hey Papyrus. I came by to talk to you and Sans. Well, kind of? I was hoping to catch you before you two started your shifts today.” Undyne glanced at the ground as she was speaking. This was unusual behaviour for her, “Also, what smells so good? And can I have some?”

“OF COURSE! YOU ARE MY FRIEND, SO NATURALLY YOU CAN JOIN ME AND SANS FOR MY FAMOUS BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI! THE NOODLES AREN'T QUITE DONE YET, AND I STILL NEED TO WAKE SANS, THOUGH.” Papyrus let Undyne inside and turned himself to look up to Sans's room, “SANS! YOU LAZYBONES, YOU NEED TO GET UP! WE HAVE COMPANY THIS MORNING AND IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU BE PRESENT FOR BREAKFAST!”

Undyne flinched a little at the volume. She wasn't expecting it, “Is he like this every morning?” She motioned towards Sans's door.

“MORE OR LESS. SOMETIMES HE COMES DOWN ON HIS OWN, THOUGH.” That hadn't happened since before the repeats.

The water started boiling and Papyrus walked into the kitchen to add the noodles. He took them out of the box first.

“Whoa, what kind of secret cooking technique is this?” Undyne watched with curiosity.

“WELL, I LOOKED AT THE BOX ONCE AND IT TURNS OUT THAT THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THE NOODLES ALREADY WRITTEN ON IT. THE BOX SAID TO REMOVE THE NOODLES AND PLACE IN BOILING WATER FOR EIGHT MINUTES! SINCE THAT IS WHAT THE BOX SAYS, THAT IS WHAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL DO! THERE WILL BE NO SUBPAR PASTA FOR ANY MONSTERS SERVED BY ME!” Papyrus explained. Despite Undyne's wise teaching, the noodles tended to cook better when they were removed from the box.

“I see, I see. Weird, but hey, it's your house.” Undyne commented.

“SO... I'M NOT SURE IF I REALLY WANT TO KNOW THIS, BUT... WHAT DID YOU COME TO TALK TO ME AND SANS ABOUT?” Papyrus set the timer for eight minutes and led Undyne back out of the kitchen. He was in no mood for a house fire today.

Undyne tapped her foot on the floor a few times, “I actually think I need to talk to Sans first. It'll only take a couple of minutes for me to bug him about slacking on the job. It's going to take a lot longer, what I'm going to talk to you about.”

Undyne seemed unusually calm. That alone was causing Papyrus to inwardly panic. The two stood in an awkward silence until the timer buzzed. The noodles were ready.

“I'LL... GO TAKE CARE OF BREAKFAST. WHY DON'T YOU GRAB PLATES.” Papyrus requested. He turned upwards to face Sans's room again, “SANS! THE BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI IS FINISHED. YOU NEED TO COME AND GREET OUR GUEST, UNDYNE TOO! IT IS VERY RUDE TO IGNORE PEOPLE WHEN THEY COME TO VISIT!”

“well why didn't you say it was undyne?” Sans asked from immediately behind said woman. How did he manage to get there so quickly and quietly? It was usually better not to ask.

Undyne spun around to face the shorter skeleton, “You and me need to go have a quick chat about you slacking off at your posts! We should probably take this outside.”

“impastable. we haven't had breakfast yet. smells good paps.” Sans took a plate and served himself.

“IT IS TOO EARLY FOR YOUR JOKES! BUT YOU ARE RIGHT. YOU SHOULD NOT SCOLD SANS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH AND THERE IS PLENTY OF BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI TO GO AROUND!” Papyrus filled the remaining two plates and handed one to Undyne.

She looked at it with suspicion, but it smelled good. Sans was also almost finished with his plate, and that nerd usually only drinks ketchup. She could do this for Papyrus. Undyne twirled some of the pasta around her fork and took a bite, “HOLY SHIT PAPYRUS! This is the BEST spaghetti you've ever made!”

“R-REALLY? BUT I DID IT ALL WRONG...”

“Then keep doing it wrong! This is awesome!” Undyne started shovelling the food into her mouth.

“IF YOU SAY SO, I SUPPOSE. WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED, I'LL JUST CLEAN YOUR DISHES. THAT WAY YOU AND SANS CAN HAVE TIME TO... TALK.”

Papyrus soon collected the plates and made the pile of dishes to clean. The other two monsters left the house and made their way to Grillby's for their quick discussion.

“yo grillbz, can we get a private booth today?” Sans asked upon entering the bar.

Grillby stared at the two for a moment before pointing towards the booth farthest from the door. The establishment was mostly empty again, so the two didn't really have to worry about being overheard.

“did you really want to lecture me about slacking off? because you're the one who told me to slack off yesterday.” Sans asked.

Undyne began to get annoyed. Was Sans trying to set a new record for being irritating? “No, I came to talk to you about what you were doing before I told you to take a day off. Did you learn anything about Papyrus yesterday?”

“he makes pretty good pasta. no joke. the stuff he made yesterday turned out well too.” Sans said.

Undyne stared at him, the fire in her eyes growing with each word he was saying. Did Sans honestly not notice anything yesterday? After a whole day alone with the guy? “Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME ?”

“what do you want me to say? there were a couple of weird things but nothing anywhere out of the range of normal. paps is fine.” Sans argued, growing a little defensive.

Undyne glared at Sans, “What. Weird. Things?”

Sans glared back, “just cleaning things in the wrong order and some dirty clothes. Papyrus has a specific way he does things. he always cleans his clothes before he cleans anything else, but yesterday he was cleaning the house while he still had some flour on his mitten. sure, it was weird, but nothing to be concerned about.”

“Flour. Is that what he told you?” The question obviously wasn't meant to be answered, “You fucking saw that and... NGAAH! How dense ARE you?”

Sans's eye lights dimmed a little. He appeared to be a little put out, “so it wasn't flour? paps lied to me?”

Undyne took the last chance she would get for next little while to vent some of her anger, “OF COURSE IT WASN'T FLOUR! There's definitely something going on with your brother and I know because I saw him doing it! Are you telling me that you saw physical proof and then just dismissed it like it was nothing!? I can't believe how thick-headed you are sometimes-”

“i think you mean thick-skulled.”

“NGAAAH! NOT THE TIME, SANS! You know what? I was gonna talk to you and get you to help me make a plan to help Papyrus, but since you can't even try to think about what might be going on, I'm going to have to show you.” Undyne grabbed Sans's arm and dragged him to the exit of the bar, “I'm going to have a chat with Papyrus, and you had better be fucking eavesdropping. If you never listen to any orders again, at least listen to this one! We'll be in Papyrus's room, so you have about two minutes to find a good spot to listen from.”

Undyne released Sans about twenty feet from his house. The best place to listen to a conversation in Papyrus's room would from inside the room, so Sans teleported to the closet. He would probably be safe to listen from in there. For once, there would actually be a skeleton in the closet. Heh.

Undyne quickly walks back to the skeletons' house to sit down with Papyrus.

“Okay Papyrus, your turn. We're going to your room.” Undyne states. She sounded as though she wouldn't take “no” for an answer.

“A-ALRIGHT! WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO MAKE YOU A WARM BEVERAGE BEFORE WE GO UPSTAIRS? TO MAKE YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE?” Papyrus asked.

“I'm not going to let you stall. Bring your tea and kettle upstairs. You can make it while we're there.” Undyne called him out and marched up the stairs.

“SURE. WHATEVER Y-YOU LIKE.” Papyrus filled the kettle, then took two mugs and the tin of golden flower tea from the cupboard. He always has a small tin on hand for Undyne, because he knows that this tea is her favourite.

He walked upstairs with the four items and set the kettle to boil on his desk. It would only be a couple of minutes for the tea to be ready, and with any luck, the drink would help keep Undyne distracted (or at least calmer) throughout the discussion. Papyrus knew that this was not going to be very pleasant.

“DO YOU WANT TO START TALKING NOW, OR WOULD YOU RATHER WAIT FOR THE TEA?” Papyrus asked.

“Whatever you want, Papyrus. You're the one who's going to be doing the talking today. Would you rather start now, or wait for the tea?” Undyne replied.

Papyrus really didn't like how this was going, and they were only two sentences into the conversation. “I THINK I WOULD RATHER... WAit for the tea.” His voice lowered in volume as he spoke.

True to her word, Undyne waited until the water had boiled and the tea was served before speaking again, “Is something wrong, Papyrus? You're never this quiet.”

Back at full volume again, Papyrus tried to deflect the question, “THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN SPEAK AT ANY VOLUME HE WISHES, FOR I HAVE PERFECTED MY CONTROL OVER EVERY ASPECT OF MY BEING! WHAT ABOUT YOU, UNDYNE? YOU AREN'T USUALLY THIS... PATIENT. YOU'RE OFTEN MORE... PASSIONATE AND INTENSE ABOUT THINGS.”

Once again, deflection was ineffective, “Being passionate didn't work, so I'm trying patience instead. Can you tell me what's going on?”

“NOTHING SPECTACULAR IS GOING ON AT THE MOMENT! WE ARE JUST SITTING AND DRINKING TEA.” Papyrus took a small sip from his cup to make his point.

“Cut the crap. I saw you yesterday.” Undyne stated. Alphys had said not to let him try to change the subject, so she would just keep bringing it up until he decided to talk.

“WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY? THERE WAS NOTHING UNUSUAL ABOUT YESTERDAY, EXCEPT THAT YOU ORDERED ME AND SANS TO STAY HOME. WHAT IF A HUMAN HAD COME BY?”

Alphys had also said to not let him deny it either, “The dogs would have taken care of the human. Do you really want me to answer your first question?”

Papyrus lowered his voice again, “I... I don't really want to talk about it. I also don't want Sans to overhear by accident.”

“Well then it's a good thing that I gave Sans some very specific orders for his job today. He had better be following them if he knows what's good for him. You shouldn't have to worry about him suddenly appearing right now. He should be occupied for a while.” Undyne said, “So can you try to talk about it?”

“I-I really don't...” Papyrus trailed off.

Undyne sighed and downed her mug in few quick gulps, “I'll start you off then, but you need to add your part. When I walked into your room yesterday, I saw you holding a chisel over your own arms and dust coming out of them. Where did you even get a chisel anyways? And what were you thinking?”

Papyrus immediately jumped on the chance to talk about something else, “WELL YOU SEE, SOMETIMES, WHEN I AM RECALIBRATING MY PUZZLES AND SANS ISN'T SLACKING OFF, WE WILL MAKE SNOWSKELETONS AND ICE SCULPTURES. IT IS QUITE DIFFICULT TO CARVE ICE WITHOUT HAVING A CHISEL AROUND! ALTHOUGH SANS TENDS TO JUST WRITE HIS NAME ON THE ICE AND/OR SNOW WITH MARKER... HE ISN'T VERY GOOD COMPETITION.”

There was a short moment of silence before Undyne spoke again, “And the second question?”

“I WAS THINKING THAT SANS NEEDS TO WORK A LITTLE HARDER ON HIS CREATIVITY!” Papyrus stated loudly.

“I meant while you were hurting yourself. What was going through your head?” Undyne's grip on the now empty mug was tightening. She had vowed to be the most patient monster ever. She couldn't give in to her frustration just because Papyrus was being a little difficult.

“I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS.”

“But you need to.” Undyne argued, “It's good for you!”

Papyrus countered, “SAYS WHO?”

“Says... It doesn't matter who says. Have you ever tried talking about this sort of stuff to anyone?” Undyne asked.

“NO...”

“Then why not try? What's the worst that could happen?”

“IF YOU RESPECT ME EVEN LESS, THEN MAYBE YOU WON'T WANT TO BE MY FRIEND ANYMORE.” Papyrus replied without thought.

The answer felt like a punch to the gut, “Who doesn't respect you? You're one of the most respectable monsters I know.” Undyne questioned, anger rising a little.

“THEN WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD ME YET THAT YOU WILL NOT ACCEPT ME INTO THE ROYAL GUARD?” Papyrus countered, “DO YOU THINK THAT I CAN'T HANDLE BEING DISAPPOINTED? OR DO YOU THINK THAT I AM JUST SO NAIVE THAT I WOULD NOT EVER NOTICE?”

Undyne winced at the accusation. He was right, though, “I wasn't brave enough to tell you. You were always so happy about training and the chance to be in the Guard, and I couldn't bring myself to hurt you. Your optimism is something I admire quite a lot, and I didn't want you to lose that.”

“SO YOU THINK THAT I AM WEAK-MINDED AND CAN'T HANDLE DISAPPOINTMENT.” Papyrus stated, “IT'S SO GREAT TO KNOW THAT I WAS RIGHT.”

“That is not what I said! I just wanted you to be happy because I consider you my friend and I didn't want all...” Undyne waved her arms in large circles and started shouting, “all this! I didn't want to have to sit you down and talk you out of feeling horrible because of something I did, and now I guess we're doing it anyways!”

The two monsters were quiet for a moment, “So much for patience, huh?”

“WELL, YOU LASTED LONGER THAN I THOUGHT YOU WOULD.”

“And YOU finally spilled your guts a little! Who says that I don't respect you?” Undyne asked aggressively.

“NO ONE. NO ONE AT ALL.” Papyrus began to sweat a little.

“Really? Because anyone who can put in even one fifth of the effort you put into training deserves my respect. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong, and you're hearing that from me.” Undyne declared, “No one knows who I respect better than I do, you got that?”

“I-I GOT THAT.”

“GOOD!” Undyne cheered and pumped her fist in the air, “So do you want to know why I can't let you into the Guard?”

“UM, OKAY?”

Undyne let out a breath, “It's because you're too nice. I don't want to see you ripped into smiling shreds because you didn't want to hurt the enemy.” It was a blunt answer, but obviously a truthful one. Papyrus had to believe it, especially after everything he knew from the repeats. He didn't even fight back in the worst repeat, he just opened his arms to the human before they sliced his head off.

Papyrus shuddered, “I... ACTUALLY THINK I AGREE WITH YOU.”

“Really?” Undyne was shocked. It couldn't possibly be this easy.

“YES I... SOMETIMES I EVEN FEEL BAD ABOUT PUNCHING THE VEGETABLES INTO PASTE. I COULD NEVER ACTUALLY HURT A HUMAN IF THEY CAME BY.” Papyrus admitted. It was true. While he had captured the human several times, and been killed by them several more times, he had never actually done any really harm to the human. He had just temporarily incapacitated them to take them to his warm garage.

“Well, then I guess we'll just have to train harder at tomorrow's cooking lesson! We'll pound those tomatoes extra hard tomorrow!” Undyne exclaimed.

“YOU... STILL WANT TO DO OUR TRAINING?” Papyrus asked. He was sure that Undyne was going to stop talking to him now that she had told him he was not going to join the Royal Guard.

“OF COURSE! Because cooking with you is TOTALLY AWESOME!” Undyne shouted.

Papyrus could hardly believe his ear holes. Undyne actually wanted to hang out with him still, even without the pretense of training for the Royal Guard? (She still called it training...) Did this mean that maybe he was worth something as a monster...?

“There's just one thing, though.” Undyne said. Papyrus felt his figurative heart fall through the floor., “Can you truthfully tell me that you'll never do... that again?”

“I'M... I DON'T... NO. I CAN'T SAY THAT.” Papyrus admitted. Even if Undyne was treating him more like the adult he is, he didn't know if he could just stop hurting himself. When time repeats again, everything would just go back to the way it was before, and Undyne would be treating him like a child again. Then there was Sans and the human and every other person who couldn't respect him. Having respect wasn't even the only problem? He still had to help Sans feel better on the bad days, and keep acting when no one else remembers, and-

“I'm gonna stop whatever you're thinking right there. Whatever it is, it's probably wrong.” What else did Alphys say about this? Of course he wouldn't want to stop it if he likes it. Papyrus would have to want to... “If you can't tell me that you never do it again, can you at least say that you'll try to help yourself get better? Try to find some reason to just not do that sometimes?” Undyne asked. She was doing her best to sound collected, but some of the desperation still leaked into her voice.

Papyrus could hear the concern from his friend. He couldn't promise her that he would never hurt himself again, but to keep his arms clean for repeats sometimes? “YES. I... I THINK I CAN DO THAT.”

“ALRIGHT!” Undyne pumped her fist in the air again. What was she so happy about? “Then just one last thing.” Undyne stood up, “Stand straight sentry!”

“BUT YOU SAID I WOULDN'T BE IN THE ROYAL GUARD?”

“You are still one of the Snowdin sentries, so I am still your boss. Stand straight!”

Papyrus scrambled up and stood as tall as he could.

“Tell me who you are!” Undyne commanded.

“I AM PAPYRUS, SENTRY FOR SNOWDIN TOWN.”

“No. That's not who you are. Who are you?”

“BUT UNDYNE, THAT IS WHO I-”

“That's not the whole answer!”

Then it clicked, “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

“LOUD AS YOU CAN!” Undyne shouted.

“I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND I AM A SENTRY IN SNOWDIN TOWN!”

“And tell me one awesome thing about yourself!”

“I MAKE REALLY GOOD SPAGHETTI!”

“HECK YEAH YOU DO!” Undyne cheered and held out her fist, “Fist bump of solidarity?”

Papyrus stared at it, a little confused.

“It means we're friends, dummy.”

Papyrus tapped her blue fist with his gloved one.

“So you feeling any better?” Undyne asked.

Papyrus paused for a moment. He felt better than he had in a very long time. How many repeats had it been since he felt this light?

“Y-YES I AM!”

“Good! Now get to your post! Give 'em hell, Papyrus!” Undyne said encouragingly.

“UNDYNE! YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT SWEARING!” Papyrus chided.

“Well you didn't stop me earlier. Now get to it before you set a bad example for your brother.”

The tea in his room now forgotten, Papyrus ran down the stairs to the kitchen. He unplugged the microwave, picked it up, and began the trek to his spaghetti trap. Maybe today wouldn't be such a bad day after all.

A distressed Sans teleported out of the closet to his station outside the Ruins.

Chapter Text

In Which Sans Tries To Be A Good Brother

Sans stumbled against his station. His legs felt weak and he felt very shaky. He didn't trust himself to walk just yet. After what he had just heard? There were only two words he could think of to properly sum up the situation.

Holy. Shit.

There were several questions on his mind, but there were three that stood out among than the rest. The first was how he had missed it. Papyrus had never been very good at lying before. Thinking back on it, Papyrus still wasn't a very good liar. He hadn't even had to lie all, really, until Sans had asked him about the dust on his mitten. Was he such a bad brother that Papyrus couldn't tell him that something was wrong? Was he such a terrible monster that he couldn't notice the obvious signs of someone hurting on the inside so much that they had to take it out on themselves? Did he really pay so little attention to Papyrus now? Sans would claim that Papyrus was his life and often his only reason for living and continuing, but somehow he had overlooked something this big and terrible.

The next obvious question to follow the first is how long Papyrus had been doing this. Before all of this reset business (and even once or twice after it began), Sans would periodically check up on his brother's stats to make sure that he was doing alright. He didn't want to risk Papyrus hiding something harmful from him. Clearly, it didn't work. Every time he had checked, Papyrus had always had the same high HP, strong magic, clear and full soul, and generally positive statements in the description. There was nothing there to predict this. The only difference the last time he had checked was some time after the resets had started and it had said, “Concerned for his brother.” It was right after the time the human had gone on a murder spree and Sans had gotten himself completely smashed at Grillby's. The statement shouldn't have been a surprise.

So when did it all start? It would be impossible to hide something like this from a stats check. His HP likely would have been lowered, his soul likely would have been less clear, and the message likely would have mentioned it or said that he was hiding some secret. It would have had to have been before the resets, if not beginning the day the resets started. Papyrus couldn't remember anything from the previous resets, so what had caused this to start?

Perhaps this was a puzzle for another time.

It didn't matter too much when it started (probably), because the biggest and most important question is why. Why would Papyrus feel the need to hurt himself? There was no way that some perceived lack of respect from Undyne was the only reason. Hell, it was barely a reason in the first place. Why would Papyrus feel the need to hide all of this from him? Sans just wanted to know why all of this happened so he could help his brother. The only way to do that would be to talk to him.

Somehow, Sans would have to get Papyrus to admit to the self harm without giving away that he already knew about it. If Papyrus ever found out that he had been listening in on his conversation with Undyne, then Sans would end up having a very bad time. If Papyrus found out that Undyne had ordered it too, she might end up in a similar situation.

Sans didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

He slumped into the snow and stared at the end of his shorts. How could he make Papyrus happy again? He wished he could ask the door lady, but she wasn't going to show up today. Today, the human would exit the Ruins.

Could it have picked a worse time? It was such a wild card in this whole reset business. Sometimes it would kill everyone it came across, sometimes it would kill randomly, and sometimes it wouldn't kill until much later. There was no way to predict its behaviour.

Sans hoped that he would at least be lucky enough to see a dust-free human this time. Those resets were the easiest. He could relax through their entire journey through Snowdin, knowing that Papyrus would be safe. Papyrus was never the first one it killed.

Except that Papyrus wasn't safe. Apparently he hadn't been safe for a long time. Sans had been so focused on the human that he somehow had missed out on the fact that Papyrus was dangerous to himself.

Sans knew a lot about feeling low. He wouldn't wish it on anyone, especially his brother.

Sans lowered the lids of his eye sockets. There was a budding idea in his mind. It was a long shot and probably had next to no chance of succeeding, but if the human was really a wild card and if he got really lucky, then maybe the human could try helping him out. Only if it was dust-free. Murderers shouldn't get second chances.

It wouldn't hurt to ask the human, in any case. If it didn't want to help or if it was feeling especially... murdery... then he could always try again on the next reset. It wasn't as if the human declining to help would change the situation from what it was now, anyways.

It was all too complicated.

Sans stood up, his joints popping lightly. He took a few deep breaths and shifted his weight between his legs. He felt reasonably confident in his ability to walk now. All he had to do for now was wait until the human showed up. How it appears would determine his next course of action.

Sans teleported to the trees outside the Ruins door and waited.

He couldn't have been waiting for much more than an hour when the large stone doors creaked open. As in the last hundred or so resets, the human emerged and began walking down the snow-covered path.

A quick glance told Sans what he needed to know. For the first time this reset, luck was on his side. The human was clean.

It was time for the old whoopie-cushion-in-the-hand trick. As expected, the human shook his hand and giggled, as if it was still funny and not actually the hundred-and-something'th time it had gone through this song and dance.

“never gets old huh? even after all this and you're still laughing at these dumb jokes.” Sans commented. He was allowed to break routine. It knew that he knew about the resets.

It looked a little downcast at his statement. Maybe it was a little mean, but that thing had done enough to earn a few unkind words. That definitely wasn't just Sans taking out some of his frustration on it. Nevertheless, the two continued forward to Sans's sentry station. Papyrus would be by in a moment. There was no need to tell it to hide behind the conveniently shaped lamp. It ran over and hid without prompting.

Sans made sure to pay careful attention to Papyrus during his rant about capturing the human. He didn't break script once. It was the same words, the same lighthearted jabs at Sans's laziness, the same responses to the terrible puns, and the same laugh as he left. By all rights, Papyrus should be going way off script right now. This morning was something huge, and it had never happened before. Sans wasn't supposed to know about that, but he did. There was no way that Papyrus would act the exact same way after all that with Undyne. He shouldn't be the same.

So why was he?

There was nothing unusual at all that Sans could ask him about, other than that he was the same when he shouldn't be. Because he wasn't supposed to know anything about Papyrus's bad habit, he couldn't just bring it up.

Maybe now wouldn't be a bad time to ask the human – the kid – for help. If he was going to ask it for help, he had best start treating it like a person.

“don't worry kid, my bro's harmless. but you know that already, right?” Sans asked. The kid looked away, “noticed you didn't kill anyone yet. that's good. conscience finally get to ya?” Maybe now wasn't the best time to let his bitterness show. He was about to ask the kid for help.

To his surprise, the kid slowly nodded, “Don't wanna... hurt... -nybody.”

“uh, hadn't meant that as a real question, but that's a good answer. though, if you're hell bent on bein' nice to everyone this time, i wanna ask you a favour.” Sans paused as the kid looked up at him. Why did the kid look so hopeful? Did it think it was making up for past choices by helping him? Whatever the kid is thinking doesn't matter, as long as it agrees to help.

“my bro's been kinda down lately.” Sans explained. The kid looked a little surprised. It had shocked Sans too, learning that Papyrus could ever be anything but “up.”

“he's never seen a human before, and it would really make his day if you played along, pretended you were one.” There was that bitterness again. Sans needed to learn to control himself.

“-'m human... Wanna... do good.” the kid choked out.

It seemed as though the human was actually trying this time. Sans knew it was hard for them to speak, so they must actually mean it this time. That was good. If they were being agreeable, then maybe they could help Papyrus.

“thanks kid. i'd say i owe you one, but you already owe papyrus a lot more. if you can make him happy for the rest of your resets, maybe i can forgive you too.” Anything was worth Papyrus's happiness, especially if it was a few cheap words that he'd never have to keep. Some day, the kid would get murder happy again. He wasn't looking forward to it.

The kid beamed and started signing words of gratitude before running off to the puzzles. Sans sighed and teleported to where Papyrus was. He had enough time to at least ask his brother a few questions before they – the human – showed up.

When had he started thinking of the human as a person?

Papyrus was waiting patiently beside the electricity maze.

“so what'd you 'n undyne talk about?” Why be subtle when he didn't have to. This could be a completely innocent question.

“SINCE YOU ARE SO INTERESTED, WE DISCUSSED MY FUTURE AS A ROYAL GUARDSMAN AND ABOUT WHEN OUR NEXT TRAINING SESSION WOULD BE. IT WAS A VERY IMPORTANT CONVERSATION, AND I THINK THAT WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER A BIT BETTER NOW! AFTER ALL, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN DO ANYTHING THAT I SET MY MIND TO! AND THAT INCLUDES BECOMING CLOSER TO MY FRIEND WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHO IS AND IS NOT A PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD!” Papyrus announced enthusiastically. Sans was floored, but he didn't let it show. Papyrus didn't lie. There was so much more that had happened this morning, but Papyrus didn't say anything untrue. He was just being misleading. When did he become so manipulative?

There wasn't anything Sans could do to counter that. If Papyrus wasn't lying and didn't sound like he was lying, then Sans couldn't just call him out on it.

Damn it . He would probably be stuck relying on the kid for a while.

“so what's the scoop? you going to be in the guard soon?” Sans challenged.

“UNDYNE HAS NOT EXACTLY... GIVEN ME A DATE YET, BUT WE HAVE OUR NEXT TRAINING SESSION TOMORROW! MAYBE THEN I WILL KNOW MORE!” Papyrus was hoping that Sans would stop questioning him soon. It was uncomfortable. Why was Sans so off script this time?

“that's too bad. you okay, though?” Sans asked.

Papyrus wondered where that question came from, “OF COURSE! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I CAN NEVER BE ANYTHING LESS THAN OKAY! WHY DO YOU ASK THAT?”

“just worried you might be disappointed, is all. still not knowing when you'll join the guard.” Sans answered, looking his brother in the eyes, “just want you to know i'm always here to help ya with anything.”

“SANS! YOU'RE BEING WEIRD! BUT... I APPRECIATE THE SENTIMENT. I SHALL ALWAYS BE READY TO HELP YOU TOO WHEN YOU NEED IT.” Papyrus replied, gently clapping Sans on the shoulder.

“you're the best bro. you know that, right?” Sans asked.

“OF COURSE I AM! BUT REALLY, WHY ARE YOU ASKING THESE WEIRD QUESTIONS ALL OF A SUDDEN? IT IS NOT LIKE YOU.” Papyrus stared at his brother, still not removing his hand. This behaviour from Sans was concerning. His brother was never this active unless something was wrong. Was this going to be one of the bad repeats? The human wasn't dusty, though, when he saw them standing in front of that rock.

“just felt like saying it. i don't need a reason to tell my bro how great he is, do i?”

“OF COURSE NOT!” Papyrus quickly agreed, “NOT WHEN IT IS ONE AS GREAT AS I!”

“exactly.” Sans said.

For some reason, Papyrus felt unusually tense as he stood beside his brother. The questions were definitely worrying, but he wasn't sure just how much he needed to be worried. For all he knew, they were just innocent questions caused by the sudden new event. Undyne had never showed up to chat before, so Sans was probably just collecting information so that he would know what to expect in the future if this happens again.

Papyrus was taking care to act especially normal today. Sans would have exactly zero reasons to suspect that anything was amiss if he had his way.

Then the human showed up. It was time to be shocked.

Not for the first time, Papyrus was cursing his first self for messing up this puzzle. The shocks always hurt more after he had chipped his carpals and arm bones for obvious reasons. He was stuck having to mess it up every time now because of that one mistake too many repeats ago.

By the end of the puzzle, it was worth it. Even though the human had an obvious path to follow to the end of the maze, they took their time and had fun not staring at the footprints and actually trying to solve the maze the way it was meant to be done.

Papyrus felt something in his chest swell. He felt good and almost important. When was the last time the human had showed this much respect for his puzzles? It was a bittersweet feeling.

The human continued to solve all of his puzzles in a similar manner, even asking for his help once or twice when they didn't need it. This was turning out to be one of the best repeats so far, if not the best one. Sans was participating and probably talking to the human between puzzles, the human seemed to genuinely be having fun playing along, and Papyrus couldn't help but smile to himself for real as he ran ahead to each new puzzle.

It was too bad that this would have to end some day.

The human still had no dust on their clothes when they reached the gauntlet of deadly terror. They had not done any violence yet. It was a relief. Perhaps he could see this good repeat last a bit longer.

After putting the obviously unfair trap away, Papyrus went to wait at the edge of town where Snowdin met Waterfall. Unfortunately, waiting alone meant that he had too much time to ruminate.

It was sad to think that all of this fun would some day be replaced by violence eventually. Even if the human was not violent for the rest of their repeats, these fun memories would be forgotten by everyone except for himself, Sans, and the human. And Flowey, he supposed, but he wasn't supposed to know that. The saddest part is that he would never be able to share the happy memories again. Sans believed that he couldn't remember, and Papyrus couldn't break his heart by telling him otherwise. The human probably wouldn't care. They knew that Sans remembered and kept on repeating anyways.

It was thoughts like these that made him want to hurt again. He would keep it all to himself, and then he would let out the hurt that comes with it. That's all it was.

It wasn't too long before the human showed up to fight. Papyrus gave his speech about how he must capture the human to join the Royal Guard and felt terrible about lying. The human was looking at him a little strangely, but that was fine. They would just dodge his attacks with practised ease and move on like they always did when they didn't kill him.

That's what Papyrus thought until the human started stumbling on some of his bones. They were jumping and moving as if this was all completely new to them. It was odd, but the human could do whatever they wanted. They were in control of everything in the Underground.

Papyrus had to be very careful when the human's HP dropped very low. He was even more surprised when the human allowed themselves to be captured! He actually caught the nearly unconscious human!

A spark of joy rekindled itself inside him as he picked up the human and brought them to the Capture Zone (a.k.a. the garage). He knew that the human would leave soon and come back to face him again, but that didn't stop Papyrus from making sure they were comfortable first. He left them a note too.

He had forgotten how much fun it was to feel like he had accomplished something.

Even if that something was ultimately worthless in the end.

He just couldn't break out of these depressing thoughts today.

The human allowed themselves to be captured two more times before Papyrus just let them pass. He still offered to have the human come by for a hang out later if they wished, but figured that they probably had better things to do. He just wanted to go and waste time at his house until he had to report the human to Undyne, and then waste more time until his training tomorrow.

So begun the countdown until the end.

At least the human was being nice this time. Sans might even have a slightly better day when the next repeat starts. The thought made Papyrus smile a little. He went back to his house to do as he said he would and wait for the human in case they decided that they wanted to come back to see him.

What a silly thought.

---

After Sans had mentioned it, Frisk could see that there was something different about Papyrus. He seemed almost sad. After all of the resets they had been through, they knew most of the monsters in the Underground pretty well, especially the ones that they saw and talked to the most.

It was strange because Papyrus had never seemed sad before. This was something new, or at least something different from the original resets. Why did Papyrus look different?

Frisk did their best to make Papyrus happy by playing his puzzles the way they were meant to be played, and by letting him capture them all three times. It had seemed to work temporarily, but the sadness always came back.

Clearly something was wrong, and Frisk was determined to help. Not just because Sans had asked them to, but because Papyrus was one of their favourite monsters. Frisk didn't like to see him sad, which is sometimes why they killed him. They didn't want him to have to see them kill everyone else.

But this time they were going to be nice to everyone, no matter what the voice said.

They were going to do things right this time.

They were going to help Papyrus.

It was the right thing to do.

Playing the puzzles and letting him capture them didn't work completely, but they still had the hang out to make things right.

Armed with notes and nice cream wrappers, Frisk was filled with determination to help their skeleton friend.

Chapter Text

In Which Frisk Gets A Little Frisky (because no one has ever made that joke before)

Papyrus was leaning against one of the supports at the front of his house and thinking to himself when, to his great surprise, the human actually showed up. It wasn't as if the human had never come by before, but they had not done so in a very long time. It was strange, but the human was acting very differently in this repeat at every other point in their adventure, so why would they stop now?

This would help him pass some time, at least. Maybe he could show the human such a great time that they would not kill anyone at all later!

No. The human always does a violence at some point.

“AH! HUMAN! HAVE YOU COME BY SO THAT WE MIGHT HANG OUT?” Papyrus asked, mustering up as much energy as he could on such short notice.

The human nodded.

“GREAT! I WILL TAKE YOU SOME PLACE THAT IS VERY SPECIAL TO ME, SOMEWHERE THAT I SPEND A LOT OF TIME! COME, FOLLOW!” Papyrus walked over to the edge of Grillby's before turning and walking back to his house. “WELCOME TO SCENIC MY HOUSE! COME INSIDE WHEN YOU ARE READY.”

With that, Papyrus walked inside quickly. At least the house was clean. He still hoped that this would leave a good impression on the human even though they had seen it many times before.

The human followed inside a moment later and headed straight for the kitchen sink. Papyrus was a little confused until he chased the dog away and heard the distinct sound of a trombone coming from upstairs. Sans was here. That meant he had to be extra careful to act normally.

“SANS! STOP PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC!”

Apparently hearing all that they needed to hear, the human put their hand in one of Papyrus's mittens and pulled him upstairs towards his bedroom. His arm twitched a little at the first sudden pull, but he otherwise let himself be led around. Obviously the human knew that they needed to enter his room before they could commence the hang out.

Once in the room, the human opened his closet. It was a little invasive, but Papyrus didn't really have anything to hide. “IT IS JUST A CLOSET, HUMAN. THERE ARE NO SKELETONS IN THERE.” The human stared at the open space for a moment before leaving it open and walking back towards him.

An open door like that did not look very tidy. Papyrus moved to go close it.

“D-Don't.” the human said. It was the first time that Papyrus had heard the human speak.

“WHY EVER NOT, HUMAN? IT WOULD LOOK TIDIER WITH THE DOOR CLOSED. THEN THE WALLS WOULD MAKE A NICE UNINTERRUPTED RECTANGLE.” Papyrus stated. It bothered him a little when things weren't just right.

[I want to make sure that no skeletons get back in there.] The human signed quickly. An odd request because they would easily be able to see if he walked over there, but Papyrus respected their wishes. It would only be for half an hour at most, right? He could handle the closet door being open for that long, no matter how annoying it was.

Papyrus walked back over to where the human was. The human signed their appreciation.

Papyrus gestured around his room, “SO HUMAN, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BEGIN OUR HANG OUT?”

Outside Papyrus's door, Sans was cursing his luck. The human didn't want him listening in. As nice as it – they were being this time, they were still a bit of an annoyance.

Once it was established that the human was wearing clothes, the human interrupted. Papyrus was secretly glad that he didn't have to pull off his battle body just yet. He didn't want to risk another person seeing his marks.

[Can we talk and get to know more about each other first?]

The friendship meter was sitting ignored in the corner of their vision.

“A REQUEST? CERTAINLY WE CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH OTHER BEFORE GOING FURTHER IN OUR HANG OUT! AS IT SAYS LATER ON IN MY BOOK, COMMUNICATION IS KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP!” Papyrus announced. It was becoming easier to create the false enthusiasm, “I SUPPOSE THAT, AS THE HOST, I SHOULD START! I KNOW THAT I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BUT I DO NOT YET KNOW YOUR NAME, HUMAN! WHAT ARE YOU CALLED, YOUNG HUMAN?”

The human's eyes shifted nervously as if this was an awkward question for them. After a quick moment of thought, the human said their name, “Call me... Frisk.” The two moved over to the bed to sit down.

“FRISK? THAT IS A GREAT NAME! A GREAT NAME WORTHY OF A GREAT FRIEND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

[How did you learn sign language?] Frisk asked. It was something that they had been curious about for a long time.

“WHAT DID I LEARN?” Papyrus asked.

[Sign language.] Frisk repeated.

“I AM NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ME. I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH THOSE HAND MOTIONS. I APOLOGIZE THAT MY SKILLS AT READING HANDS HAVE GOTTEN RUSTY.” Papyrus felt guilty. What if this made the human angry and made them start doing violence again? That would make him worse than the worthless that he already was. It wasn't bad enough that he couldn't stop the human, but he had to go and make them want to attack people.

[S-I-G-N-L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E. You called it reading hands?] Frisk looked curious, not angry. Papyrus felt like he had dodged a bullet.

“SPEAKING IN HANDS IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING BECAUSE YOU ARE USING YOUR HANDS TO SPEAK. HUMANS CALL IT SIGNLANGUAGE? I LEARNED IT PARTLY FROM SANS WHEN I WAS YOUNGER! IT WAS LIKE A SECRET CODE! EVEN IF MANY OTHER MONSTERS KNEW IT TOO. HE TAUGHT ME ALL SORTS OF COMPLICATED GESTURES AND WORDS BUT I LEARNED THE BASICS FROM... UH... FUNNY, I DON'T REMEMBER. IT FEELS LIKE I ALWAYS JUST KNEW.”

Frisk leaned forward. It was interesting to hear about Papyrus when he was a kid.

[What else did you do when you were a kid?]

Papyrus was a little startled at the direction of the conversation, but decided to go along with the Frisk's whims. It might even be fun to talk about his childhood. “WELL, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS NOT ALWAYS SO GREAT. SOMETIMES, I DID NOT HAVE FRIENDS AROUND LIKE I DO NOW, SO I WOULD SPEND TIME FIGURING THINGS OUT BY MYSELF, LIKE GRAVITY! ANY TIME I WANTED COMPANY THOUGH, I COULD ALWAYS GO AND TALK TO SANS! HE IS A GOOD BROTHER.” Papyrus smiled at the memory.

“HE DID NOT EVEN COMPLAIN ABOUT ANY OF THE STUFF THAT I DID, EVEN WHEN HE THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD. OF COURSE, HE DIDN'T TELL ME IT WAS WEIRD, BUT I FIGURED IT OUT LATER THAT SOMETIMES THERE ARE THINGS THAT MAKE OTHER PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN THEY SEE YOU DOING IT.

“SO I FOUND OTHER THINGS TO DO INSTEAD! SANS ALWAYS TOLD ME THAT I WAS VERY CLEVER, AND IT TOOK ALL OF MY MENTAL POWER TO LEARN WHAT I WAS DOING THAT PEOPLE DIDN'T LIKE.” He wouldn't admit that it had taken a very long time to learn. Especially because Sans was busy actually working at that point in their lives. He wasn't always around to explain why people acted the way that they did around the younger Papyrus.

“ONE THING THAT PEOPLE DIDN'T LIKE AT ALL WAS WHEN I WOULD WALK AND TALK TO MYSELF. I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY, BUT I LEARNED THAT WHEN PEOPLE WERE LOOKING AT ME THEN, IT WAS NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE ADMIRING MY GREATNESS. THEY JUST THOUGHT I WAS WEIRD.

“SO WHEN I WAS LITTLE, INSTEAD OF TALKING TO MYSELF, I WOULD RUB AND PINCH THE INSIDE OF MY MITTENS. NO ONE ELSE COULD SEE IT, SO IT DID NOT BOTHER THEM. AND IT WAS VERY SOFT AND SQUISHY. I LIKED THE FEELING A LOT, BUT THEY ARE TOO SMALL FOR ME NOW. HUMAN! WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY THEM? I STILL HAVE THEM.” Papyrus offered.

Frisk nodded enthusiastically. Papyrus went into his closet and took the box off the top shelf. He kept his favourite childhood things in the same box that he kept his chisel. The human probably wouldn't think anything of it, though.

[If they are too small, what do you do now?] Frisk asked.

“NOW I HAVE MY SCARF! IT HAS TWO DIFFERENT TEXTURES ON IT AND BOTH ARE VERY SOFT AND PLEASING.”

Papyrus started removing items from the box and organizing them on his bed. The mittens were at the bottom. Their deep blue colour had faded with time and use. It had been a long time since his hands were small enough to fit into them.

“YOU SHOULD FEEL THE TEXTURE ON THE INSIDE! IT IS WONDERFUL!”

Frisk reached out to take the gloves from Papyrus's hand and their sleeves pulled back a little bit. The gloves were dropped on the bed below. There were some strange red lines on the human's arm.

“HUMAN! I MEAN FRISK! IS THAT KETCHUP?” Papyrus asked. If ketchup came from inside humans, then he would have to have a stern talk with Sans about what he liked to drink.

Frisk shrunk back quickly, pulling their sleeves up to their hands. They glanced over at the bedroom door and stared for a moment before speaking quietly, “Switch... speak hands... please?”

“YOU WANT ME TO SPEAK IN HANDS?” Papyrus asked.

Frisk nodded.

Papyrus swallowed. That would mean taking off his mittens. He couldn't properly speak in hands if his fingers weren't visible, and his sleeves wouldn't cover all the marks he'd made yesterday. “I'M... NOT SURE THAT I CAN DO THAT. I'M A LITTLE RUSTY AND I... UH... I DON'T KNOW THAT I CAN DO IT ANYMORE.”

“Try?” Frisk asked, “Important.”

“UM... MAYBE? WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME WHY YOU HAVE KETCHUP ON YOU? I CAN GET YOU A CLOTH TO CLEAN IT UP IF YOU WOULD LIKE. IT WOULD NOT BE VERY HOST-LIKE OF ME TO HAVE MY GUESTS SITTING AROUND DIRTY WHEN I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF HELPING THEM CLEAN!” Papyrus offered. He wondered why the human was being so evasive. Or was it defensive?

Frisk shook their head vigourously. They paused for a moment in thought and Papyrus waited. If the human wanted to speak, he would let them do so in their own time. Slowly, Frisk let go of their sleeves and began to sign, [Humans don't leak ketchup.]

Papyrus raised an eyebrow, silently asking the human to continue, [It is dry blood from an injury.]

“HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? THE GREAT PAPYRUS DID NOT AIM ANY ATTACKS IN THAT AREA WHEN WE FOUGHT.” Papyrus asked. He wanted to help the human while they were still being nice.

Frisk was still for a long time. They seemed to be having a conversation with themselves in their head. If they didn't want to tell him yet, then it must be because they haven't reached the friend zone yet. If they did, then maybe they would reach the friend zone sooner.

After a few minutes had passed, Frisk looked back at Papyrus and gave him a short answer, [I did it myself. Before I came here.]

“BEFORE YOU CAME TO SNOWDIN?”

[Before I came underground.]

The human did this too? It saddened Papyrus greatly to think that there was someone else who had to do this too. Maybe this was why the human was so violent. Maybe taking it out on themselves wasn't working anymore and they were choosing the wrong way to try to make themselves feel better again. Papyrus was determined to help the small human. Maybe this time, with his help, they wouldn't do any violence at all! All of this would repeat some day, and then it wouldn't matter anymore, but there could at least be one time where the Frisk was nice to everyone. It could be something to hope for.

Papyrus was determined to help. He had to make this human feel happier. “I'M SORRY HUMAN, THAT YOU FELT THAT YOU HAD TO DO THAT. HOWEVER, I THINK I HAVE SOMETHING THAT CAN HELP YOU! WHEN YOU ARE HANGING OUT, THE BOOK SAYS THAT YOU NEED TO GIVE A GIFT TO THE OTHER PERSON TO SHOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE ABOUT THEM AND THEIR FRIENDSHIP. FRISK, IF YOU WOULD LIKE, YOU CAN HAVE MY OLD MITTENS! THEY SHOULD COVER UP NICELY!” Papyrus took the forgotten mittens off the bed and placed them in Frisk's lap.

Frisk was surprised. [You aren't asking me why?]

Papyrus shook his head and smiled, “I BELIEVE THAT IT IS WHAT YOU WOULD CALL 'NONE OF MY BUSINESS' UNLESS YOU WANT TO SAY.”

Frisk was confused. That isn't how people are supposed to react when they find out bad stuff. People usually freak out and start hurting them and bothering them with all sorts of uncomfortable questions that they don't want to answer. Papyrus wouldn't hurt them, but he seemed like he would be the type to go overboard with worry. Instead he was being kind and respectful and even helping them hide it. Something wasn't adding up. This was completely out of character.

It's not totally out of character. You just haven't gotten to know him yet. How do you know what his character is?

The voice had a point. They didn't really know much about Papyrus until today. Just that he liked puzzles and spaghetti and wanted to join the Royal Guard so that he could help people.

Still, even if being overly enthusiastic about helping people wasn't part of his character – it most definitely is – then why would he not freak out about the scars? Toriel saw some of the scars just under their hairline once and nearly burned the pie she was holding. They were just glad that she hadn't seen the rest of their body. Frisk never took off the bandage before leaving the ruins again.

Hint to shorty: ask him about his own mittens. Why would a skeleton need mittens? Why would he still need to wear them inside?

The voice had a very good point.

[Why do you wear your mittens inside?]

It was Papyrus's turn to look around. The human was definitely being strange this time, but it was strange in a good way. Also, the human had trusted him with a secret of theirs, so shouldn't he do the same? It would also probably make them feel less alone, and maybe if they felt less alone, then they would call and talk to him instead of doing violence.

There was definitely no selfish motive to talk to someone who also knew the pain.

Papyrus took off the mitten on his right hand and began to speak with it. Frisk's eyes widened a little at the chips in the bones, [Me too, Frisk.]

Frisk looked sadly at their friend, and their eyes filled with determination.

[Does Sans know?]

Papyrus looked scared and started frantically shaking his head, [No. He can absolutely never know!]

Frisk was confused. [But you're brothers.]

[Someone has to keep him sane through all this. He can't know.] Papyrus was adamant about this.

[Through all what?] Frisk asked. They had never seen Papyrus backpedal so fast.

He began making the beginnings of various gestures while he was trying to figure out what to say. He didn't want to make the human feel worse than they already must, but he couldn't think of a good lie to tell them. He hated lying anyways. After considering it for a moment, Papyrus decided to tell them the truth. [The repeats.]

[You know about the resets?] Frisk was shocked. They hadn't seen that one coming.

[All of them.] Papyrus admitted.

Frisk looked down at the ground and signed a few apologies. They didn't really want to hurt Papyrus. He was always nice to them, even the time that they killed everyone. [How?]

Papyrus shrugged.

[And Sans doesn't know?]

[He can't. It would hurt him too much.] Papyrus said. He hoped that the human wouldn't say anything to Sans later.

[Maybe you should tell him?] Frisk suggested, [How bad could it be?]

[Sans...] How to word this, [He is not one who likes to listen much.]

Frisk could agree with that. They tried to apologize to him in the judgement hall, but he just took that opportunity to kill them. They made it as obvious as possible that it was them and not the force using the voice to control them, but he didn't seem to care about the difference.

They nodded their agreement. Then an idea came to mind. [Your book says that friends give each other gifts to show how much they value each other's friendship, right?]

Papyrus nodded, glad for the subject change.

[I have something for you then. Keep them in order, though.] Frisk dug through their pockets and found the five nice cream wrappers that they had. They arranged them in an order that they thought would make sense. [You can look at these any time you feel bad.]

Frisk passed the wrappers to Papyrus so that he could read them

You're just great!

Is this as sweet as you?

*Illustration of a hug*

Love yourself! I love you!

Have a wonderful day!

Suddenly, the friendship meter was pushed beyond capacity. Papyrus stared in shock. Why was the human being so kind?

There was a weight on his lap and a pressure around his sides. Papyrus looked down to see the small human hugging him. He gently returned the hug. The two sat together for a moment before releasing each other.

Papyrus had tears in his eyes. [I will look at this every day.]

Frisk beamed. Papyrus looked really happy. Mission accomplished.

“SO, HUMAN, DID YOU GET MY NOTES FROM EARLIER?” Papyrus asked, putting his mitten back on.

Frisk nodded.

“KNOW THAT THE OFFER IS ALWAYS OPEN. WE HAVE A COUCH AND A SPARE ROOM ALSO KNOWN AS THE CAPTURE ZONE. PROPER BEDDING CAN BE PROVIDED WITH ENOUGH NOTICE, IF YOU NEED SOME PLACE TO STAY.”

It was Frisk's turn to start tearing up. No one had offered them a place to stay before except Toriel. But she was different. They weren't sure before if Papyrus had meant it.

[You really mean that?]

“OF COURSE, HUMAN! WHEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS OFFERS HIS HOSPITALITY, HE MEANS IT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! MAYBE EVEN TWO HUNDRED PERCENT! YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME TO STAY HERE! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WOULD I BE IF I MADE YOU STAY OUTSIDE WITH NO PROTECTION?”

[A human one.] Frisk replied glumly.

“OH. I SEE.” Papyrus was startled a little by the honesty. Did his friend have such a hard life before they came to the Underground? How did they even come here in the first place? “WELL NEVER FEAR, FOR THERE ARE NO HUMAN MONSTERS DOWN HERE! JUST REGULAR MONSTERS AND A HUMAN FRIEND! NYEH HEH HEH!”

Frisk started giggling. They seemed happier again. Mission accomplished.

“IN THAT CASE, WHY DON'T YOU SPEND THE DAY EXPLORING OR DOING WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU HUMANS LIKE TO DO? JUST BE BACK BEFORE SUPPER. I NEED TO MAKE MY REPORT TO UNDYNE, BUT DO NOT WORRY! I WILL TELL HER THAT SHE SHOULD NOT HARM YOU. YOU ARE A VERY GOOD HUMAN!” Papyrus was determined to help his friend as much as he could, “MAYBE YOU COULD EVEN JOIN US FOR TRAINING TOMORROW! IT WOULD BE A LOT OF FUN!” [And it usually went very well before. Even when her house burned down.]

Frisk started laughing in agreement.

“SINCE OUR FRIENDSHIP LEVEL HAS IMPROVED SO GREATLY, I BELIEVE IT WOULD NOT BE WRONG TO SAY THAT WE HAVE MADE IT TO THE FRIEND ZONE. TO COMEMMORATE THIS ACHIEVEMENT, WOULD YOU CARE TO SHARE WHAT UNDYNE CALLS A 'FIST BUMP OF SOLIDARITY?'” Papyrus asked hopefully.

Frisk looked confused.

Papyrus explained, “SHE SAID IT MEANS WE'RE FRIENDS.” He held out his mittened fist for Frisk.

They eagerly put on the blue mittens and bumped their fist against his. The two smiled widely.

Papyrus packed his things back into the box (except the mittens that he gave to Frisk) and puts it back where it belongs. Finally, he is able to close the closet door.

“LET'S GO, HUMAN!”

The two make their way outside while a frustrated, angry, and confused Sans teleports back into his room to hide and think. Why did Papyrus apologize to the human for what they did? He should not be apologizing because that kid felt that they had to kill everyone. He should not be giving them gifts to cover up and keep warm. He even offered the shelter. And when they started talking in hands, that was really clever on the kid's part. How did they know he was listening? What did those two say to each other? It was another puzzle for him to solve. If the kid was manipulating his brother under the pretense of helping him, then they were gonna have a very bad time.

Papyrus left the human at the edge of Waterfall and walked over to where he needed to meet Undyne.

It wasn't too long before she showed up as well.

“HELLO UNDYNE! I AM HERE TO DELIVER MY REPORT!” Papyrus stated dutifully.

“Did you capture the human?” She asked.

“YES, I DID MANAGE TO CAPTURE THE HUMAN! HOWEVER... THEY MANAGED TO ESCAPE.” Papyrus explained.

It couldn't be seen through the armour, but Undyne's face held a look of sadness. She felt bad for Papyrus. He dealt with all this shit and then the human got away. It must be tough for him. “Sorry man, better luck next time, though?”

“WELL, I DID MANAGE TO TALK TO THE HUMAN AND THEY SEEM LIKE A VERY NICE PERSON. MAYBE ALL THREE OF US COULD EVEN BE-”

The glare did penetrate her helmet. “I will not make friends with human scum. We only need one more soul to break the barrier.”

“I CAN UNDERSTAND WANTING TO CAPTURE THEM. AFTER ALL, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ONCE HAD INTENTIONS OF DOING SO AS WELL. HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT A BAD HUMAN. PLEASE TRY NOT TO HURT THEM!” Papyrus begged.

Undyne sighed inwardly. Of all the things she does for this nerd, “I can't help it if they walk into the spears I throw in front of them.”

“THAT'S NOT A PROMISE.”

“I'll at least give them a warm-up.” Undyne compromised. It was the best he was going to get. Papyrus knew that the human could handle Undyne. They had done so before. He just had to keep up appearances now.

“SO YOU WILL NOT TRY TO HURT THEM? THAT IS GREAT! I WILL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY THAT I CAN!” Papyrus happily ran back towards Snowdin.

Undyne shook her head. That human was going to have to die, and it would probably be at her hands. She only hoped that Papyrus would think it an accident so that she can spare his feelings. She knew that he was smarter than that, but she could still hope. He obviously really likes the human.

Only he could make friends with the enemy.

She was relieved that it didn't get him killed.

Did those plants just move?

Chapter Text

In Which Everyone Pleads To Frisk

It was a narrow escape from Undyne. Crouching in the plants really took a toll on their legs. Right after Papyrus ran off back to Snowdin, Frisk fell onto their bum in the plants, causing them to rustle a little and grab the attention of a certain captain. Frisk held their breath and stayed perfectly still until Undyne left. She must have thought it was a gust of wind or something moving the plants.

Does the underground even have wind? So far, the steam vents were the closest things Frisk had seen to wind. Those and Undyne's hair.

Must be magic.

Once it was safe to move again, Frisk crept out of the plants and quickly made their way to the beginning of the Waterfall area. As per usual when they didn't kill Papyrus, Sans was waiting at his sentry station. This was not going to be a fun chat after all that they did to stop Sans from hearing what wasn't any of his business to begin with. At least until Papyrus wants to make it his business.

They were determined to keep this secret for their friend.

“hey kid, i was just about to take my break. wanna come to grillby's with me? i know a shortcut.” Sans asked. It wasn't really a question, but Frisk went along with it anyways. It would be better to see what he wants now, than to try to run away and risk having him attack later or something. Sans was always unpredictable.

Twenty steps and a dizzying teleport later, the two were walking into Grillby's and making their way up to the bar counter. Sans ordered them a burger and fries without asking and took the ketchup bottle for himself. He must be very upset with them if he didn't even try to keep up his lazy-but-still-nice act in front of the other patrons.

Frisk started pinching the inside of the mittens. Papyrus was right, it did feel really nice.

After taking an unhealthy swig of his condiment, Sans spoke up, “so, how did you like hanging out with my bro? did you have a good time?”

Frisk nodded.

“yeah, my bro's an awesome guy. it'd be a shame if anyone were to hurt him. you know, pretend to be nice only to betray that trust later.” Sans accused. Frisk was looking at their legs and fidgeting a little with the mittens. Sans sighed. The kid actually looked like they regretted doing all that before.

“i'm not doing all of this to be mean to you, kid. right now, i don't really care what's going on in your head as long as papyrus is safe and healthy. i want him to stop feeling so low, you know? so can you help me out kid? what did you two chat about?”

Frisk shook their head.

“you think it's none of my business? papyrus is my brother. that makes it my business.” Sans argued, “and he's treating you way nicer than he should already. he gave you mittens, offered you food and shelter, so why aren't you going to help me help him?”

“Unfair... to Papyrus... mean... his choice.” Frisk kept shaking their head.

Sans chuckled darkly, “yeah? since when do you care about what's unfair or mean?”

Frisk shut their eyes and shook their head more vigourously. They were being stubborn about this point, so Sans decided to try a different approach.

He calmed his voice and face before speaking again, “then is there something you can tell me about what i have to do to help him?”

Frisk removed the mittens and placed them in their lap and pulled their sleeves. [Just be nice and talk to him and listen to him. There isn't much else you have to do.]

Sans was silent for a moment. Slowly, he took another unhealthy mouthful of ketchup and swallowed to try to calm himself. “don't lie to me, kid. i already know what's wrong with papyrus, what he's doing. don't tell me that i just have to sit around and not do anything.”

[You know?] Frisk was a little shocked, but not completely surprised. If Sans was eavesdropping during their hang out, then he probably used other privacy invasion techniques to learn about Papyrus's self harm. The only question was why he hadn't done anything about it yet.

“yeah, and judging by the look on your face, you do too. it must have come up at some point in there.”

In response to Sans's earlier statement, Frisk had to hold back a smirk. If Sans was allowed to be immature, then so were they. [I'm not telling you to do nothing, just be yourself. Sit around, be patient, and wait until the last possible moment to act when you could have been doing something useful all along. You're good at that.]

“you have no right to say that.”

[I'm the only one with the right to say that.]

The two stared each other down until Sans looked away. He took another swig of ketchup.

“so what do you want me to do, kid? how do i help papyrus stop feeling like that? you seem to know all about this stuff somehow, so how can i fix this?” Some of the anger was leaving the skeleton, only to be replaced with depressing feelings of helplessness.

Frisk scowled. [You don't fix it. You listen to Papyrus and help him fix his own problems.]

“uh, that's the same thing kiddo.” Sans cocked an eyebrow.

They shook their head. [Do you even know why Papyrus feels bad?]

Sans nodded slowly. “maybe? he doesn't feel respected, but i dunno if that's the whole reason or the only reason.”

[So how does you fixing things for him make him feel better? Or maybe, what does it look and feel like when you feel respect?]

“is that a real question?” Sans asked. Frisk nodded. “i guess the short answer is either when two or more people treat each other as equals and can appreciate the efforts and accomplishments of the other towards whatever goal they are trying to achieve. what's your point?”

Frisk hit their palm against their face. [If you are fixing Papyrus's problem by yourself, then how is that equal?]

“papyrus is my brother. i can't just not help him when he needs it.”

[Help him by giving him chances to help himself. Talk to him and listen.] Frisk emphasized, [It's not hard. I'm worse than a stranger and it didn't take long for me. He probably wants to talk about it, but doesn't feel comfortable sharing. He has a reason to not feel comfortable talking to you about it right now. Just be a good brother and give him a reason to want to talk to you.]

Sans thought to himself for a moment. Was their relationship too one-sided? If it was, Papyrus should be getting the better end of the deal. He doesn't need to worry or struggle with any problems because Sans would fix them for him as soon as he knew that they would become an issue. That's what he's always done. He would protect Papyrus so that he never had to experience anything bad.

Was that hurting him somehow? Was preventing Papyrus from experiencing bad and sad things also preventing him from feeling proud of himself for overcoming the obstacles? Sans could too easily see a lack of pride warping into feelings of worthlessness, but Papyrus had always been so cheery! That couldn't have happened.

Although the kid did have a good point. This overprotectiveness couldn't be considered respect by his own definition.

“easier said than done, kid.” Sans sighed and pushed himself away from the bar counter and made his way towards the door. “welp, i've gotta go think some stuff over. see you around.”

Frisk waved and looked back at their lukewarm burger and fries. They took their time finishing the meal before exiting the establishment themselves. They still had a couple of hours before supper, so they decided to go explore more in the Snowdin forest. In previous runs, they had always stuck to the path with Papyrus's puzzles and never ventured beyond that. Maybe this time they could find something new. They would deal with Undyne and Waterfall tomorrow, after they had a sleepover at Papyrus's house.

---

Frisk was pleasantly surprised that evening. Supper was leftover breakfast spaghetti and it was uncharacteristically delicious. Papyrus apologized several times for the lack of freshness, and Frisk told him several more times that it was fine.

Papyrus had also rearranged some of the furniture in the house and the Capture Zone so that the latter was now a hospitable room for a human. There were several blankets laid out beside cushions that were arranged into the shape of a mattress. He had even put a sheet on them so that they all stayed together. He had also included a few books for them to read and a small light that they could use if they woke up in the middle of the night and needed something.

It was very sweet, and Frisk slept with absolutely no problems.

They were also pleasantly surprised by breakfast. It wasn't spaghetti, but instead a warm plate with a cinnamon bunny and a note from Papyrus on it.

HUMAN, I KNOW THAT THIS IS UNHEALTHY AND NOT SPAGHETTI, BUT I HAVE HEARD THAT TREATS LIKE THIS ONE ARE A DELICACY FOR HUMANS. I WOULD NOT WANT YOU TO MISS OUT! - YOUR FRIEND, PAPYRUS.

P.S. DO NOT FORGET THAT TRAINING WITH UNDYNE IS TODAY!

There was no way that they would forget one of the most enjoyable and memorable parts of their trip through the Underground. Even if they rarely got the opportunity to cook with Undyne, it was still one of their favourite experiences.

They ate half of the cinnamon bunny and tucked the other half away for later. The sooner they got through all of the Waterfall puzzles, the sooner they would get to have fun burning down a house.

Frisk eagerly left the Capture Zone, filled with determination.

---

“FRISK! THERE YOU ARE! I HAVE BEEN WAITING EAGERLY FOR YOU!” Papyrus waved as he saw Frisk approach Undyne's house.

Frisk removed a mitten and replied happily, [I would never miss training with Undyne!]

Papyrus smiled with relief, “I AM VERY GLAD! BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING THAT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY BE AWARE OF BEFORE WE GO INSIDE.”

Frisk tilted their head. [What is it?]

“WELL...” Papyrus started. He began to nervously play with his scarf, “UNDYNE MIGHT POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT MY... HABIT... AND SHE ALSO MIGHT NOT BE VERY HAPPY ABOUT IT. YOU SEE, ONE OF THE REASONS THAT I WANTED YOU HERE IS BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS. ANOTHER REASON IS SO THAT YOU AND UNDYNE CAN ALSO BECOME FRIENDS. BUT THERE IS A THIRD REASON, AND THAT IS SO THAT YOU CAN MAYBE DISTRACT UNDYNE FOR ME SO SHE DOESN'T TRY TO BOTHER ME WITH TOO MANY QUESTIONS?”

[Normally you just cannonball out the window and run away.] Frisk said with a straight face.

“YES WELL, THAT WAS ALSO ON THE TO-DO LIST.” Papyrus admitted. Frisk started laughing.

“NYEEEEH! HUMAN, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT JOKE YOU FIND SO FUNNY, BUT I ASSURE YOU THAT I DID NOT INTEND TO MAKE ONE.”

Frisk laughed harder. [Teasing you is just too much fun!]

“WELL IT IS GOOD THAT YOU ARE HAPPY RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED TO REMAIN OPTIMISTIC NOW. WE'RE GOING IN TO SEE UNDYNE.” Papyrus gave Frisk the gift-wrapped bone and knocked on Undyne's door.

The angry fish lady grudgingly let the two in and the regular antics ensued. Soon enough, Frisk was left alone to try to become best friends with Undyne by chatting over tea. Or rather, letting Undyne vent while burning their mouth and throat with scalding hot tea.

“I'm glad that Papyrus was able to find a friend, even in a human like you. He needs all the support he can get, especially right now. The last couple of days have been really tough on him, you know? And I probably just keep making things worse.

“You know, yesterday I actually had a sit down talk with him and told him that I wouldn't ever let him join the Royal Guard.” Frisk nearly choked on their tea. “Yeah, I never thought I'd have the heart to tell him either, but he actually agreed with me! Can you believe it? The guy who never stops talking about how he'll some day be the best Guardsman just easily agreed with me that he's too nice for the job!

“But I learned from that, you know? He's mature enough to handle himself and think for himself and all that. There was no point in trying to protect him from all that hurt to begin with. Especially when I know that I go too far sometimes, but being passionate is what's important over everything else!

“I know that he's freaking tough physically, but he's even tougher emotionally. Papyrus has gone through so much shit that I didn't even know about until two days ago. Can you believe it? That cheery skeleton holding on to so much pain?”

Frisk nodded. [We talked about it.]

It was Undyne's turn to be shocked. “You did? I had to corner him in his house to make him give up just a little bit of information! How did you do it?”

[I gave him a reason to want to talk about it.] Frisk took another sip of tea. It was still very hot.

Undyne sighed. “That's some talent you've got there, punk.”

[How did you find out? It's not as though he would just leave the door unlocked. Locking the door is common sense.]

“Actually, yeah. I just walked in.”

[But that only happens in bad movies and cliché books!]

“Nah, it happens all the time in the human world. Alphys has the history documentaries to prove it!” She chugged her cup of tea in one go. “Hey, you know what I just realized? Papyrus totally just BAILED ON HIS COOKING TRAINING!” Undyne pointed at Frisk. “And that means that YOU will have to have it FOR HIM! WE WILL BECOME ULTIMATE BESTIES AFTER THIS!”

One burning house later, the two were standing outside panting from the excitement and smoke inhalation.

“Heh. I guess I really screwed this up, huh. Just like with Papyrus.”

Frisk shook their head quickly.

“No? You saying that you had fun?”

Frisk nodded. [Hanging out with you is fun. I had a good time.]

Undyne shook her head and smiled. “You sure are weird, punk. I've got two things to ask you then, as ultimate besties.” Frisk tilted their head. “First thing I want to know is how you managed to get Papyrus to actually talk to you. You were supposed to be enemies. What reason did you give him to make him change his mind?”

Frisk fidgeted with the mittens in their hands. They were a little stained and dusty now, but still very functional. Undyne seemed to be handling the situation with Papyrus pretty well, so maybe they could trust her too. Frisk was scared about what her reaction might be, but decided to try trusting their newfound friend. [Don't be mad please.]

They rolled up one sleeve just far enough to show a few of the red lines on their arm.

Undyne's eye widened slightly. “Yeesh, those sure are some battle scars, punk. Who'd you fight to get those?”

Frisk slid their sleeve back down. [Lots of things. They all became one common enemy.]

“I see why Papyrus gave you some mittens then. He's really too nice for his own good sometimes. The second thing I wanted to ask, is if you could please help him? Sans is an idiot, I've already tried and done what I can, so you're the only friend he has left. What do you say?”

Frisk smiled and nodded very quickly.

“I like your passion! Give it your all then! A promise between besties! FIST BUMP ME, PUNK!” Undyne held out her fist.

Frisk eagerly put on the mittens and returned the fist bump with all their energy.

“NGAAAH! WE'RE FRIENDS NOW, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!” Undyne shouted. “I'll be in Snowdin, crashing on Papyrus's couch until my house stops burning. If you need me, just give Papyrus a call. See you around!”

Undyne started the walk to Snowdin while Frisk continued on their journey to the capital. She hoped that Asgore would be merciful to the kid. Her hopes weren't high.

---

Upon reaching Snowdin, Undyne immediately sought out Papyrus. He was easy enough to find since he was just standing outside his house and watching the snow fall.

“YO PAPYRUS! YOU SKIPPED YOUR TRAINING, PUNK!” She called to him.

“U-UNDYNE! WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE! I DID NOT EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE. THE COUCH ALREADY HAS A BLANKET ON IT FOR YOU IN CASE YOU END UP STAYING LATE TODAY FOR SOME UNEXPECTED REASON SUCH AS YOUR HOUSE INEXPLICABLY CATCHING FIRE.” Papyrus turned and gave the captain his full attention.

Undyne looked a little disappointed. “Man, did the punk call you and spoil the news? I wanted to be the one to tell you about the passionate flames of friendship that we forged together. It was too much for my house, and now it's on fire and I can't live in it until that stops.”

Papyrus struck a pose. “NEVER FEAR, FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL BE YOUR GREAT HOST UNTIL SUCH A TIME THAT YOUR HOUSE IS NO LONGER BURNING!”

“Thanks man, I was counting on it. Think of it as a punishment for skipping training today.” Undyne's face became serious. “Seriously dude, everything alright? You don't just skip training.”

Papyrus just stared at her. He also doesn't just show up late for work or chip away at his bones, but he wasn't going to mention those either. “OF COURSE EVERYTHING IS NOT ALRIGHT. EVERYTHING IS GREAT! FOR I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

Undyne sighed. “I thought we were past this.”

Papyrus just looked at his feet. The snow was very white today.

“I talked to the kid.” Undyne started, “They have some pretty wicked battle scars. They don't look nearly as badass as mine do yet, but some day, that kid'll have some good stories to tell. They said they've fought a lot of stuff until all those enemies joined forces and became one.”

Papyrus listened. Where was she going with this?

“The thing about enemies joining forces, is that it makes them seem impossible. But it's not. Even if the enemies work together, you can still pick them off one by one, or just work twice as hard to beat them. They are still just the same old enemies. Some day, you'll fight and conquer them for good. When that happens, you'll be even greater. I hope you'll feel greater too.”

Papyrus looked at his boss with tears in his eyes. Undyne's eye sparked evilly. Before Papyrus could react, she wrapped her arm around the back of his neck and pulled his head down so she could rub her knuckles over his skull.

“UNDYNE! PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON!” he pleaded.

“NGAAAH! No more mushy stuff! We're going inside before we freeze out here! Letting your guests become ice cubes isn't very host-like!” Undyne said, pulling the sore skeleton into his house with her arm still wrapped around him.

Chapter Text

In Which IMs Are A Thing

Papyrus knew for certain that Frisk had made it to Hotland and was well on their way to the Capital. His phone wouldn't stop buzzing with Undernet notifications. Every twenty seconds or so, Dr. Alphys was updating her status to talk about anime, her anxieties, or the human. If the rest of the Underground wasn't yet aware of the human, they would be now.

Cooking with a Killer Robot had just finished, and Frisk had performed marvellously. They dodged every egg, flour poff, and milk puddle with a showman's ease. It didn't surprise Papyrus in the least, but he was happy that the human seemed to be having fun.

Dr. Alphys also seemed to be gaining some much needed confidence. In truth, Papyrus didn't know her very well, outside of Undyne's mumbled praise and excitement towards the human history movies that they both enjoyed, but it didn't stop him from understanding just how much she needed the boost in spirits. In many timelines, Dr. Alphys didn't survive. It was never Frisk that killed her either. Whenever Undyne or Mettaton was killed – most often Undyne – by Frisk, Dr. Alphys would mysteriously disappear. Whether she met her demise somewhere in her lab or in the dump in Waterfall, Papyrus never learned. He didn't want to know.

After the most recent repeat, he felt he had to do something to help, for when the human finally does do a violence. Mettaton is the last monster that they will face. No one else has died yet, so it will most likely be the fabulous robot to lose his life in this round. Dr. Alphys will be crushed.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do it as Papyrus. He was too well known as the one-dimensional overly optimistic character who didn't know the meaning of sadness. To talk to her normally, he would have to use the dreaded “anonymous mode.” He hated being anonymous. It felt deceptive. People should not be afraid to say things and admit that it was they who had said it. If they are afraid to admit their identity, then maybe they should consider not saying the thing at all.

As much as he didn't like it, he could do this to help his friends. Maybe Dr. Alphys wasn't his friend yet, but she could be! And when Undyne can't find Dr. Alphys, she gets really upset and won't move or eat or do anything. That behaviour scared Papyrus more than anything else.

Papyrus looked over at Undyne. She was busying herself reading the many status updates that Dr. Alphys was posting and complaining about Mettaton and his over-the-top personality. She wouldn't notice anything he was about to do. Since when was using his phone a suspicious behaviour?

Papyrus switched himself into anonymous mode and forced himself to write with a mixture of capital and lower case letters. Dr. Alphys and Undyne were definitely worth the discomfort. He opened a private chat.

Anon: Dr. Alphys! I am watching Mettaton on TV and I wanted to say that I think the two of you are doing a great job!

Alphys: Thanks! Im glad you like it, but Im not rly doing all that much...

Alphys: MTT is the real star.

Anon: What nonsense! You are the brilliant Dr. Alphys! Master of quizzes, lasers, lights, and computer skills! Not to mention a great puzzle solver! What would the human do without you to help them?

Alphys: Well... the human was able to solve the puzzles all by themselves... they didnt need me at all... i just messed up calling them and explaining things to them. I dont know how they still got through it after my terrible explanations.

Anon: But they still did it! You must have done something right!

Alphys: Im not so sure... but thx. I appreciate it.

Anon: It is no problem! How could I not think so well of the one who writes such fantastic Mew Mew Kissy Cutie reviews? Your analysis, descriptions, and explanations are most certainly very well done.

Alphys: YOU LIKE MMKC!?!?!?

Anon: I have not actually seen it yet, but after reading your comments, I feel like I have!

Alphys: OMGOMG YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT! Its like the BEST THING EVER!

Alphys: I... would invite you to come by and watch it, but I dont know who you are.

Alphys: And we would only watch season 1. Season 2 doesnt exist.

Anon: Well, for reasons that I don't want to say right now, I can't tell you who I am, but if we do meet each other in real life (or irl as I hear it is called), then I would love to watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie with you!

Alphys: Oh... I see. We all have things we need to keep secret, after all.

Anon: You have secrets too?

Alphys: Well, of course.

Anon: Have you told anyone about them? It makes you feel a lot better when you do.

Alphys: No! I cant! I can never tell anyone about this secret! Everyone would hate me and Id lose the 1 friend I already have...

Anon: Only one friend? But you are such a nice person! You're smart and nice and have excellent taste in movies and television, so who wouldn't want to be your friend? One is my friend quantity and I claim it so that no one else can have it! Now you have to have more friends!

Alphys: Lol anon. That's too funny.

Alphys: I cant tell anyone, tho. This secret affects too many other people. I did bad things.

Alphys: TBH, I kind of hate myself for it.

Alphys: Its really just my 1 friend that keeps me from doing old habits or something... cowardly.

Anon: Well, if it would make you feel better, you can talk to me about it. I promise that my proverbial lips are sealed. None shall ever hear what you say from me.

Alphys: Im not sure...

Anon: I can do my best to understand! And if not, I promise not to judge you for anything you say! To me, you will always be the number one Royal Scientist in the Underground!

Alphys: I'm the only Royal Scientist...

Alphys: but I appreciate the thought.

Alphys: It makes me feel a little bit better.

Alphys: I cant tell you why everyone would hate me but.. 1 thing has been on my mind.

Anon: What is it?

Alphys: Well, I got a call from my friend and she was concerned about one of her friends who she found out has the same problem that i did a long time ago and i tried to help her be okay about it so she can help her friend but i dont know if it worked bc i dont know who her friend is but i hope he doesnt end up feeling as bad as me bc then thats very bad for all sorts of reasons.

Alphys: ...sorry for the info dump.

Anon: You're concerned for your friend's friend? See? I told you that you were a nice person!

Anon: And... I sort of understand where you're coming from. I myself do some... socially unacceptable things. Things that help me not feel so bad sometimes! But I would never want anyone else to do them. It would be too sad.

Alphys: Im sorry to hear that youve had problems like that too.

Anon: It's okay though! My friend is staying with me while her house is on fire, so things are going to be okay!

Alphys: While her... house is on fire? Are you by chance friends with Undyne?

Anon: GASP! How did you figure it out?

Alphys: Well, Undyne texted me earlier to tell me that the human was on their way to Hotland and that she would be staying with the friend she told me about bc she set her house on fire by accident.

Alphys: Dont worry though! Youre still anon! She didnt tell me your name or where you live or anything!

Anon: Phew. That's good.

Alphys: Gotta help the human. Brb.

The very long television commercial ended and Mettaton began to sing. This time, Frisk was participating in his musical. One short coloured-tile puzzle and miraculous save later, Alphys had helped them make their way to the Core.

Alphys: The only things I know are that... You use male pronouns and that you and I have a very bad habit in common. Kind of.

Anon: ?

Alphys: Undyne told me she was staying with the person she called me about yesterday. She was asking for information about people with a certain problem and I was able to help her because I used to have that problem too.

Alphys: So if I dont miss my guess, youre the monster she was asking about who sometimes hurts yourself?

Anon: You really are very smart, Dr. Alphys! I am indeed... But you used to do that too?

Alphys: Yeah. I havent in a long time, but I still dont like myself very much.

Alphys: Just hearing about someone else who does it too... It makes it tempting to do it again.

Alphys: But i wont.

Alphys: As long as Undyne is in my life, i wont.

Anon: Hmm? Is what Mettaton said true? Do you liiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her? I think she likes you too. ;) Wink.

Alphys: ===^_^=== NOOOOOO! YOU CANT TELL HER!

Anon: I won't. My proverbial lips are sealed, remember?

Anon: But... can I ask a couple of questions?

Alphys: Not about how much I like Undyne please.

Anon: I will respect your wishes. I wanted to know how you knew what to tell Undyne? Because since yesterday she's been taking it pretty well and doing lots of things that I didn't know I wanted... Thank you, by the way.

Alphys: I didnt do anything special.

Alphys: I tried to tell her kind of how it worked and why she couldnt just, uh

Alphys: are you good with metaphors?

Alphys: she couldn't just suplex the problem. Brute force her way to a solution.

Alphys: Junk food tastes a lot better than vegetables do.

Alphys: Why eat healthy when other stuff tastes better?

Alphys: She can't force you to stop, so she has to help you want to not do it anymore.

Alphys: and i told her to be nice and listen. I didnt say anything life changing.

Alphys: I just told her about the things I wished I had when I was going through it alone.

Alphys: She doesnt know it though! She doesnt know what i used to do and my scars are hidden by my scales anyways so she never has to know so dont say anything please!

Anon: I'm sorry that you had to be alone, Dr. Alphys. But! I will always be here for you! If you continue using this chat box later, I will come back to it and talk!

Anon: And as for what you said about it not being life changing? You are wrong. Yes, even the most brilliant of Royal Scientists can be wrong from time to time. You changed my life. For that I will always be thankful.

Anon: I want to send you a picture. It's something my friend gave me.

Anon: I guess that means I have two friends now. Oops. But you can definitely share the number two with me!

Anon: (Pictures of the nice cream wrappers)

Alphys: OMG THAT IS SO SWEET!

Anon: You can look at them too. Because you deserve to feel this happy too.

Alphys: ...Im not sure...

Anon: I guess we will have to agree to disagree then.

Anon: My other question was about how you managed to stop. I don't know that I want to right now, but I've recently been shown a couple of reasons to maybe want to try. If things stayed this way, then maybe I could... But things always cycle and it's probably going to start all over again and... I'm not making much sense, am I?

Anon: There are just a lot of reasons to want to do it all the time. How did you manage to stop?

Alphys: I didnt exactly do it alone. I mean, I kinda did, but not really.

Alphys: Did Undyne ever tell you how we met? We met in the dump once when I was feeling very bad about myself and she made me feel better. We became friends.

Alphys: We became closer friends and started hanging out more and all I could think about were my secrets and how guilty I felt.

Alphys: I dont like lying, but I had to keep it from her, you know? I guess, I know you didnt exactly want Undyne to know either.

Alphys: So I made myself stop. Whenever i wanted to do it, I would remember that each new cut is another secret that im hiding from her. The fewer secrets, the easier our relationship would be. Honesty is necessary for a successful relationship.

Alphys: ...

Alphys: Friendship. Friendly relationship. Just friends. OMG Im such a nerrrrrd! ==^_^==

Anon: “Nerd” is Undyne's pet name for you, isn't it?

Alphys: *dies of blushing*

Alphys: Wait, MTT is taking me to the core. Says ive gotta play my part in his finale. Brb.

Alphys: He did NOT just lock me in a room! Why that...

Anon: Dr. Alphys! Are you okay?

Alphys: yes, Im fine, but I cant see whats happening with MTT and the human. I cant let the human hurt him! If he dies, then i dont know what Im gonna do!

Alphys: Only one other person knows about him and I cant just let him die omgomg what am i gonna do?!

Anon: What do you mean? Everyone knows about Mettaton! I'm watching Mettaton right now. He and the human are having a dance battle.

Anon: That human has some great poses. They also like to brag a lot, but they are very good at dancing away from Mettaton's attacks.

Alphys: Mettatons... attacks?

Alphys: What does Mettaton look like right now?

Anon: He is absolutely GLAMOUROUS! I never thought he could look sexier than his rectangle form, but now he is just BEAUTIFUL!

Alphys: ...

Alphys: ...

Alphys: ...He's going to last for maybe another ten minutes.

Alphys: I told him not to use his EX form until I got him a better battery!

Alphys: Sometimes he is just so... Damnit Mettaton!

Alphys: Ive gotta get myself out of this room. Stop mettaton from draining himself completely. It was nice talking to you, anon! I do feel a little better. (^u^)

Anon: It was nice talking to you too, Dr. Alphys! I hope that we can meet some day I R L.

Alphys: Me too, anon. Take care!

Papyrus put down his phone to watch the rest of Mettaton's performance. The lights were spectacular. The drama peaked when Mettaton took those calls from his fans. Unfortunately, Papyrus didn't get the chance to speak to the star, but dreams can come true next time, right? When the human repeats this all again. The scene went dark and cut to a commercial after Mettaton addressed the human. After talking with Dr. Alphys, he knew that Mettaton's batteries must have finally died. He hoped Dr. Alphys was able to get out and help him.

He was worried by some of the things that she had said in their conversation. If Mettaton can't be recharged or if something went wrong... Dr. Alphys might not have much time left. He went back into the anon chat.

Anon: Hey Dr. Alphys? I saw the end of the show. Mettaton will be fine, I'm sure of it!

Anon: You're brilliant, after all. Almost as great as myself sometimes, nyeh heh.

Anon: You're okay, right?

Papyrus looked up when Undyne started shaking his shoulder.

“Alphys isn't texting me back. She always responds immediately, but since that robot's show, she's stopped answering!” Undyne said, the worry evident in her voice.

Papyrus was concerned too, but he needed to stay optimistic for Undyne. He could get rid of the bad thoughts later if he had to. “DR. ALPHYS IS PROBABLY DOING SOME REPAIRS ON METTATON. AFTER SUCH A HUGE DANCE FIGHT, HE WOULD CERTAINLY NEED A MAINTAINANCE CHECK. SHE IS PROBABLY JUST BUSY WITH THE COMPLICATED ROBOT TECHNOLOGY.”

Undyne seemed to consider what Papyrus was saying. Whether she believed it or just really wanted to believe it, he didn't know. “Yeah, you're probably right. I'm overreacting.” Undyne stood up and started pacing loudly around the house.

Papyrus opened up the chat box again.

Anon: If you could give Undyne a quick text, it would be appreciated. She's worried about you.

He let Undyne continue her mad pacing for another five minutes before interrupting her. Alphys still hadn't sent a message back yet. It was distressing, but he needed to be strong for Undyne. He could be strong so that she didn't have to be right now.

“UNDYNE, WHY DON'T YOU SIT WITH ME HERE ON THE COUCH. WE CAN TALK AND FIND SOMETHING TO DO WHILE WE WAIT TO HEAR THE NEWS FROM KING ASGORE.” Papyrus suggested.

Undyne didn't take too kindly to the suggestion. “How can you just sit here and wait while anything could be happening to Alphys right now?! It would just be lady luck you know, if something bad happened again!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Papyrus squirmed a little. Undyne didn't remember the repeats at all.

“I mean, first there's you and all this thing you're doing. That sucks and it's terrible and I can't help you any more and there's nothing I can do. Then there's the human. I lost to a child, Papyrus. A child beat me, not even in combat, but by running away until I collapsed. It's humiliating! I can't do anything now, and I couldn't do anything then. Now, there's Alphys who's MIA and I STILL CAN'T DO ANYTHING! No matter what I do, it's pointless. Nothing changes, nothing gets fixed, and I'm stuck here being useless! So wouldn't it be the fucking icing on the cake if something bad happened to Alphys while I was sitting here, unable to do anything?”

Anon: If you're Undyne's friend at all, PLEASE contact her now. Anything, any way. Let her know you're still alive.

“I UNDERSTAND. I KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN THINGS SEEM FATED OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.” Papyrus reached out to Undyne and put his arm around her.

Undyne looked into his eyes. “Is that why you... you know...?”

Papyrus shrugged. “MAYBE A LITTLE, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW. WHAT'S IMPORTANT IS THAT WE DO SOMETHING TO GET IN CONTACT WITH DR. ALPHYS. SHE IS NOT RESPONDING TO TEXT MESSAGES OR TO HER UNDERNET. MAYBE WE SHOULD VISIT HER IN PERSON?”

If Papyrus were king, Undyne would have kissed his feet. “YES! THAT'S SOMETHING WE CAN DO! We can get to the ferry, and that'll be pretty fast, but Sans has shortcuts or whatever. He can get there faster and start looking sooner. Do you know where your brother is?”

“NO, BUT I CAN CALL HIM.” Papyrus offered.

“Do it then! Call him while we're running to the ferry. Alphys should be in her lab. That's where she repairs Mettaton and spends all of her time.” Undyne was already putting her boots on.

Papyrus tried to call Sans twice, but he wouldn't answer. Why is Sans suddenly unavailable? If he's sleeping through all of this, Papyrus swore to himself that he would sabotage all of his brother's ketchup bottles on the next repeat. Sans would never see it coming.

“SANS IS NOT ANSWERING HIS PHONE. WE SHOULD JUST HURRY.”

The two made their way to the Hotland labs. Upon arrival, they searched everywhere they could find, and all of the floors that the elevator had access to. For some reason, there appeared to be a keyhole in the elevator, but they couldn't figure out what it would be for.

Alphys was not in the Core either. Mettaton was found plugged into a wall and charging, but the Royal Scientist was nowhere to be found.

Anon: Dr. Alphys, please reply. I'm really worried about you.

COOLSKELETON95: We're all worried about you. Where are you?

COOLSKELETON95: PLEASE BE ALIVE .

The world went black.

Chapter Text

In Which Flowey Is Only 90% An Asshole

Anon: You're okay, right?

Undyne was shaking his shoulder.

“Alphys isn't texting me back. She always responds immediately, but since that robot's show, she's stopped answering!” The worry in her voice was clear.

Something wasn't right. Frisk never repeated this amount time, especially right now. They would repeat only a few minutes as they presumably failed to beat Asgore, not an hour, or however long this was. Papyrus was confused, but this gave him another chance to help Alphys before it's too late.

“YOU LIKE DR. ALPHYS, RIGHT?” Papyrus asked. An idea was forming.

“Papyrus! This is not the time!”

“BUT DR. ALPHYS MUST BE UPSET AFTER METTATON. SHE PROBABLY NEEDS SUPPORT RIGHT NOW, AND IF YOU LIKE HER, THEN I THINK THAT NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO TELL HER SO!” Papyrus explained, “AT THE VERY LEAST, IT WOULD NOT MAKE HER FEEL WORSE.”

Undyne looked nervous. “But what if she doesn't feel the same way?”

“AREN'T YOU THE ONE WHO SAYS THAT YOU HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE ABOUT EVERYTHING? IF YOU LIKE HER, THEN YOU MUST BE PASSIONATE ABOUT HER AND THEREFORE YOU SHOULD DO YOUR BEST TO SHOW HER HOW MUCH YOU CARE, REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES.” If no one else could get through to the scientist, then maybe romance could. Papyrus was a strong believer in romance, even if he had yet to experience it for himself.

“You know what, YOU'RE RIGHT! I just have to tell her how I feel!” Undyne proclaimed loudly.

“YES! YOU SHOULD CALL HER RIGHT NOW!”

“But she isn't answering her phone.”

“THEN YOU SHOULD WRITE HER A LETTER!”

“I can do that!”

“AND YOU SHOULD TELL SOMEONE ELSE TO DELIVER IT SO YOU DON'T GET TOO SCARED TO DO IT YOURSELF!”

“I would never...” Undyne trailed off and considered it for a moment, “Maybe you're right. This is too much. I'll call the human. They're my ultimate bestie now, so they have to do this favour for me. It's the least they can do after humiliating me, right?”

“ABSOLUTELY! I HAVE THEIR NUMBER ON MY PHONE! GIVE THEM A CALL RIGHT NOW.” Papyrus threw his phone at Undyne who caught it expertly with one hand.

“Thanks, man.” Undyne made the call. Papyrus fetched a pen, paper, and an envelope.

“SHIT! WHAT DO I WRITE IN THIS THING?”

Papyrus did his best to calm his panicking friend. “IT DOESN'T MATTER EXACTLY WHAT WORDS YOU USE, AS LONG AS ALL YOUR PASSION GOES INTO IT! MAKE YOUR BURNING LOVE FOR HER MORE EVIDENT THAN THE FLAMES IN YOUR HOUSE!” What better way to calm her than by shouting?

“NGAAAAAH! THIS PAPER WILL CONTAIN ALL OF MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT ALPHYS! THERE WILL BE NO HOLDING BACK! I WILL GIVE IT ALL ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY PERCENT OF MY FEELINGS AND MORE!” Undyne screamed as she wrote the letter.

Papyrus summoned two bones and began waving them around like pom-poms. “YOU CAN DO IT, UNDYNE! AFTER THIS, THERE IS NO WAY THAT DR. ALPHYS CAN STAY UNHAPPY! YOU AND SHE WILL BE A REAL LIFE O-T-P!”

Undyne screamed again. “THAT IS SO EMBARRASSING THAT I HAVE TO WRITE IT DOWN!”

After another minute of shouting embarrassing and mushy things, the letter was finished.

“AND NOW ALL I HAVE TO DO IS SEAL IT WITH MY REMAINING PASSION SO THAT IT ALL GETS TO HER!” Undyne found an envelope and ran her tongue over the flap. She then added some green magic to the envelope so that it would stay shut.

“THE HUMAN SHOULD BE HERE SOON.” Papyrus commented, “MAYBE WE SHOULD WAIT FOR THEM OUTSIDE.”

“Good idea.” Undyne agreed.

The two went outside to wait. Frisk showed up a minute later, and then began their trip to Hotland to deliver the letter. It hadn't been too long. Dr. Alphys shouldn't have had enough time to disappear from her lab yet, wherever she went before. With any luck, Frisk would catch her just in time with the letter and stall her long enough to read it.

Then a though occurred.

“UM, UNDYNE?” Papyrus asked uncertainly, “DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME ANYWHERE IN THE LETTER?”

His friend froze with shock.

“Oh. My. Holy shi- NO I TOTALLY FORGOT! I NEED TO GET THAT LETTER BACK!” Undyne began to panic again.

“NO, YOU CAN'T!” Papyrus didn't want to stop Frisk from hopefully stopping Alphys, “THE HUMAN IS ALREADY ON THEIR WAY. YOU JUST NEED TO PUT ON SOME NICE CLOTHES AND CATCH UP WITH THEM.”

Undyne was confused. “Why do I need nice clothes?”

“BECAUSE THE BOOK SAYS THAT YOU NEED TO WEAR CLOTHES TO SHOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE FOR THE OTHER PERSON!”

“Books are smart, so it must be true.” Undyne commented, “But all my clothes are in my house! And it's on fire!”

“NYEH HEH HEH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL SAVE THE DAY! SANS FOUND A LOT OF CLOTHES WHEN WE WERE MAKING MY BATTLE BODY. I BET THE LAZY BONES NEVER GOT RID OF THEM! SOMETHING WILL PROBABLY FIT YOU!” Papyrus went to the cupboard under the stairs and began rummaging through it, “THIS IS WHERE SANS PUTS THINGS THAT HE'S TOO LAZY TO DEAL WITH. AHA! FOUND IT!” He pulled out a box of assorted clothing items.

Undyne found a jacket that she liked and a new pair of boots. It would have to do.

“Come on! We've gotta go catch up to the human! They probably took the riverperson's boat, so we'll have to run the long way.” Undyne said to Papyrus as they ran out of his house.

The two ran into the human as they were making their way through the trash zone. Why would the human be in the trash zone of all places? Undyne talked to the human briefly and was told that Alphys was somewhere nearby. Undyne and Papyrus split up and started searching the various trash piles for the small scientist.

Several minutes later, they heard screaming. Undyne recognized it as Alphys and went to find her, only to find out that she was on a date with the human for some reason.

Papyrus didn't know what to do. This was completely new territory. Frisk had never dated Dr. Alphys before. He hid behind a nearby trash pile until Undyne requested his assistance. Dr. Alphys needed a good jog to clear out those negative feelings. Maybe a good talk too, since she looked fairly new to jogging. Not everyone has the same stamina as the Great Papyrus, after all.

He just wanted to help her in any way that he could. No one else should have to feel such self-destructive feelings.

He jogged alongside Dr. Alphys until they reached the edge of the trash zone and shouted enough positive things for the both of them. Once he was sure that they were out of earshot, Papyrus then pulled her behind a nearby pile of trash.

“P-Papyrus, right? What a-are-?” Alphys started.

“DR. ALPHYS, I REALLY WANTED TO TALK TO YOU! I WAS REALLY WORRIED WHEN YOU STOPPED ANSWERING YOUR PHONE!”

"H-How did you know th-that?” Alphys asked.

This was his make or break moment to help her. Papyrus stared straight into her eyes and answered without hesitation. “BECAUSE WE WERE HAVING A VERY LOVELY CONVERSATION DURING METTATON'S SHOW.”

It clicked in Alphys's brain. Everything she knew about the anon matched up perfectly with what she knew about Papyrus.

“You're the a-anon.” She stated.

Papyrus posed. “YES I AM!” He turned to look back at her, “AND I WAS WORRIED WHEN YOU STOPPED ANSWERING UNDYNE AND MYSELF. ESPECIALLY AFTER THE THINGS THAT YOU TOLD ME ABOUT YOURSELF.”

Alphys blushed, “W-well, thank you, I-I guess. I w-wasn't going to do anything... l-like that. I had some ch-chores to t-take care of and I really just didn't... I c-couldn't talk to anyone. B-But then the human came to my l-lab and stopped me on my way d-down.”

“I UNDERSTAND, DR. ALPHYS. SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO TALK TO OTHERS WHEN ONE IS UPSET. MAY I PAT YOUR ARM?” Papyrus asked. Alphys nodded and he reached out to her.

“J-Just call me Alpys. No need f-for formal titles.” Alphys kicked the ground with her foot, “If y-you're the anon, then why do you do it? You s-seem so happy and you c-can shout such p-positive things about yourself wh-when all I...”

Papyrus considered his answer for a moment, “THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE EXPECT. NO ONE WILL GO LOOKING FOR ANSWERS IF THEY DO NOT HAVE A REASON. AS LONG AS I ACT HOW I ALWAYS HAVE, THEN I CAN KEEP MY SECRETS. IT DOES NOT MATTER IF IT IS NOT TRUE, BECAUSE IT MAY HAVE USED TO BE TRUE AND IT MAY SOME DAY ALSO BE TRUE, SO IT IS NOT REALLY COMPLETELY UNTRUE, NYEH?”

Alphys looked confused, “I'm n-not sure I understand.”

“I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! EVEN IF I DO NOT ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I AM GREAT, I KNOW THAT I AM SOMETIMES GREAT AND AT SOME POINT I WILL ALSO FEEL GREAT IF I TRY!” Papyrus replied. Alphys still looked confused, but let it go.

“I believe in you. I kn-know that you can be great. You are alr-ready great! You m-made me feel a lot b-better about myself when we were chatting online.”

Papyrus was shocked, “REALLY?!”

“Of c-course. Y-you were so kind and respectful and p-positive and it made me th-think that maybe, someday, I c-could try being as great as you.” Alphys stared at her feet. It was always embarrassing to admit something like this.

“I KNOW YOU CAN BE, BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU TOO! AND NOW YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE! UNDYNE IS TERRIBLE AT LEAVING PEOPLE ALONE WHEN SHE CARES ABOUT THEM.” Papyrus grinned inwardly at his skillful romantic matchmaking. Sure, Frisk helped, but he felt a little proud for getting Undyne started.

He felt sad that the two would soon forget their affections. It wouldn't be long before the world repeated again and the two were back to avoiding the topic. His arms would once again be clean and smooth, and he would go mess them up again.

Alphys noticed the sad look on Papyrus's face. “H-hey. You're right. Th-there's no reason to be sad. For either of us. B-Because I believe in you and y-you believe in me. S-so someone is always believing in ea-each of us. At l-least until we can believe in ourselves, right?”

Papyrus smiled hopefully. “YES, OF COURSE!” He couldn't believe it. It wouldn't last. Alphys would forget. “WE CAN ALWAYS BELIEVE IN EACH OTHER AND TRY TO BE GOOD ROLE MODELS!” He really hated lying.

“A-and we can always chat online t-too. M-my chatbox is always open.” Alphys offered.

He put on a larger smile for Alphys's sake, “THANK YOU. I AM ALWAYS AVAILABLE AS WELL!”

“Th-then I should get going. I st-still have those chores to do.” Alphys said. She waved back at Papyrus as she began her walk back to Hotland. “I h-hope to see you around!”

Papyrus waved back. “YOU TOO, ALPHYS!”

Despite the negative thoughts cycling in his head, Papyrus still felt just a little okay. Alphys hadn't patronized him at all or said anything bad about him or what he's done. She even called him respectful.

It's only one suffix away from being respectable. The closest he's ever been.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Undyne walk past. Seeing her reminded him of Alphys. He was still worried for her, so he figured calling Frisk and asking them to check up on her wouldn't be a bad idea. Those chores sounded very suspicious.

After a quick call, he began jogging to catch up to Undyne. It would be poor manners as a host to not be there when a guest arrived at his house.

It didn't take very long for him to catch up.

“So what did you two nerds talk about?” Undyne asked. Straight to the point. “There's no way Alphys ran farther than the end of the dump and you were gone long enough to do something.”

“THE TWO OF US HAD A VERY ENGAGING CONVERSATION. WE TALKED ABOUT METTATON AND YOU AND FRIENDSHIP! WE DISCUSSED THE THINGS THAT WE LIKED ABOUT EACH OTHER TOO! IT WAS A VERY PLEASANT EXPERIENCE.” Papyrus answered. When did Undyne say that she wanted to know about the most recent conversation in particular?

Undyne seemed pleased. “I'm glad you two are becoming good friends.”

Just for fun, Papyrus decided to mess with his boss a little. “I THINK DR. ALPHYS ALSO GIVES VERY GOOD ADVICE.”

There was a short hesitation in Undyne's next step. To her credit, she kept walking as if he hadn't just hinted about her spilling one of his secrets to a stranger. “Yeah? What advice is that?”

“WELL, SHE MENTIONED A TELEVISION SHOW CALLED MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE AND TOLD ME ABOUT HOW GREAT IT IS! SHE ALSO SAID THAT WE SHOULD WATCH IT TOGETHER SOME TIME.” Papyrus replied.

Undyne's posture relaxed slightly. Papyrus inwardly laughed. “Yeah! She sure know all the best human hist- I mean animes! The human told me that it's all real, too! When we see the surface some day, there is going to be so much cool stuff to see and do.”

“YES, THERE MOST CERTAINLY WILL BE!” Papyrus exclaimed. He couldn't believe a word of it.

A moment of silence passed. Not wanting it to become awkward, Papyrus asked another question as they continued to walk. It wouldn't be too much longer until they reached Snowdin. “ARE YOU GLAD THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO CONFESS YOUR FEELINGS?”

Undyne flashed her teeth in a wide smile and pumped her fist in the air. “Heck yeah, I am! It's just amazing, knowing that someone as awesome as Alphys likes me too, you know? And it means that we can spend more time together, and maybe do more things too! After this mess of the last couple days, something is finally going right, and it feels amazing!

“I owe you a huge thanks right now.”

Undyne wrapped her arm affectionately around Papyrus's shoulders. Said skeleton looked down sadly. Something was finally going right, huh? He felt guilty for causing his friend so much trouble.

“I don't like that look on your face. Whatcha thinking about?” Undyne asked.

“I APOLOGIZE FOR BEING SUCH A PROBLEM RECENTLY!”

The fish woman stopped walking. She grabbed a piece of Papyrus's clothing and forced him to stop too. They were just outside of Snowdin now.

“What the hell are you talking about? Is that what you got from all that? You are never a problem. Friends help each other, you know? No matter what. You are great, even if your head tells you some not-so-great things sometimes. But that's okay, dude. Sometimes things are tough and sometimes things suck, but that does not make you a problem. Just a work in progress, you get me?

“You already train your body with me as Captain and subordinate. As friends, we're gonna train your thick skull the same way. You just gotta show the same passion.” Undyne let go of Papyrus and stood up straight. “So stand tall and tell me who you are, soldier!”

Papyrus complied, “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

“And tell me one good thing about yourself!”

“MY FRIEND QUANTITY HAS INCREASED TO A NUMBER GREATER THAN ONE!” Papyrus looked away to try to hide the sadness. He didn't want to lose his new friendships, but there was nothing he could do about it. Frisk was in control.

Undyne saw the pain anyways. “If that's a good thing, then why do you look sad?”

“BECAUSE IT WILL NOT LAST LONG. DO NOT WORRY THOUGH, YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER IT ANYWAYS.” Papyrus was a little scared of his feelings at the moment. He was starting to just not care. Appearances be damned, as long as Sans wasn't around, it didn't matter what he did, right? He continued walking into Snowdin.

Undyne followed close behind, confused. “What do you mean it won't last and that I won't remember. Seriously Papyrus, what's up?”

“NOTHING IS PERMANENT, BUT NOTHING EVER CHANGES EITHER. IT'S OKAY, THOUGH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS WATCHING OUT FOR EVERYONE SO THAT NO ONE WILL FEEL SAD OR UPSET!” Papyrus smiled.

Undyne had some strong objections. “That doesn't even make sense! And it's no good to help everyone else if you're suffering for it! You don't have to do it alone either.”

Papyrus really wanted to leave. This conversation was about to take some darker turns and he really didn't feel like discussing it at the moment. “IT REALLY IS OKAY, UNDYNE. I AM PERFECTLY CONTENT WITH HELPING EVERYONE! NOW, SINCE WE ARE BACK AT MY HOUSE, WHY DON'T YOU GET COMFORTABLE? I HAVE SOME BUSINESS TO TAKE CARE OF, BUT I SHALL RETURN SHORTLY!”

“PAPYRUS! Get BACK here! We aren't done yet!” Undyne called as he walked towards the forest.

The skeleton waved a hand without stopping his movement. “I WILL SEE YOU LATER!”

Undyne growled to herself but didn't follow. Perhaps she understood that he just needed some time. Maybe he could run out the clock away from her. The repeat should be happening some time soon.

This was also the day that he would usually talk to Flowey. Flowey was always interesting to be around because he acted different in every repeat. He was the only person other than Sans who didn't say the same things every time, and it made Papyrus's day a little brighter.

A visit with the flower would probably do him some good right now. His chisel was in his house with Undyne, so trying to befriend Flowey was the next best option at the moment. He needed something to get his mind out of the place it was going right now.

If he wandered far enough into the forest, Flowey would usually show up to greet him.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of wandering, Papyrus saw some yellow poke out of the snow.

“Howdy, Papyrus! I didn't expect to see you all the way out here.” Flowey greeted amiably.

Papyrus knew that Flowey had done some terrible things before, but he wanted to believe the best in him. Acting positively and never mentioning the bad deeds was the plan to make Flowey understand that he could choose to do good things instead, since he couldn't explicitly say so. That would mean admitting that he knew about the repeats, and that would make Flowey very unhappy.

“HELLO THERE, FLOWEY! IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN! I AM JUST TAKING A STROLL RIGHT NOW. IT WOULD NOT DO FOR THE LEGS OF A FUTURE ROYAL GUARDSMAN TO WITHER AWAY!” Papyrus struck a pose for the flower.

Flowey smirked, “Really now? You're walking around in the middle of the forest just to stretch your legs? Golly, I always knew you were a terrible liar, Papyrus. After seeing you and Undyne in Snowdin, did you really think that I would believe that?”

Papyrus froze. “YOU SAW THAT?”

“Of course I did! I've been keeping an eye on you, my friend.” Flowey winked, “I've been watching you for some time. Ever since I noticed something very strange.”

Papyrus started playing with his scarf. He wanted to talk to Flowey to get away from difficult conversations. Maybe the repeat would happen soon and cut this conversation short. He could hide away from Flowey for a few more repeats. It would be no problem at all.

“See, I like to keep tabs on my favourite friends. I want to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to them. So naturally, sometimes I wait outside your house. I don't want any robbers to break in unexpectedly.

“So imagine my surprise when I white dust floating down from your bedroom window. I had never seen this happen before. Where did it come from? I couldn't have my favourite friend get hurt now, could I? What kind of friend would I be if I let that happen?

“The next time, I grew myself up tall enough to peek in the corner of the window. Imagine my surprise when I see you holding an ice chipper against yourself. YOU IDIOT! Why would you do something like that?”

Papyrus looked around at the snow. Why was everything going so wrong this time? Flowey would actually remember this too! He could never play it off again. The thought of being trapped like this terrified him.

“I guess you aren't going to answer that one, huh? That's okay. I think I know enough already! I think I even have a little respect for you now. If what you said to that fish lady is any indication, you've know about the resets for quite some time. Perhaps as long as the Trashbag. Despite all that, you still stayed the same goody-goody that you've always been. I knew there was a reason why you were my favourite.” Flowey rambled, “You even kept trying to make me nice. Are you stupid? Or are you just stubborn?”

“ANYONE CAN BE A GOOD PERSON IF THEY JUST TRY! EVEN YOU, FLOWEY! NO MATTER HOW MANY BAD THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE DONE, THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY TO BE GOOD!” Papyrus exclaimed. Anything to change the topic.

Too bad it never seemed to work. How many times has this failed in the last three days? “So you're both, then. Is that why you keep doing it? Or do you think that somehow you're helping everyone out? No one likes you, so why not start turning to dust? Wouldn't everyone be happier with you gone?

“Let me tell you something. After all those times that I dusted you myself, you still try to forgive me. After all those times that I dusted you, I got to watch the Trashbag almost dust himself. It was delightfully fun! At least until he came after me. What did you think was going to happen? What does hurting yourself solve? You really are an idiot.”

“UM... ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SANS?” Papyrus asked.

Flowey grinned evilly, “Yeah, your brother! The Smiley Trashbag. He can't do anything without you, you know. He's hopeless. Some people even think that HP is an acronym for HoPe. Doesn't that give you a clue about him?” Flowey's features softened, “I know that you never kill, so don't let yourself be killed either. I'm not allowed to kill you again, or the Trashbag's gonna make my life very unfun. Just watch out for yourself. I'm starting to get bored of doing it for you.”

Papyrus smiled, “THAT IS VERY KIND OF YOU, FLOWEY! I KNEW THAT YOU COULD BE A GOOD PERSON!” At least one thing was going right. Even if Sans was still MIA, if he couldn't face Undyne, if Alphys might be doing something terrible, and if Frisk was going to repeat everything again, Flowey at least learned that he could do better.

Said flower screeched. “I am NOT being nice, you idiot! I'm telling you that I'm going to leave you alone, you hear me? You're free to go and hurt yourself and die for all I care! I can't care! Maybe it will be fun, watching you fall apart at your own hands! In fact, hurry up and go do it so Chara can reset again! Maybe this time they won't be such a baby and actually kill people!”

“I MIGHT TRY TAKING YOUR ADVICE.” Papyrus stated.

“What? About dying? You aren't seriously going to kill yourself now, are you? That's the king's job! That's the lizard's job!” Flowey argued.

“

Flowey narrowed his eyes. “You're trying to promise me that you will keep hurting yourself? Why would I accept that promise? That's a terrible thing to say, and it would be boring if you always did the same thing!”

“I DID PROMISE UNDYNE THAT I WOULD SOMETIMES TRY TO FIND A REASON NOT TO, SO IT WOULD NOT ALWAYS BE THE SAME.” Papyrus shrugged, still smiling.

“You really are an idiot.” Flowey glared, “Tell you what. Why don't you call everyone over to the king right now? The human should be there soon, and our jolly old king is going to rip their soul out. You can ask them to help you protect the human you all made friends with, and maybe you'll start to understand why I think you're an idiot for doing all this.”

Flowey disappeared into the snow.

Papyrus beamed with real happiness, if just for a moment. Flowey had said that he had a little respect for him! After so much time, there was one person who respected him! And this person would remember through all the repeats! Finally something was going right!

But Flowey was correct about Frisk. If he didn't get enough people to stop the king, then either Asgore or Frisk would surely die. Maybe if enough monsters vouched for the human, they could stop the fight from happening. It would be nice to see one repeat where no one had to die, even if it would shortly end.

He didn't really want to see anyone right now, but his friends were worth his discomfort and more. Sans would hopefully receive a text message since he wasn't answering his phone, Alphys would get an Undernet message, and Undyne would come with him. If he said that it was for the human, then surely everyone would show up.

Maybe Frisk didn't or couldn't see it, but everyone really cared about them. They didn't need to feel all the bad things that he did. They were a good person when they tried.

Anyone could recognize that.

---

Who was this other person that knew Frisk? How did she know Frisk? It seems that the young human was a very popular person.

Somehow Sans made it too. Papyrus was surprised. Sans had been missing for a while.

Why did his brother glance at him with concern?

How did he know this mystery woman?

Those questions could be answered later. Flowey said that he would understand something when everyone was here. What did he need to learn?

When Flowey appeared behind them all with the six human souls, fear gripped his being. Was this why he had called Papyrus an idiot?

He felt vines wrapping around his soul as his world went dark.

Chapter Text

In Which Things Are Learned

He felt three distinct presences around him. One was crushing him, one was beside him, and the last was a little ways away and speaking. It was a soft and high pitched voice. It sounded kind and scared.

It was also telling some very bad jokes. He couldn't tell whether he should laugh or groan. He enjoyed the humour to some degree, but felt as though he needed to keep up some sort of appearance. Who was he acting for?

Then the presence with the voice was telling the presence (soul?) beside him to take a break. For some reason, he felt he had to object. Why did this other presence need a break? Was it working?

The presence with the voice moved closer to him. It asked him to hold up a mitten, and then bopped it with their own covered fist. Frisk had kept his gloves this entire time? Papyrus was deeply touched. He didn't know that the small token had meant so much to the young human. Even through the lava in Hotland, they kept his old mittens like a treasure.

Positive feelings rushed through him as he remembered his friend, his life, and his “adventure” in this repeat. It had gone horribly wrong. Papyrus thought about the many people who had learned about his secret. First it was Undyne, then Frisk, Dr. Alphys, and Flowey. The first three had been very supportive, and Flowey had even done a kindness! He had to think about why he was hiding this at all? What was the point?

Others learned, and he was still able to make friends with them. Would he keep hiding in the future repeats? He had to. As much as it might pain him to remember the support and friendship that he would never have, keeping Sans as healthy as possible still took priority. Sans could only be less depressed in ignorance. Papyrus couldn't risk one of them telling him. He got lucky this time, but who says that not a single future repeat would hold the same luck. It would only take one person in one repeat, and Sans would know forever.

He could at least reflect on the good memories. He could treasure them in his mind. Undyne had finally admitted that she would never accept him into the Royal Guard and had stopped treating him like some fragile object or a naive child. Believe it or not, naivety and optimism are not mutually inclusive categories.

Dr. Alphys and Undyne had confessed their feelings to each other and might have had a chance to be happy. Papyrus now knew that it could happen. If he wanted, he could help them realize their mutual feelings every time! Sans would probably never notice, but watching them forget when the next repeat starts would hurt. It will be saddening to watch Dr. Alphys lose the small shred of confidence she had gained and return to believing that she is unforgivable and horrible.

Although, there was one bond that wouldn't break. He and Frisk could always remember the date, even if he had to fake forgetfulness for a while in front of his brother. He smiled weakly, knowing that his friend quantity will never be one again.

Papyrus thought again about his brother. For all that Sans was lazy and didn't try to do anything most of the time, he still loved his brother. Papyrus was happy to do anything for Sans, just to make him happy. Sans in turn was also trying to keep him happy. Both were trying to keep the other ignorant of certain facts because supposedly, ignorance is bliss.

For all that Sans wouldn't listen or see that something is wrong, Papyrus loves him and wouldn't change anything.

Suddenly, everything is bright again and Frisk is lying on the ground. Mussed up hair, striped shirt, old blue mittens and everything. They appear to be trying out that sleeping thing. Papyrus walks over to his small friend and shakes their shoulder. “HUMAN, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ENJOY THIS SLEEPING THING, BUT NOW MIGHT NOT BE THE MOST OPPORTUNE MOMENT TO PARTAKE IN SUCH AN ACTIVITY. WILL YOU PLEASE WAKE UP?”

The others gathered around the child as well, asking them to wake up. It was a little concerning. Frisk did wake up a couple of minutes later. Somehow the barrier had been broken. Hooray for sciency-magic stuff! Frisk took a few moments to talk to each of the monsters in the room before taking the advice of the Asgore clone and going back to visit the other monsters that they had met and befriended.

Once Frisk had gone, Papyrus leaned back against the wall and smiled while listening to the others talk to each other. Dr. Alphys, Undyne, and Asgore were chatting quietly about their new relationship, anime, and how it works. Sans and the Asgore clone (Sans just called her Toriel?) were texting, making bad jokes, and stealing the phone from each other. Sans is finally smiling and laughing for real instead of using the creepy or sad laughs and smiles that Papyrus had become accustomed to. Hopefully they weren't bothering the human too much with their antics.

To himself, Papyrus gave a melancholy smile. This would seem to be the best possible outcome. No one died and everyone is free now. The hopes and dreams of monsters have finally been realized.

Very soon, it will all begin again.

It just reminded him of how alone he really was. Even surrounded by his friends and his potential friends, he can't talk to them. There is nothing to say. As much as he knows that Sans loves him, Papyrus knows that Toriel is more important to him right now. She is better company to celebrate the destruction of the barrier with. As grief-stricken and possibly insane as Sans was during the runs where he had been killed, Papyrus knew that he was really only kept around to help during the bad times.

It was fine! It didn't bother him too much. He knew that Sans loved him, but for some reason, would rarely show it while he was still alive. Is it pride? Maybe there's some other complicated reason. Papyrus stared at his mittens for a moment and sighed quietly. He did his best to embrace the bout of loneliness that was slowly sinking into him.

“hey bro, wanna come join me in the throne room?” Papyrus looked up to see Sans speaking to him with a sad smile on his face. Of course Sans isn't happy when looking at him. “there's something i wanna ask ya before the kiddo comes back.”

Papyrus put on his brightest smile. He needed to keep up the act for as long as Sans was hanging around, and especially while they were talking. “OF COURSE, BROTHER! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS HAS TIME TO CHAT! NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus took Sans by the hand and strode to the throne room with brisk, quick energy. “WHAT IS IT YOU WANTED TO ASK ME, BROTHER?”

Sans's expression turned serious. Was that concern? “i want you to be straight with me, pap. so we can have an honest to god bro-to-bro heart-to-heart. please tell me, are you okay?”

Papyrus struck a pose. “OF COURSE I AM NOT OKAY! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AND I AM VERY GREAT!”

“don't lie to me, bro. i know what's going on.”

“YES! THE BARRIER HAS FINALLY FALLEN, AND NOW WE ARE ALL FREE TO SEE THE SURFACE! IT IS A WONDERFUL DAY! HISTORIC AND MAGNIFICENT, FOR SURE!”

“i mean about how you hurt yourself. tell me pap, are you okay?”

Time seemed to stop. His life was over. Sans would know forever now. Papyrus knew that he could never go back to how it was before. He was frozen to the spot. How had Sans figured it out? Had Undyne actually told him? Frisk?

Sans held up his hands. “hey now, i'm not mad. i just wanna ask a couple of things. that okay?”

Papyrus just glared at Sans. “OF COURSE IT IS NOT OKAY. NOW NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME ANYMORE! I WORKED TO KEEP IT ALWAYS THE SAME, AND NOW IT'S OVER!”

“papyrus, i just wanna help you-”

“WELL HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT I WANT TO HELP YOU TOO?”

Sans blinked then sighed. “maybe we should start from the beginning? seems like we both have some explaining to do.”

“I'M NOT SURE THAT I REALLY WISH TO TALK ABOUT IT... BUT IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY, THEN I SUPPOSE I COULD TRY.” Papyrus said weakly. He began playing with his scarf.

“as much as i want to ask a whole lot of questions right now, i think there's only one that really matters. why do you do it? why aren't you happy, pap?”

“I'M NOT UNHAPPY. I HAVE YOU AND UNDYNE AND THE HUMAN AND DR. ALPHYS AS FRIENDS! HOW COULD I BE SAD?” Papyrus asked.

“care to answer your own question, bro?” Sans asked back.

Papyrus stared at Sans. “HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?”

This time, it was Sans who looked away. “you're really not going to like the answer.”

“I THINK I AM ABLE TO HANDLE A FEW TRUTHS, NO MATTER HOW UNPLEASANT. I AM NOT A CHILD.”

“heh, that's true.” Sans smiled sadly, “i did something kinda bad. y'know when you and undyne had that chat in your room? well, you weren't the only two in the room. there might have been a skeleton in your closet that time.”

Papyrus was reminded of Frisk's strange behaviour during their hang out. They wanted to make sure that no skeletons got in the closet... Because Sans can teleport. How had he forgotten that his own brother had the weird power to just pop up wherever he pleased?

As annoyed as Papyrus was that Sans had listened in on an extremely private conversation, he was more disappointed in himself. Why had he thought that nothing would change at all? This repeat was so different from the others in so many ways. Why had he thought that Sans would just let it go? It had seemed to work for a while, but somehow Sans always gets what he wants eventually.

He should have been more careful.

And now it wouldn't matter ever again.

“I... SUPPOSE THIS SAVES QUITE A BIT OF EXPLANATION, THEN. SINCE YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING.”

“not everything, bro. you didn't answer me. why aren't you happy?”

“AND I HAVE TOLD YOU ALREADY BROTHER, THAT I HAVE NO REASON TO BE UNHAPPY! MY FRIEND QUANTITY IS NO LONGER ONE PLUS MY BROTHER!” Papyrus claimed proudly. “ARE YOU SURE THAT IT IS NOT YOU WHO IS UNHAPPY?”

Sans shrugged. “you know me, i'm always okay.”

“SANS, 'OKAY' IS NOT THE SAME AS 'HAPPY.' SHOULD I BE CONCERNED?”

“nah. there's nothing new going on with me. it's all good.”

“SO IT IS SOMETHING OLD THEN.” Papyrus stated. He knew it was true, but he wanted Sans to admit it. Maybe if Sans could ask for help once, then things could start getting better. It would be easier in the next repeat if Sans was willingly accepting help...

But Sans would just assume that he had forgotten and go back to isolating himself.

Sans sighed, “this is a totally honest bro-to-bro talk, right? welp. in that case, the most honest answer i can give ya is 'kinda.'”

Papyrus was shocked. Sans was actually being truthful and not deceptive. Not even purposely ambiguous. He was just being nondescript.

“EXPLAIN THIS 'KINDA' PLEASE? HOW CAN IT BE 'KINDA' SOMETHING OLD BUT ALSO 'KINDA' NOT?” Papyrus asked.

“heh. i'll get to the explanation, so just hear me out. this is something i hoped i'd never have to ask you, but the puzzle pieces are fitting together too nicely. i gotta ask you, have you been getting déja vu recently? like the feeling that you know what's gonna happen? or that you've seen something before but you don't know where or when?”

Sans was trying for once, and even talking about things that he would never have done before. Papyrus continued to fidget with his scarf. Maybe he should consider being a little honest too? It would be the least he could do to show that he appreciated what his brother is trying to do for him.

“IT'S... NOT LIKE THAT EXACTLY... BUT I CAN SAY THAT I HAVE NOTICED CERTAIN... PATTERNS IN THE BEHAVIOUR OF OTHER MONSTERS.” Papyrus admitted.

Sans closed his eye sockets. “behaviour patterning but without déja vu. and weird dreams? you get any of those?”

“WELL, THERE WAS THIS ONE DREAM WHERE A TEMMIE CAME BY TO TRY MY FANTASTIC SPAGHETTI BECAUSE I AM THE GREATEST SPAGHETTORE IN SNOWDIN! THEN WHEN THE TEMMIE TOOK A BITE, THEY STARTED FLIPPING! LITERALLY FLIPPING! AND SHOUTING IN NONSENSICAL SPEECH THAT IS MUCH TOO UNREFINED FOR THE VOCABULARY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS! THEN THEY STARTED PUTTING THESE STRANGE BITS ON THE SPAGHETTI CLAIMING THAT IT WOULD IMPROVE THE TASTE FOR THEM. IT MUST HAVE BEEN A DREAM BECAUSE IMPROVING UPON A MASTERPIECE IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY FOR ONE WHO IS NOT AS EDUCATED AS I IN THE ARTS OF COOKING PASTA!”

A sweat drop appeared on Sans's head. “uh, bro? that actually happened.”

Papyrus clapped his hands to the sides of his face. “OH. MY. GOSH! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! WHEN WAS THIS?”

“uh... was it... last week? when did you have this not-dream? it was probably then.”

The flowers were very yellow today. “UM, YES! I THINK YOU ARE CORRECT. LAST WEEK SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT.”

The sad smile returned to Sans's face. “so uh, i really don't want to ask you this, but if there's no déja vu, and no weird dreams, then does the world ever seem to just... stutter or go back to something that's happened before? like living the same bit of time twice?”

Papyrus took a chance and looked up at his smaller brother. “YOU MEAN LIKE THE WORLD REPEATS OVER AND OVER FROM A SPECIFIC MOMENT AND THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT IT IS THE FIRST TIME THAT ANY OF THIS IS HAPPENING?”

The smile on Sans's face became deprecating. “heh heh, that's oddly specific. it was all for nothing, then. man, this is hilarious.” Sans started laughing a dark laugh, “and you've known the whole time. whatever that means anymore.”

“SANS, ARE YOU OKAY?” Papyrus was cautious. Sans wasn't taking this very well.

“i'm like a broken pencil. totally pointless. can't even do my one job.”

“YOU ARE NOT POINTLESS! YOU SUCCEED IN MANY THINGS! EVEN IF YOU TAKE MANY BREAKS AND NAPS, YOU STILL WORK SEVERAL JOBS! AND YOU HAVE NOT BEEN FIRED YET! WHICH MEANS THAT YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT!”

“isn't it funny though? all this time i was trying to keep you happy by not telling you about this timey-wimey reset business, and you've known all along. what a joke!” Sans was laughing harder now.

“ANYTHING THAT UPSETS YOU LIKE THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY THE OPPOSITE OF FUNNY. I WANT TO HELP, SO CAN YOU PLEASE BREATHE AND TRY TO CALM DOWN? BREATHE WITH ME, OKAY?” Papyrus started breathing deeply and loudly. After a minute or so, Sans had calmed down.

“YOU KNOW SANS,” Papyrus started, “I WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU BE HAPPIER TOO. YOU SEEMED HAPPIER WHEN I ACTED SILLY LIKE HOW I USED TO, SO I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT ANY OF THIS EITHER. ESPECIALLY NOT AFTER THE WORST REPEAT.”

If Sans could pale, he probably would have in that moment. “the... worst reset? which one was that? how'd you find out about it? you would have been...” he trailed off.

Papyrus thought for a moment about how to respond, “WELL... FERMENTED KETCHUP DOES TEND TO LOOSEN YOU UP. A LOT. EVEN YOUR NONEXISTENT BODY PARTS, SUCH AS LIPS.”

“hoo man. and i spilled the beans too. damnit!” Sans cursed.

“BUT IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT! YOU ARE NOT THE ONE THAT CAUSED ALL OF THE BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN, SO YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME!” Papyrus tried to reassure him.

“maybe, but that doesn't mean that i'm free from blame. the kid was right. i let you die so many times...”

“AND I AM ALIVE NOW, SO IT IS NOT A PROBLEM!”

“and now i'm going and being a selfish person again. you've been looking after me this whole time, when you've been hurting too. since you aren't telling me why, can you tell me something else? how long? how did you hide it so well?” Sans braved a look at Papyrus, but found that the taller couldn't meet his eyes.

“UM... HOW... LONG...” Papyrus trailed.

Sans took a breath. “the self harm, bro.”

Papyrus flinched. “YES... THAT. WELL, IT REALLY DEPENDS ON HOW YOU WANT TO LOOK AT IT-”

“papyrus.”

“SINCE SHORTLY AFTER THE WORST REPEAT!”

“oh. that long, huh? that's... a long time.”

“AND... TO HIDE IT FROM YOU, I MIGHT HAVE... TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF YOUR VARIOUS BEHAVIOURAL TENDENCIES WHICH MIGHT INCLUDE ASSUMING THAT YOU ARE AWARE OF EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS EASY TO STEREOTYPE WHEN YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE SEEN EVERY POSSIBILITY BEFORE.” Papyrus admitted.

“heh. we've got so much in common, yet we're total opposites. what a contradiction. you succeeded where i failed. keeping me in the dark. do you think you can tell me why now?” Sans asked.

Papyrus looked closely at his brother's face. There was no anger or annoyance there, just sadness. He had to make it go away. If that meant being truthful... “IT'S JUST... THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS. I MEAN, IT IS NOT JUST YOU WHO WOULD TREAT ME AS THOUGH I DID NOT UNDERSTAND AND COULD NOT COMPREHEND ANYTHING COMPLICATED OR DISTRESSING. WHILE I APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORTS TO KEEP ME HAPPY, IT IS VERY HARD TO FEEL HAPPY WHEN I AM NOT GIVEN THE CHANCE TO DO SEVERAL THINGS FOR MYSELF.

“I WANTED TO TELL YOU A LONG TIME AGO BECAUSE IT IS HEALTHY TO TALK ABOUT THINGS WHEN THEY BOTHER YOU, BUT I DID NOT WANT YOU TO GET MORE DEPRESSED. SOMETIMES IT SEEMED THAT THE ONLY REASON YOU GOT OUT OF BED WAS BECAUSE I WAS CALLING YOU DOWNSTAIRS. IT WAS UPSETTING TO EXPERIENCE, BUT IF IT KEPT YOU SLIGHTLY HAPPIER, THEN IT WAS WORTH FEELING LONELY AND SAD.

“OF COURSE I WANTED TO BE HAPPY, BUT I WOULD RATHER SEE EVERYONE ELSE HAPPY FIRST. THAT WOULD MAKE ME VERY HAPPY.

“EVEN IF THOSE PEOPLE WERE NOT MY FRIENDS, I WANTED THEM TO BE HAPPY TOO. AND IT GOT VERY LONELY WHEN I LEARNED THAT NONE OF MY FRIENDSHIPS WOULD LAST. I COULDN'T EVEN TRY TO TALK TO ANYONE ELSE, BECAUSE MY FRIEND QUANTITY WAS ONLY UNDYNE. WHILE SHE IS A WONDERFUL MONSTER, SHE IS ALSO VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING OTHERS, AND I DID NOT WANT HER TO TELL YOU SO I COULD NOT TELL HER. JUST IN CASE SHE THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD TRY TO “HELP” ME. WHICH IS NOT TO SAY THAT YOU CAN'T! JUST THAT I DID NOT WANT YOU TO IF IT WOULD MAKE YOU SAD.

“AND THEN ALL OF THE NOT TALKING MADE ME REALIZE MORE THAT I DO NOT GET TO HAVE FRIENDSHIP, AND BECAUSE THERE IS NO FRIENDSHIP, I ALSO DID NOT GET MUCH RESPECT. IT KIND OF HURT WHEN I REALIZED IT. KIND OF A LOT.

“BUT IF EVERYONE ELSE WAS HAPPY, THEN I COULD LIVE WITH THAT. IF THE WORLD WAS GOING TO REPEAT FOREVER, THEN I WOULD HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT ANYWAYS, RIGHT? SO I MIGHT AS WELL TRY TO HELP OTHERS BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND BECAUSE I HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO DO SO!

“AND EVEN AFTER TRYING REALLY HARD, YOU KEPT GETTING FARTHER AND FARTHER AWAY, METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING. AND SOMETIMES LITERALLY SPEAKING. IT WAS HARD ALONE, BUT I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AFTER ALL! THERE IS NOTHING THAT I CANNOT DO!

“BUT EVEN I NEED A DISTRACTION SOMETIMES, SO I STARTED HURTING MYSELF ONE NIGHT BECAUSE I NEEDED A CHANCE TO SELF DESTRUCT SO THAT I COULD KEEP BEING THE SAME SKELETON THAT DOES HIS BEST TO HELP! IF I TOOK THE CHANCE TO SELF DESTRUCT, THEN MAYBE I COULD MAKE IT SO THAT NO ONE ELSE EVER HAS TO. NO ONE CAN BE STRONG ALL THE TIME. NOT EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

Papyrus finally finished his rant. It had been so long. But Sans was actually listening this time. He even asked about it all! He is actually trying for once.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

“i... had no idea, pap. and maybe it's a bit late, but i'm sorry. i'm sorry that any of this had to happen to you. i should have been there to help you.” Sans apologized.

“BUT YOU COULD NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT IT WHEN I DID NOT TELL YOU! YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME! IT WAS JUST... AN UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCE. SO WHEN IT ALL REPEATS AGAIN, WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER. WE WILL NOT HAVE TO BE ALONE ANYMORE! SO DO NOT BE SORRY! THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME!” Papyrus smiled. Maybe he could keep his promise to Undyne after all. Unless Sans was actually upset with him about all of this.

“YOU ARE NOT... UPSET WITH ME, ARE YOU?” Papyrus had to ask. He had to know if he had made a mistake.

“of course not! i might be upset because you decided that hurting yourself was the way to deal with all of this, and i might be upset at myself for never noticing, but i am not upset with you. i could never be. i'm proud of you for working so hard all this time, even if things didn't work out perfectly. nothing and no one is perfect, so how can i expect that? right now, what we have? this is good. we can work forward from here, right?” Sans looked hopeful.

Papyrus's jaw wasn't big enough for the smile he wanted to show. “OF COURSE WE CAN! NOW THAT WE ARE ON THE SAME METAPHORICAL PAGE, I CAN HELP YOU PROPERLY! WE CAN FIGURE OUT STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENT THEM WITH THE UTMOST EFFICIENCY! WHEN EVERYONE IS IN AGREEMENT, PLANS TEND TO GO MORE SMOOTHLY, AFTER ALL!”

Sans watched his brother carefully. “sure thing bro. but you'll let me help you too, right?”

“UMM...”

“you don't trust me to be able to help? i guess i understand. i haven't done all that much for you before, so why would you trust me now, right? but i guess that's something we can work on later, yeah?” Sans tried to smile.

“OF COURSE I TRUST YOU! I JUST... I DON'T KNOW HOW COMFORTABLE I AM WITH... A LOT OF THINGS. IT'S NOT THAT I DO NOT TRUSTYOU TO HELP, BUT I DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HELP WOULD ENTAIL, SO I AM NOT SURE ABOUT IT YET... IF THAT MAKES SENSE TO YOU?” Papyrus explained.

“yeah, i think i get it bro. just, one last question then? you can say 'no,' but it would mean a lot to me if you agreed.” Sans requested.

Papyrus looked uncertain. “WHAT IS IT?”

Sans looked down, unable to meet his brother's eye sockets. “can i... uh, this is gonna sound awkward... can i check your stats? i trust you, but it just makes me feel better to see it too.”

Papyrus brightened. That was easy to do. “OF COURSE! I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE FROM YOU ANYMORE, SO GO AHEAD!”

Sans activated his magic and looked at the stats.

Papyrus

HP: 680/680

Strong magic.

Full soul – Mild fog. 73%

Hopeful and anxious for the future. Uncertain about his emotions. Loves his brother very much.

It wasn't perfect, but it was still good. “thanks bro. you're the best, you know?” Sans looked back at Papyrus. He felt happy and also a little bittersweet. This might be the last time he ever does a stat check for Papyrus. If they were talking now, then there wouldn't be a need, right? Sans would miss it.

Papyrus posed. “OF COURSE I AM! BUT YOU ARE A VERY CLOSE SECOND!”

Sans laughed. “heh, thanks. we should probably head back in with the others, though. the kiddo is probably coming back soon.”

Papyrus nodded. “WE PROBABLY SHOULD. BUT FIRST! WOULD YOU BE OPPOSED TO A FIST BUMP? A COMPLETELY PLATONIC BROTHERLY FIST BUMP OF FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY?”

Papyrus held out his mitten-covered fist. Sans put his hands in his pockets briefly before agreeing.

“sure thing. brotherly fist bumps.” Almost too quickly to see, Sans bumped his fist against his brother's.

A farting noise echoed through the throne room.

Papyrus started stomping. “SANS! HOW DARE YOU RUIN THE MOMENT WITH ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR JUVENILE PRANKS!”

“what can i say? the feelings were building up inside.”

“SANS!”

“i had to let them out. I couldn't hold it in!”

“STOP IT!”

“i know, i know. i'm such a stinker.”

“NYEEEEEEH! I'M GOING TO WAIT FOR THE HUMAN. AWAY FROM YOU!”

“c'mon, don't be like that.”

“I CAN BE HOWEVER I LIKE!”

“heh. yeah, you really can.”

Chapter Text

In Which An Ending Happens

Frisk had returned to the room just before the barrier. It appeared that they had concluded whatever business that they needed to do. Apparently they had visited with several friends, including Mettaton, Napstablook, Shyren, Ice Wolf, Gerson, and many others. Going by the smile on their face, it looked like they had a good time. Or at least, they were satisfied with whatever they had accomplished.

But they had lost the mittens at some point. They still had the mittens when the barrier was broken, but at the end of their adventure, they must have dropped them somewhere. It was a little sad for Papyrus, to see his old mittens gone, but the human probably found a good use for them. And even if they are lost, he'd be getting them back soon anyways when it all repeats again.

Now that they're back, it must be time to see the surface. Papyrus has some mixed feelings about this, and he knows that Sans must too. Monsters have been waiting a very long time for access to the surface, and the number still alive that remember what it looks like probably no longer reaches the double digits.

The sun was beautiful. Apparently the time of day is called “dusk” by humans.

After proclaiming himself the new mascot for monsterkind, Papyrus made his extremely unsubtle but still completely “in-character” exit. Partway down, he hid behind a tree. He needed some time alone to think, and he didn't want the company of his friends for the moment. There was too much to think about right now after the short talk with Sans. Things would never be the same as they were before, and he didn't know how to feel about that yet.

After a few moments, Undyne past while calling his name. She must be worried. He would talk to her later. Once she was a safe distance away, Papyrus slumped down against the tree trunk. He stared at his mittens and sighed.

A quiet pop beside him made him start.

“'sup bro?” a too familiar voice asked.

Papyrus kept his voice low. “Sans, I would appreciate it if I could have a moment alone.”

Sans looked confused. Papyrus figured that it was because Sans wasn't used to seeing him with less energy than a five year old on sugar.

“you sure?” Sans asked.

Papyrus nodded in assurance. “I'm fine. I just need to sort out my thoughts.”

“gotcha. see ya later.” Sans disappeared with another pop.

Alphys and Asgore pass by next. They were discussing science-y topics and something about a resignation. It sounded complicated. He had no doubt that the two would sort the problem out.

Papyrus just let the sounds of the mountain wash over him. It was mostly quiet with a soft ambiance when the wind hit the trees and animals chirped, croaked, and buzzed. The quiet was a nice change.

Shortly, Frisk and Toriel made their way past his hiding spot. Papyrus peeked over at them before quickly hiding himself again. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye socket, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. It must be his imagination.

Suddenly, Frisk stopped and started communicating with Toriel.

“Oh, what is it my child? You have forgotten something? Would you like me to accompany you? Oh, then I will just meet you at the bottom of the mountain. Be quick, my child! And stay safe.” Toriel walked away quickly, glancing back every so often until Frisk was out of her sight.

Once she was gone, Frisk strode over to his hiding spot with determination in their eyes.

[I'm sorry that I don't have your mittens anymore.] Frisk apologized.

Papyrus shook his head and sat down against the tree. “It is alright, Frisk. I'm sure that there was an important reason for you to leave them behind.”

[There was! I promise!] Frisk signed rapidly. They looked meaningfully at Papyrus. [Are you okay?]

Papyrus shook his hand at the child and smiled widely. “I'm doing great! We're finally on the surface and everyone is happy! It's the best possible outcome! I just need some time to... think things over.”

[Are you sad?] Frisk looked concerned.

“Of course not! I just... want to know when everything is going to repeat again. Sans... he knows now so... it would be nice if I could give him a heads up.”

Frisk shook their head. [No more resets. Everyone is saved.]

“Yes indeed. All of the monsters are free to see the surface now.”

[Two people can't come up. I made sure that they have company and good memories.]

Papyrus was surprised. “Why can't they come up? Did I know them?”

Frisk paused for a moment. [Did you know a talking flower? Sans mentioned it to me once.]

“Yes I did! Flowey was my... acquaintance, I suppose? I don't know that I could call him my friend, even though I was most certainly his, but we were working on it!” Papyrus explained with a small smile. “Is Flowey not able to join us up here because his roots do not extend this far? If that is the case, then we could find a pot or a bucket to carry him in until we find him a new new home up here!”

[Flowey asked to stay behind. Flowey was not always called Flowey. He used to be the prince of the Underground before he died. He was sad and angry because his sibling died with him but he was the only one to return.] Frisk fudged the truth a little.

“I see. That is terrible!” Papyrus commented.

[He did not want to come to the surface because he did not want his parents to see him as a mean flower when he used to be really nice.] Frisk stopped for a moment and pondered what to say next. [I helped him to stop feeling lonely so that he would not be sad in the Underground anymore. I gave him two things.]

Papyrus filled in some of the blanks. “One of those things was my old mittens?”

Frisk nodded. [Flowey can remember me and our adventure forever now. I also helped him see his sibling again. Their memory was with me, so I moved the memory to the mittens, and now they can be together forever!]

Papyrus nodded. “I... am not sure that I understand you, but if you say that those old mittens are now making Flowey happy, then it is a very good thing that you left them with him!”

[So you aren't mad at me? I know that they were special to you.] Frisk glanced anxiously at the ground.

“Of course not! As long as they are making someone happy, then they are being put to good use! I could not be mad at you for providing another with happy feelings! And even if I felt bad about it, I know that they will be back in my closet soon. The repeat is coming soon, right?” Papyrus asked. Frisk had said that there would not be any more repeats, but he couldn't make himself believe that. The repeats had always happened before, so why would they stop now?

[No more resets! I can't do it anymore.]

“I hope that you do not feel too much guilt. You could not have known about myself or Sans unless we had told you. Which I am sure that we did not.”

[Not enough determination left. I needed Chara to save and reset. No Chara, no more resets.]

“Who is Chara?”

[They were the sibling of the prince. They were like a ghost, but only I could hear them.]

“Oh, I see. I wish I could have met them.” The two sat quietly for a moment and enjoyed the sounds of nature. A thought then occurred to Papyrus, “Does this mean that this repeat is permanent? Everyone will remember everything that happened?”

Frisk nodded.

If Papyrus had a stomach, it would have dropped. He knew that Sans would always remember, and he had made some peace with that. The two of them were going to work on it together. Now, it wouldn't just be Sans, but Undyne and Dr. Alphys too. And he had acted so weird and “out of character” in front of Undyne earlier! He would probably have to explain away his odd statements about how nothing ever changes or stays the same. Then there was the fact that all three of them knew about what he does...

He wouldn't be able to hide it anymore.

But... did he really have to? All three had said that they would support him, if not in so many words. They had all exchanged fist bumps of friendship! He hadn't been judged for his problems yet, so maybe he could believe that they wouldn't? Papyrus didn't judge Dr. Alphys or Frisk for it, so why would they judge him now?

It also meant that for the first time, his friendships would last. It was a very liberating thought that brought a smile to his face.

Only Frisk so far had seen the marks that he had left on his arms (and maybe Undyne did briefly), but the others surely knew that they existed. Papyrus was a little nervous, but he found a certain resolve within himself.

It was going to be difficult, especially in the short run, but he knew that things would get better from here. Papyrus knew that in proceeding with this plan, he would also be helping Frisk and be providing a good role model for them. If the human had so many hard experiences before coming to the Underground, then Papyrus felt safe in assuming that there were not very many good role models in their life the first time that they were on the Surface.

There was a small finger prodding his shoulder pads. Papyrus turned to face the child.

[Are you okay Papyrus? You look like you're thinking hard.] Their face held some concern. As much as their stoic face could show, in any case.

“I AM FINE, HUMAN! IN FACT, I AM BETTER THAN FINE! FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE JUST THOUGHT OF A GREAT IDEA!” Papyrus proclaimed loudly. Before Frisk could question him, he removed his mittens and placed them over the smaller hands of the human. “SINCE YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE OLD BLUE MITTENS, WHY DON'T YOU USE THESE NEWER ORANGE ONES INSTEAD?”

Frisk blinked and looked curiously at Papyrus. They moved the mittens so that they could continue to sign. [But these are yours. How will you cover your scars?]

“WELL, FOR NOW, MY SLEEVES ON MY BATTLE BODY MOSTLY COVER THEM, YOU SEE?” Papyrus held out his arms and waved them around a little. Only the lowest mark could be seen on each arm. “AND THE SURFACE MUST HAVE MANY NEW FASHIONS TO TRY! SOME OF THEM SHOULD COVER UP IF I NEED TO DO SO. OR I CAN PURCHASE SOME NEW MITTENS! I WONDER HOW MANY G NEW MITTENS WILL COST. HUMAN! DO YOU KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY LARGER VERSIONS OF MY OLD BLUE MITTENS? IF SO, THAT WOULD BE WONDEROUS!”

Frisk's shoulders shook with laughter. [I don't know about adult mittens, but there are a lot of fashions with long sleeves. Thank you.]

“IT IS NO PROBLEM AT ALL! YOU ARE MY FRIEND, SO YOU DESERVE ALL THE AID THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN PROVIDE!” Papyrus claimed, and it was all true. If he could help his friends, he would do so without a second thought because everyone deserves to happy. If everyone else was happy, then maybe he could...

He might finally be able to gather the courage within himself to move on.

He had promised Undyne that he would try to find a reason to maybe sometimes not hurt himself. As general and vague a statement as “not hurting himself” was, the most effective method would probably be the knowledge of his peers. If he knew that he would be showing himself to them every day, that he would not be hiding himself so much anymore, then he would be much less willing to actually cause any visible damage.

He could start to heal. He could start to feel good about himself again.

He could once again be the great Papyrus. He would not have to lie.

Some day, far in the future, he might even be able to take some pride in his new battle scars. It could be a permanent reminder that temporary pain can have lasting consequences. He could forever be a better person.

He could some day, maybe, encourage Frisk to be proud of themselves too, in the same way that he was proud of them for overcoming as much as they did.

Papyrus ran his fingers over the dirt and grass, feeling the different textures. The dirt was rough and stuck in unpleasant ways while the grass was smooth and a little rubbery. Moss was bouncy, stones were grainy, and leaves crinkled into shapes that tickled his palms. One side of his scarf was smooth and soft, while the other was patterned with checkered squares using stitches in alternating directions. These were all sensations that he had not felt in a long time.

His hands felt light and cool.

Frisk was fidgeting with the inside of Papyrus's orange mittens, like they were getting used to the new texture and overwhelming amount of fabric. Hopefully they would grow into the new accessories.

“HUMAN FRISK! THE OTHERS MUST BE WAITING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN FOR US. WE SHOULD GET GOING.” Papyrus hoped that Undyne wasn't becoming too impatient. If she was, she at least had Dr. Alphys to keep her calm, though.

Frisk nodded, but didn't make a move to stand. They seemed engrossed in their thoughts.

It was time to pull out the big brother tricks that Sans used to use with him. “I WILL RACE YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN! THE LAST ONE TO GET A FIST BUMP FROM SANS HAS TO COOK FOR THE WINNER!”

Frisk still didn't move. Papyrus approached slowly. “HUMAN? ARE YOU-” And then Frisk ran past Papyrus with a smirk on their lips. That trickster.

“THAT WAS AN UNFAIR TRICK, HUMAN! BUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER LOSE IN A FOOT RACE! FOR I TRAIN EVERY DAY TO BE THE FASTEST SKELETON IN SNOWDIN! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!”

Papyrus chased Frisk down the mountain, laughing as the two dodged trees and jumped over rocks.

The two caught up to their friends and waved as they approached. Without his mittens, Papyrus was sure that everyone there could see his scars. Even Asgore and this Toriel person who didn't know about any of it.

The two were both subtle in their reactions, briefly glancing to Undyne and Sans respectively to see what to do. The fish monster and the skeleton smiled widely and waved back.

Papyrus called out to his brother once he came within a reasonable shouting distance. “SANS! WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT LET THE HUMAN FIST BUMP YOU FIRST! WE ARE HAVING A RACE, AND YOU ARE THE FINISH LINE!”

“oh? i guess i can't make it too easy for you then.” Sans teleported to a nearby tree branch and made himself comfortable twenty feet in the air.

“NOW IT IS NOT FAIR! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO MOVE UP THERE!”

“c'mon bro, i'm just needling you.”

Toriel chuckled.

“SANS!”

“i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you're not impressed with my clever wordplay.”

Toriel laughed harder and Alphys joined her. Undyne and Asgore buried their faces in their hands.

“NYEEEEEH SANS! STOP RUINING THE SURFACE'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS WITH YOUR BAD JOKES!”

“but i'm just exchanging pleasantrees with the local wildlife.”

Once Papyrus and Frisk reached the bottom of Sans's tree, Papyrus replied in kind. “I HAVE NO MORE WOODS FOR YOU.”

Toriel broke down in laughter, Undyne summoned a spear, and Sans fell out of the tree. Papyrus caught him so that he wouldn't get hurt.

“good one, bro.”

Frisk stole a fist bump from Sans before Papyrus could set his brother down.

“AH! IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE WON, HUMAN! YOU WILL HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS'S SPAGHETTI SOME TIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE!”

Frisk took Papyrus's bare hand and held it with their mittened one. It was time to go and start their new life.

It was all the opposite of what it had been since the repeats started. This time, the scars were permanent. This time, he had friends and family. This time, the pain would be temporary.

And this time, Papyrus could finally see himself being happy.