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Chapter Text

Sans woke up in his bed, feeling surprisingly decent; he couldn’t remember having had any nightmares and his head wasn’t pounding. nice. He sat up and scanned for clothing items amongst the piles of trash. Besides a slightly stained hoodie and his trusty slippers, he also found an unopened packet of ketchup. Pocketing it, he already felt like a winner.

Coming downstairs, he heard a familiar ruckus from the kitchen as Papyrus clearly knocked over and spilled something he wasn’t supposed to. Sans was already grinning at his brother’s antics before he even got to the same room.

Entering the small kitchen, he spotted Papyrus frantically waving a rag around while sauce was trickling down the stove, forming a puddle on the floor. “Nyyyeeehhh,” he grumbled as the sauce spread around even more.

“hey, paps, umm, you need any help?” Sans asked, causing Papyrus to spin around.

“Sans! Good morning, brother!” he greeted cheerfully, “Umm, actually, yes… I need to fetch more towels; can you help yourself to breakfast?”

“sure thing, bro.”

As Papyrus hurried to tend to his towel quest, Sans grabbed a portion of spaghetti and sat at the table to eat it. The pasta was slightly undercooked but the sauce was palatable. Papyrus returned with his towels and resumed his cleaning operation. Sans watched his brother’s every move; admiring his energy and dedication as the lanky skeleton furiously scrubbed pasta sauce off the cabinets.

Sans had already finished his meal when Papyrus realized he didn’t have enough time left to clean properly and also eat breakfast, so he chose the latter. Sitting down to eat, he noticed Sans looked like he was lost in thought; not wanting to interrupt, they sat in silence for a while as Papyrus devoured his portion of spaghetti. While he was clearing the plates, Sans snapped back to reality.

“hey, bro…” he said, drawing Papyrus’ attention away from the dishes, “…you remember that time we went to hotland looking for mettaton?”  Papyrus smiled as he recalled the day Sans was referring to and nodded. “we… we should do stuff like that more often, you know…”

“True,” Papyrus agreed, feeling nostalgic, “but as of right now, we both need to be getting ready for work… You’re coming to work, right?” he glared at Sans. “yea, yea of course, bro,” Sans assured.

As Papyrus hurried upstairs to go get ready, Sans lugged himself over to the couch and turned on the TV. A couple of minutes later Papyrus came back downstairs, exuding energy.

“The Great Papyrus is ready for duty!” he proclaimed loudly.

“good job, bro. i’ll meet you there, i just need a couple of more minutes, you know, to get ready…” Sans yawned and stretched his limbs, finding a more comfortable position.

“Nyeh! Suit yourself!” Papyrus squawked, throwing his arm up as he stomped to the front door and made his exit.

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Flowey watched amongst the trees as Papyrus marched off to tend to his duties.

He was still considering his options, trying to decide his strategy for this run. His opening moves rarely varied; step one was always easy. Papyrus was so starved for validation and attention that befriending him never took longer than a couple of days, maybe a few weeks if Flowey wanted to build a stronger trust with his favorite toy before the real games began. He had been popping up here and there, having little chats with Papyrus and had already shared the location of their usual meeting place. It was almost time to begin…

After he’d gained his target’s trust, he tended to group his runs into two categories; mental and physical. The physical routes were always more exciting and involved a lot more fighting, but Flowey couldn’t deny that sometimes the mental routes yielded more interesting end game.

He decided perhaps it was time to go for the mental route again. Maybe he could at least gain some new piece of information about that pitiful sack of depression his favorite shared a household with.

Flowey knew there were risks involved with toying with Sans; he didn’t always forget, not everything anyway. Sans didn’t quite reset the same way everyone and everything else did, part from Flowey himself of course. He couldn’t afford to give Sans any information about himself just in case it might stick. Staying off Smiley Trashbag’s radar was vital; that’s why it was so often a problem when Papyrus, against all instructions, blabbed about Flowey to someone, again. When it was Sans he told, Flowey sometimes found it more convenient to just RESET and start over rather than kill Sans and continue with the current run, but not always. He had murdered Sans enough times to know several points in many timelines where that 1 HP of his was easy enough to simply snag away, leaving Papyrus, well…

Flowey chuckled to himself. Was it that time again? Should this be one of those runs?

He figured time would tell. Always did.

Chapter Text

Papyrus arrived at his sentry station/cardboard box and scanned the area. No humans in sight. He sat down and hummed a tune, trying to stay alert in case of a human invasion. No invasion happened though, and soon his mind was wandering, taking him on a path down memory lane. He thought about the trip to Hotland Sans had mentioned. That sure had been a fun day…

They had gone to roam around Hotland because apparently Sans had heard a rumor that Mettaton would be shooting his show out and about that day. Papyrus had really wanted to see his idol in person, but unfortunately either the rumor was false or they just got unlucky since they didn’t encounter any kind of robots that day. They had, however, wasted an entire day jumping around on steam powered puzzles; playing tag on conveyor belts and riding up and down in a high tech elevator playing pranks on innocent passers-by. They had also befriended a little Vulkin that Sans had graciously offered ketchup to. The Vulkin had been highly pleased to meet the Skelebros and had paraded around them trying its best for nearly an hour. Papyrus couldn’t remember any other time in his life when he had giggled so much in a single day.

The memory of that day made Papyrus want to try his best, too.

With no humans still in sight, he decided to patrol over to Sans’ sentry station with the intention of cleaning up some of the empty ketchup packets that usually littered his brother’s surroundings. To his complete astonishment, somehow, Sans was already there, asleep at his station. Papyrus observed the tiny Z’s wafting from the small skeleton as he snoozed. Sans was pretty damn adorable, Papyrus noted.

Not wanting to let an opportunity to go to waste, Papyrus grabbed a handful of snow off the ground and placed it carefully on top of Sans’ skull. He kept on sleeping, so Papyrus kept piling up the snow, until Sans looked like he was ready to challenge Icecap to a hat battle. Papyrus snickered as the snow started sliding down Sans’ spine and woke him up.

“aaaaaa, cold, cooold!” he yelled, waving his arms, snow falling everywhere. Papyrus burst out laughing.

“aww jeez, real funny,” he scolded but chuckled a bit too, “ice move, bro.”

“Nyeh-heh-heh, that is what you get for sleeping on the job,” Papyrus clarified, his hands on his hips. “I am sure any human would be thrilled to see our first line of defense slumbering away,” he continued with a sarcastic tone.

“you really do believe that, don’t you…” Sans remarked.

“Believe what?”

“…that another human is just suddenly gonna show up one day, out of nowhere?” Sans gave the taller skeleton a doubting look.

“Of course they will! It’s happened before,” Papyrus pointed out.

“well, yeah…” Sans paused to consider how much he should say, but not wanting to rob Papyrus of his blissful ignorance, decided it was definitely not worth it to mention any resets. “you’re right. good for you bro, you stay positive,” he continued.

Papyrus struck a heroic pose. “I am ready! I will be the one; I must be the one! I will capture a human!” he declared, gleaming with confidence. Sans stared at his cool brother with pure admiration, smiling affectionately. Papyrus was so cute, so innocent, so clueless…

“you’re gonna do great, bro, i know you will. you’re a real star, you know,” Sans assured. Papyrus gleamed even brighter.

The cute moment was interrupted by the sound of rapid footsteps. They both turned to see Monster Kid running up the path. “oh hey kiddo, how’s it going?” Sans asked light-heartedly.

“Yo! Have you seen any humans around?” the little monster whooped, running in a circle around Papyrus. Papyrus spun comically in place, trying to keep his line of sight on the yellow blur of excited energy scudding around him. Five rounds of this and Papyrus felt dizzy. Luckily for him, the kid stopped for a moment to look up at him.

“Yo, have you seen Undyne? I really wanna see her today,” he blared.

Sans chuckled. “sorry, kid, haven’t seen her today.” The young monster’s enthusiasm was impressive, but his brother’s was second to none.

“I have to go recalibrate my puzzles, I can walk back to Snowdin with you,” Papyrus suggested.

“Yeeaahh! Ok,” the tiny monster shouted and took off running again, this time towards the town.

“see ya later, bro,” Sans said nodding to Papyrus. The taller skeleton smiled brightly and waved his hand before sprinting after the yellow child in a striped shirt. Sans leaned on his station, allowing himself to continue the nap his brother had interrupted.

Papyrus’ long legs made it easy for him to catch up to Monster Kid and they giggled at each other as they raced through the forest trail. Running through an insidious patch of hidden ice, they both slipped; colliding with the snow bank. Still bursting with laughter Papyrus dug his way out of the snow and helped the kid back to his feet. For a brief moment, Papyrus considered how different his life would be if he didn’t have any arms either.

“Yo, we gotta do that again!” Monster Kid demanded merrily. Papyrus shook his head, smiling.

“Hey, I said I’d walk you to town and I will,” he clarified. They walked the rest of the way more mindful of the ice; gushing over humans, monsters and epic battles.

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A few days later, Papyrus was once again sitting in their secret meet-up cave in Waterfall; opening up to Flowey about his feeling towards his older brother and complaining how he always had to do everything. The flower listened patiently, nodding and bobbing.

“…and then when I came home from my lesson; Sans was asleep on the couch, the pet rock still wasn’t fed AND THAT SOCK IS STILL THERE!” he ranted, rubbing his temples. Flowey patted the top of his skull with a lush vine, waiting for him to calm down a bit more.

“So, anyway… How was your day?” Papyrus sighed, trying to be attentive.

Flowey estimated that the right time had come; Papyrus trusted him enough to walk into his trap.

“I’ve been observing your brother, curious to see if he really is as lazy as you make him sound…” Flowey said innocently. “But what if it’s something else? What if your brother’s actually sick and just doesn’t know it?”

“W-what? Sick? What do you mean?” Papyrus said, instantly alarmed.

“Ever heard of a disease called narcolepsy?” Flowey cooed. He knew it was kind of a cheap shot to scare Papyrus with an illness he had simply made up, but it wasn’t like Papyrus could catch him in the lie. “It’s a magic based illness that causes sleep deprivation, forcing the sufferer to constantly be tired no matter how much they sleep or how many naps they take,” Flowey explained, sounding like a medical expert. He had spent plenty of time practicing his tones and delivery to make sure all his lies sounded seamless. He was also prepared for follow-up questions about this supposed sickness, but Papyrus just stared at him blankly.

“But do not despair yet, my dear Papyrus. I do know how this ailment can be cured.” Flowey paused, waiting for the look of hope to spread across Papyrus’ face. “However,” he continued, “since your brother isn’t aware of his condition, if you simply tell him this he won’t believe you. That’s why we need to be sneaky about this, Papyrus. We need to trick him into letting us help him.” Flowey flashed his sweetest smile.

Papyrus mulled it over. The description of the illness did fit Sans perfectly; and Papyrus would love nothing more than to see his big brother happy and healthy, so if a little lie would help him achieve that, surely it was worth it… “How are we gonna trick him?” he finally asked.

“With a touch of reverse psychology, my friend,” Flowey grinned. Papyrus leaned closer as Flowey explained the plan.

Chapter Text

The next day; Papyrus kept switching back and forth between being hopeful and staying positive, to being worried and dubious. “Is Sans really sick? Are all his problems just a symptom of something else? Can Flowey really help Sans like he claims?” Papyrus wanted to believe he could help his brother more than anything. But what if it’s a trap? What kind of trap, he didn’t even know; but kept flashing back to several tiny moments of spending time with his buddy Flowey when the flower had acted a bit threatening… or even dangerous? Papyrus was making himself feel worse by the minute, running these thoughts through his mind over and over, an endless loop that went nowhere.

He looked down at the pot of spaghetti he was absent mindedly stirring. There was no water in the pot. He added water and tried again. The pasta began slowly boiling as Papyrus pondered which he was more afraid of, the concept of narcolepsy; or what might happen if he failed this mission. He didn’t want to lie to Sans but he also didn’t want to let down Flowey.

His mind-loop was finally broken when Sans’ walked in and sat down at the table. “’eeyy, bro,” he greeted lazily.

“SAAANS! Great! Perfect! Yes, SPAGHETTI!” Papyrus shouted in a squeaky voice. He paused awkwardly; coughed, and dumped all the pasta from the strainer onto a plate. He placed it on the table and grinned like an idiot at Sans. “Expertly cooked, umm, by me… and so forth…” he mumbled.

Sans looked down at the giant pile of spaghetti. “sure, umm, ok bro. we’re just gonna share, then?” he asked, slightly baffled by Papyrus’ weirdness. Sure, his brother was weird, but unusually so.

“OH! Right! A second plate? A second plate! That’s a great idea, Sans!” he exclaimed as he spun around to reach for the dishes. He grabbed a second plate and placed it on the table next to the other and grinned some more.

“we don’t have forks either,” Sans pointed out. Papyrus glanced down to confirm that they indeed did not have any forks, and spun around again to fetch the needed utensils. He handed both of the forks to Sans and then just awkwardly stood there, sweating. Sans took a fork in each hand and spun them in the mountain of pasta.

“so we eat this, or what?” he asked, extending one of the forks towards Papyrus.

“Oh! Yes,” he agreed, accepting the fork and realizing he should probably sit down.

An uncomfortable silence fell as they devoured the spaghetti heap, still from a single plate.

Once the “meal” was finished, Papyrus sat awkwardly, fluttering.  

“Ok, well, I have to go do a thing now, umm, elsewhere,“ he announced and got up.

“oh, what thing?” Sans asked curiously. Why was his little brother so nervous?

“Ah, a s-secret thing,” Papyrus huffed. He was wriggling his fingers together uncomfortably, bone scraping against bone.

“and what’s the secret?” Sans queried. He squinted, pupil lights fixed on Papyrus’ squirming hands; noticing his brother’s gaze, Papyrus quickly pulled his hands behind his back, out of sight.

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a secret, now would it?” He bounded to the living room, trying to dodge Sans’ observant stare. “So, umm, as such, I strongly feel you should stay home and, umm, take a nap,” he continued as he strode towards the front door. They both knew what a terrible liar he was and that made him even more jittery. “So, great, I’m off then, see you later, have fun, take care, no worries, au revoir, bah-bye” he babbled as he snuck out the door and closed it behind him.

Sans stared at the door and considered the evidence; Papyrus was clearly acting weird and fidgety, but he couldn’t quite piece together why. He tipped his skull to the side, considering whether or not he should sneak after Papyrus and follow him.

                                                                                       ---

Jogging into the woods, Papyrus felt a sudden surge of dread. Why was he so nervous, they were just going to help Sans, right? Try to heal the illness plaguing him? Yet, in that moment he felt like this was a bad idea, somehow. Would Sans even fall for it and follow? Maybe he won’t even show up…

Flowey popped up from the earth and smiled devilishly.

“Howdy, friend! I’m so happy you decided to attend this special event.”

Papyrus stopped and twitched nervously.

“O-of course I came,” Papyrus stuttered and rubbed his shoulder, “So, umm… What’s the plan now?”

“The plan is,” Flowey exclaimed cheerfully, “that we are now going to fight to the death!” He stuck out his tiny pink tongue, still smiling, and shuffled his petals.

“W-wait… What?” Papyrus yelped, recoiling.

Flowey pushed up several thick, intimidating vines from the ground; they loomed over Papyrus as he struggled to reign in his panic. The realization that this had indeed been a very bad idea washed over him.

“Ready? Here we go,” Flowey announced as his vines grew even taller, even more threatening.

Papyrus stood still in confused horror.

Flowey launched the thickest vine he had above ground directly at Papyrus. Three impenetrable walls of blue bones shot out the snowy ground and blocked Flowey’s attack completely. Papyrus spun around to see Sans standing behind him, his left eye blazing with an intense flame of blue magic. He raised his left hand and two enormous monster skulls materialized on each side of him, hovering above ground, both staring intensely at Papyrus with creepy cyan light.

“paps,” Sans said in a calm and collected voice, “duck.”

Papyrus threw himself on the ground in front of Sans and covered his ear holes as both Gaster blasters went off simultaneously, creating a deafening boom with a cracking noise as the sound barrier broke. Both rays hit Flowey as he dove underground.

To him, though, this was nothing new, and definitely not all that exciting. He’d been messing around with similar runs plenty of times. He knew what to do, where and when the weak moment was going to happen. Wait for it…

Sans glanced around, unsure what he was even shooting at. Whatever it was, if it was a threat to Papyrus, it would soon be dust. He was not going to mess around with the safety of his little brother, not ever. The spent blasters disintegrated, leaving behind a momentary cloud of used-up magic before vanishing completely.

Silence fell as Sans kept spinning in place, looking for- whatever it was.

“bro, you ok?” he asked when no danger was identified. “and, umm… what the hell was that thing? that i shot at?”

Papyrus tried to pull himself together but his mind was racing faster than he could keep up with; every bone in his body shaking from the rush of intense magic he’d just witnessed.

“I… I, it, um…” Papyrus frantically searched the dictionary of his brain to find words that if spun together just right, could explain to Sans what Flowey was. But Papyrus had no clue, so his search came back empty. He could feel his brother’s pupil lights fixed on him as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck. He had to say something.

“Umm… a… f-flower…” Papyrus stuttered. He could feel tears forming in his sockets. He felt utterly lost. He tried to hang on and keep his composure, but he knew this was a critical moment. “I’m so sorry, Sans! I… think I’m… in really big trouble.”

“Yes, yes you are,” Flowey remarked from the sideline. Both skeletons spun quickly to the direction of his voice. They did that every time. This was too easy.

Sans’ eye flashed blue again, but behind them thick vines shot out of the ground and spun to wrap around each skeleton, lifting them both off the ground. Smaller vines crawled up to hold limbs in place, trapping them. A massive array of bones shot up from the snow; Flowey didn’t care, he’d seen that move so many times he hardly even noticed.

Flowey squeezed the vines around Sans as hard as he could. In a blink of an eye Sans’ ribcage broke apart into a million pieces and the vines wrapped even tighter around his soul and squeezed even harder. Bright blue light went flying in every direction as it shattered.

Sans’ clothes dropped to the ground as the rest of him turned to fine dust particles.

Papyrus’ jaw dropped as if he was screaming but no sound came out. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t process. He needed to scream but no part of his body was responding. He simply stared in horror at the clothes that were resting on top of a pile of-- His attempt to think was interrupted when Flowey suddenly released all his vines at once, dropping Papyrus on the ground. The pain shooting up his pelvis was enough to break the shock; Papyrus screamed.

“And so it goes”, Flowey said with fake amusement.  He tilted his petals to one side and tried to smile at Papyrus but he wasn’t looking at Flowey. “Now, now, Papyrus...” he chirped with a condescending tone, “I know you don’t like this lesson, but it’s one you really should learn.”

Papyrus didn’t register a word Flowey said. He needed Sans. He needed to fix this, to make it better. When the thought that it might be too late struck through his brain the tears started flowing fast and he began sobbing uncontrollably.

“Anyway, so this next part is boring, so I’m gonna go waste time with some of those Temmies; they’re kinda fun to trick into death traps. I’ll be seeing you later, friend!” Flowey sank himself into the ground, leaving Papyrus sobbing in silence.

Chapter Text

After twenty minutes of non-stop crying Papyrus had exhausted himself and the hiccups were getting really bad, so he tried his hardest to focus on calming down enough to have at least one clear thought.  He needed help. He cried out.

But nobody came.

Sans wasn’t here. And he wouldn’t be. Papyrus crawled over to the pile of wet dust and murky clothing. He grabbed Sans’ jacket and wrapped his arms around it. “Please, please, please, I need you…” The jacket smelled awful; Papyrus didn’t care. He rocked back and forth on his knees holding the jacket as tight as he could. “What am I gonna do? How do I fix this?” He still needed help. Finally, he dug out his phone and called Undyne.

“NGAAAAAHHH!” she yelled, sounding impatient.

Papyrus tried his best to say something, anything, but all of his words got twisted into sobs.

“Pa-Papyrus…?” she sounded instantly alarmed. “Paps, what’s going on?”

Papyrus moaned. “Sss…Aaannn…ss.” He heard a crash through the receiver, then stomping.

“Papyrus where are you?” she yelled, trying to sound stern and in control. Her breath was getting quicker, though. She was running. Fast.

“F-f-f-forest…” Papyrus tried to figure out where he was. He had no idea.

“Just hang on Paps, I’m on my way!”

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Papyrus was still hugging Sans’ jacket with tears running down his face when he heard Undyne screaming his name somewhere in the vicinity. He tried to call out her name back but he was too exhausted to make any loud sounds and the hiccups kept interrupting him. Undyne came running through the snow and stopped. She looked at Papyrus; she looked at the clothing he was clutching, and the dust under it. Oh no.

She knew she was already too late. She approached Papyrus carefully. He was trembling. She tried to keep all her movement calm and slow. “Papyrus…” she said in the gentlest voice she could muster “…what do you need?” 

“I… I can’t leave him here.” Papyrus sobbed. “How am I going to get my brother home?”

Undyne let out a sigh and tried to think. Papyrus’ house was not very far. “Umm, yeah okay Paps. I’ll go find… something. Stay here ok?”

Papyrus nodded, so Undyne sprinted off towards the house as fast as she could. “This damn snow,” she thought “I could run much faster in Waterfall”. She grabbed her phone and texted Alphys. “SOS come to paps house please hurry,” she didn’t have time for punctuation right now.

45 seconds later her phone beeped. “I’m on my way. What’s going on? Should I be worried?” the message read. Undyne arrived at the house, panting. She stopped in front of the main entrance to type “Sans died” and hit send, then she kicked the front door off its hinges and barged inside. She headed to the kitchen and tore random cabinets open. In one of them, she found an empty glass jar that probably had once held cookies inside. Now, it would become an urn. She grabbed it headed right back out.

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By the time she got back to Papyrus, he was just kneeling in the snow, completely quiet. Undyne slowed down her movements again as she got closer. Papyrus looked up when he heard her approach.

“I found this, ummm…” She held out the jar. Papyrus looked at it and silently nodded his head for approval. Undyne bent down and tried to scoop as much of Sans’ remains into it as she could. The snow turned it into grey sludge. She closed the jar and looked at Papyrus; he was staring down at the jar and its unspeakable contents. Tears were rolling out of his eye sockets, slowly this time.

“Hey, we really need to get you home now, Paps.”

She picked up Sans’ slippers and placed the jar firmly under her arm. With her free hand, she reached out and grabbed Papyrus’ hand, causing him to look up at her. She gave him her kindest smile and carefully tried to pull him to his feet. Papyrus’ movements were slow, like he suddenly weigh 300 pounds, but he managed to get up, leaning slightly on Undyne. He was still squeezing Sans’ clothes against his chest with his other hand.

Slowly, they began trudging towards the house together. Neither of them said a word, they just focused on getting there.

Coming up to house, Alphys was already there. She was tapping her feet nervously and began looking even more panicked as she saw the two of them approaching.

“U-Undyne! Oh dear, I’ve been so worried!” She glanced at Papyrus, then the jar under Undyne’s arm, then Papyrus again. She raised her claws to her cheeks. “Pa-Papyrus… Oh stars, I am… I’m so deeply sorry… for y-your loss.” She felt really unhelpful so she just stepped to the side and let them go inside first.

Papyrus wasn’t responding. He wasn’t exactly aware of Alphys’ presence. He was numb all the way to his marrow. He felt like he was lost in an endless fog.

The front door was still lying on the floor in the doorway like the world’s weirdest choice for a door mat; they walked right over it and Papyrus didn’t even notice. Undyne helped him over to the couch and sat him down. She put the jar and slippers next to him.

Alphys came in after them, fidgeting. She waved Undyne over.

“Wh-what happened to t-the door?” Alphys whispered. “A-also, what s-should I do?” She glanced over to the couch nervously.

Undyne put her hands Alphys’ shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Listen to me. Here’s what we’re going to do: you’re gonna stay here and keep an eye on Paps, and I will fix his door, ok?”

Alphys nodded. Her tail was twitching.

Undyne turned back to look at Papyrus, he was apathetically staring at the jar he was sitting next to.

Undyne took a few steps closer and double-checked her volume to speak calm and clearly.

“Hey, Paps, listen. I’m sorry I broke your door but um, I can fix it. I’m just gonna pop into the shed and borrow some of your tools, ok? It’ll be fine, soon.”

Papyrus didn’t react.

Alphys brought over a chair from the kitchen and sat down, her tail twisting around the leg of the chair. Undyne nodded to her and went to find the tools. 

With some slightly less than gentle help from a hammer, a screwdriver and a tire iron, Undyne got the door back to its original place. She returned the tools and came back inside. Alphys was fiddling with her phone; Papyrus was still staring into a void.

“Alphys?” Undyne asked. She looked up from her phone. “Maybe tea would be a good idea?” she continued.

Alphys nodded and seemed relieved to have a task to do, so she headed to the kitchen.

Undyne went over to the couch and sat down at the other end. She leaned forward and waved her hand in front of Papyrus’ face. There was no response.

“Hey, Paps, we…” she weigh her words carefully. “You know we’re here for you, right? No matter what happens. Anything you need, we got you, yea?” she paused for a moment but there was still no response. She decided to keep talking anyway, since it was part of her responsibilities. “So, the thing is… I’m still the head of the Royal Guard and I need to know what happened. Paps, can you tell me how Sans died? Did you witness it?”

No response. She sighed. Her timing was bad, this was going nowhere. She decided to drop the subject for now. She put her hand on Papyrus’ arm. He didn’t notice. They sat there in silence until Alphys came back with the tea.

“Hey, how about we watch some TV? Isn’t Mettaton’s show on right about now?” Undyne suggested as she reached for the remote. She turned on the TV and Mettaton’s calculator face filled the screen in all his rectangular glory.

Mettaton was standing in a classroom set, wearing a grey wig and a white lab coat, for what looked like a sketch parodying education standards, when suddenly a school criminal busted in and threatened to decapitate everyone. “LUCKILY I DO NOT HAVE A NECK,” Mettaton replied as the fight scene began unfolding. Once the scoundrel was apprehended, Mettaton straightened his wig and the show shifted to a news report about the attempted terrorism at this made up school, followed by a music video featuring Mettaton and Vulkin titled “Hot Stuff”. Then it turned into a documentary segment about steam puzzles in Hotland.

After several hours of glamorous robotic home entertainment, Alphys noticed that even though Papyrus still hadn’t moved, his eye sockets were now closed. “He probably needs this sleep badly,” she thought to herself.

Half an hour later, Undyne also began making irregular snoring sounds. Alphys turned off the TV and took the tea cups back to the kitchen and placed them in the sink. She returned to the living room and considered her options. There was no more room on the couch with Papyrus on one end, Undyne sprawled out in the other, and Sans’ things in between the two sleeping monsters. She glanced upstairs, but even the thought of sleeping in someone else’s room made her uncomfortable, it was too rude. She sighed and curled up into a lizard ball on the floor. “Just a quick nap, then I need to go back to the lab,” she thought and dozed off.

                                                                                       ---

Alphys woke up first. She checked her phone and freaked out a little when she saw what time it was already. Oh dear, she really had to get back to her lab and feed the amalgamates before they got too hungry and restless.

She walked over to Undyne and started nudging her gently while whispering her name. Nothing happened. Alphys resorted to poking. “Undyne!” she said slightly louder.

“NNGAAAAHH!” Undyne exclaimed as her eye shot open. That also woke Papyrus.

“Nyyeeeh?!” he yelped.

Alphys looked embarrassed. She held her claws out in front of her. “U-uh, hi, umm, so… morning?” she said, trying to sound cheerful and gave them a forced smile.

Papyrus looked at Alphys, then Undyne, then the things next to him. A crushing realization washed over him and clutched tight at his chest, digging deep into his soul. He didn’t want to be here. He opened his jaw to say something, but he didn’t know what to say. There just were no words, not for this.

Undyne broke the awkward moment. “Hey, Paps, great to have you back with us,” she smiled genuinely. Papyrus nodded.

“So, umm… I r-re-really have to, umm, go… To the lab, for, umm, s-science reasons,” Alphys said as she looked down at her feet, her tail once again flinging from one side to the other.

“Oh, shit, the guards!” Undyne yelled in a sudden realization of date and time. “Damn it, I was supposed to meet up with RG01 and RG02 an hour ago.” She shook her head.

“It’s fine,” Papyrus said in almost a whisper. He looked at both of them. “Really, it’s fine,” he assured. He pulled himself up and went over to the kitchen. He noticed the pile of dirty dishes in the sink and in that moment it seemed like the most important thing in the world. He turned on the tap and began washing the plates and mugs immediately.

Alphys and Undyne exchanged glances, both aware that this was not about cleanliness, it was a coping mechanism. Papyrus was trying to distract himself.

“So…” Undyne said, stepping in the kitchen, “what I said last night still stands. I’m the head of the Royal Guard, if you have any pivotal information regarding… umm, these recent events, you do need to tell me. If there’s anything I need to know about what happened to Sans…”

Papyrus stopped washing the dishes and stood completely still for a moment. “Not right now,” he said quietly. “Just… go. Please.”

“We will, it’s just that, considering—“

“GET OUT!” Papyrus screamed over his shoulder. He kept his line of sight on the dishes. He paused for a moment to gather his composure then proceeded washing the dishes as if nothing was wrong.

Undyne and Alphys exchanged worried glances again as they both backed out of the kitchen carefully. They headed to the front door.

“C-can we le-leave him like t-this?” Alphys asked.

“Don’t have a lot of choice,” Undyne noted and opened the door for them. They stepped out and she closed the door behind her as gently as she could. They began walking up the road towards Riverperson’s docking spot.

Undyne had a really intense look in her eye, her mind was racing. Alphys was rubbing her claws together; every muscle of her body felt tense.

“Y-you don’t think Papyrus had anything to do w-w-with it, do y-you?” she asked.  Undyne stopped in her tracks. She stared at Alphys in disbelief.

“Are you asking me if I think Papyrus might have killed Sans?”

“B-b-by ACCIDENT! I meant it like by accident, “Alphys exclaimed defensively, “doesn’t—didn’t Sans have li-like super low HP?”

Undyne put her hand on her forehead. “One. He had 1 HP.” She rubbed her temples. “Alphys, this… this is the worst.”

Alphys began getting teary eyed so they just continued walking, both trying to summon more inner strength; Undyne was simply better at it, her source of courage was bottomless.

By the time Riverperson’s boat left towards Hotland, Alphys was sniffling. Undyne hugged her.

Chapter Text

After the dishes were all done, Papyrus stood in the kitchen drying his hands. He needed another task, a new goal. He looked down at himself and noticed for the first time how dirty his clothes were. A-ha, laundry!

He walked to the living room and went over to the couch. He knelt down on the floor and placed his hands on the sides of the glass jar. He pushed his face towards it until his forehead clinked against the lid.

“Hey Sans,” he whispered to it, “I’m going to wash your clothes for you, okay? If you want to take a nap, go ahead.” He gathered the clothes and headed to the washroom. Once the washing machine was running, Papyrus got clean clothing from his closet and started looking around his room. His room was clean and neat, as always, but he deemed it utterly filthy and retrieved his cleaning supplies.

For the next 6 hours Papyrus cleaned his room. He scrubbed every inch from top to bottom; wiped down every item he owned with a soft rag and changed his bed sheets to fresh ones, three times. After he ran out of things that were even remotely dirty, he moved to the hallway to clean there and after that the living room. By the time he moved on to the kitchen he had been cleaning non-stop for 14 hours. He felt dizzy but ignored it.

Not being able to get all the dirt out from under the refrigerator, he considered moving it so he could clean behind it. Come to think of it, had he ever moved the fridge to get to the spot behind it? He couldn’t remember. He grabbed the sides and pulled the fridge away from the wall with great strain.

Wiping the floor that had never before been cleaned, his hand hit something solid. He grabbed the unknown object and looked at it; it was a can of pickled onions. Papyrus gasped.

“There was one more,” he thought in disbelief, pinching the can between his digits. His brain instantly flooded him with memories of the notorious pickled onion pranks.

Sans had found an entire box of pickled onions in cans at the garbage dump and somehow he had managed to lug the whole thing home. At first, Papyrus had been excited to try a human food item he had never even heard of before, however, as soon as he bit into one he was spitting it back out. The taste was atrocious. Sans had laughed at him whole-heartedly and finished eating the rest of the can on his own. Papyrus had demanded that Sans immediately get rid of this box of culinary torture, to which Sans had agreed and by the next morning, the box was nowhere to be seen.

However, a couple of days after, Papyrus had suddenly found a can of pickled onions under his pillow. The following week, there was one in the laundry basket, after that, between the couch cushions. He’d kept finding those darn cans for months! And every time he complained, Sans had just laughed at him, clearly enjoying his brother’s misery. Papyrus had even thrown several tantrums about the trolling, but the cans still kept making appearances. Sans had sworn that the one in the lamp was the last can he had.

“You slippery snail,” Papyrus said to the can. He had hated the pranks so much; now, he missed them. Damn it, Sans.

He went over to the living room and approached the jar. “Hey, I found this,” he held up the can next to it, “but it’s alright brother, I’m not mad at you, I swear.” He grabbed both objects and took them to his room. He placed them on his table with the utmost care.

He walked over to the washroom to check if the clothes had dried. Almost. He noticed his phone sitting on the counter; he must have left it there putting his clothes in the wash. 15 new messages. Most of the texts were from Undyne, the rest from Alphys, and all of them were asking if he was ok. “I’m totally fine,” he texted both of them back.

He grabbed Sans’ hoodie, still slightly damp but he didn’t really care, before heading back to his room. Right before he got to the doorway his legs finally gave out and he face-planted on the floor with a painful thud. He was officially out of fuel and his body was no longer responding. He tucked the hoodie under his head and fell asleep in the hallway.

                                                                                       ---

Waking up on the floor, Papyrus groaned as his achy bones resisted his commands for movement. The right side of his body really hurt. He sat up and tried to stretch out his limbs. He checked his phone but didn’t have the energy required to actually read the messages he’d received while asleep.

Once he re-gained control over his bones, he got up and took the hoodie to his room, laying it on his bed. He paused and realized he was incredibly hungry.

“Sans, we need to go eat breakfast,” he announced out loud and picked up the glass jar from the table, taking it with him to the kitchen. He placed it on the kitchen table, the side Sans normally sat at. “I shall make us the most glorious pasta anyone has ever tasted,” he assured, “expertly cooked by me, Master Chef--“ he paused as it dawned on him that he was talking to himself. Without finishing his sentence, he sighed regretfully and started gathering his ingredients. He cooked his spaghetti in silence and ate it while dismally staring at the jar sitting across from him. There was a tingling deep in his soul he couldn’t chase away; an uneasy feeling of tension he couldn’t quite identify.

After his meal, he washed the dishes and finished cleaning the kitchen, finally pushing the refrigerator back in its original spot.

The sound of loud knocking from the front door startled Papyrus, causing him to bump his hip on a drawer handle. Anxiety ignited in his soul as he considered who might be at the door and whether he should answer it; it would be rude not to, but the idea of socializing didn’t appeal to Papyrus one bit. It occurred to him that word may have spread about Sans and he was not up to dealing with it. The knocking repeated. Papyrus remained in place, leaning on the kitchen counter, shaking slightly. “Go away,” he thought to himself as he kept pretending no one was home.

After five minutes of standing around in silence Papyrus figured whoever had been at the door had left. He sighed in relief and sat back down at the table. He pulled the glass jar closer to himself and placed his skull resting on top of the lid, wrapping his arms around it. “Hey Sans,” he said, suddenly nostalgic, “you remember the thing with the red strings?”

After the tenth time Papyrus had begged Undyne to sign him up in the Royal Guard already and her having told him he wasn’t ready yet; Papyrus had been feeling more discouraged than usual. He’d been moping around the house all day and by the time Sans returned home, he’d been wallowing in his disappointment for too long. Papyrus had burst into a long rant about how hard he’d been working at this, only to have failed once again and how badly he wanted to join already. Sans had consoled him and kept telling him he’d get there one day if he just stayed determined. Once the venting part was over, Sans had informed him there was something he wanted him to see. They left the house together and Sans had led them to a marsh in Waterfall that blooms with echo flowers. As they arrived, Papyrus had noticed that some of the flowers had a little piece of red string around the stems. “just follow the strings bro,” Sans had explained.

Arriving at the first flower, he leaned towards it to listen. “my little brother is the coolest,” the flower repeated, over and over. Blushing slightly, Papyrus walked to the next one. “the great papyrus is the best brother in the whole universe,” that one had repeated. The third one told him he will one day be a magnificent warrior. He kept walking around the marsh, gaining confidence from every echo and feeling his gratitude rising. When he got to the last flower, he had knelt in front of it, feeling renewed. “i love you bro”, the flower kept whispering to him.

“…and don’t you ever forget that,” Sans said from behind him. Papyrus had turned around and locked the smaller skeleton into a tight embrace; Sans chuckled as he returned the hug. “I love you too, brother,” Papyrus announced, on the verge of tears. “you’re gonna achieve great things,  i  just know it,” Sans had noted proudly. It had truly been the best evening ever.

Coming back to reality Papyrus wiped away tears from his face and stroked the side of the jar.

His phone beeped, again. He retyped his “I’m fine” message and sent it to Undyne and Alphys without actually reading their texts.

He went to the living room and sat on the couch, digging between the cushions to locate the remote. He sat the jar on his lap and turned on the TV; staring at it like a zombie, hardly registering what he was even “watching”.  If he could have simply popped out of existence, he would have. He was tired of feeling but tired is also a feeling that he was tired of feeling; so he just sat there, gaze firmly fixed on some robot antics flickering on screen.

After long hours of still existing, he gave up and turned off the TV. He lovingly carried the jar back to his room and lay down on the bed next to it. Ignoring the tingling in his soul the best he could; he smothered his distress and forced his brain to focus on good, pleasant memories. Eventually it calmed the throbbing of his soul well enough for him to doze off for a while.

                                                                                       ---

The next time he awoke he was hungry again. He left the jar on his bed tucked in Sans’ hoodie and stumbled into the kitchen. There was one more container of spaghetti left in the fridge to heat up. Tearing the lid off too forcefully, he accidentally tipped the container; spilling all the pasta on the floor with a comical splat. Not even remotely amused, Papyrus stood staring at his intended meal and felt a surge of frustrated rage bubbling inside him.

The tingling in his soul wasn’t going away, it was growing. It was feeding on all of the emotions that he worked so hard every day to push down and keep at bay. And now that growth was beginning to gain momentum fast. His grief, his anger, his desolation, it was all mixing together with his magic; creating a force Papyrus had no hope of stopping once it started spilling over.

He tossed the now empty pasta container at the wall, shrieking at it and ran out of the kitchen when it all simply caught up to him. There was nowhere to run, there was only his pain. He screamed as loud as he could as the magic exploded outwards and bright white bones began shooting out of the floor. A cluster of them hit the table splitting it in half; splinters went flying everywhere as the pet rock became a projectile and the plate under it shattered. It was raining sprinkles. Another array of bones hit the TV stand, cracking the side of the TV and almost knocking it over.

It was all just too much. Papyrus screamed again and in his hazy panic, used his special attack on himself. As his soul turned blue, he felt the weight of the magic pulling him hard towards the floor. He let himself fall but yelped when the floor made painful contact with the side of his skull. He stayed down on the floor, twitching and trying to regain control of his magic as more bones shot upwards around him. He whined as all the sorrow washed over him, forcing the tears out. His bereavement, his distress, his loneliness… The special attack was still in effect, but Papyrus still managed to wriggle; trying to cry out all his emotions at once.

Eventually his wailing turned to sobbing, then hiccups, and then he finally began calming down; his panic slowly fading and the pressure in his soul releasing. The attacks ceased.

He stayed down on the floor for what to him felt like eternity, trying to convince himself that everything was fine and that he’d be okay; then he felt numb as the mental fatigue began poking at his brain.

Eventually sitting up, he surveyed his newly wrecked living room. Figuring he’ll clean it up later, he returned to his room feeling guilty for having lost control like that. He curled up in bed with his jar, whispering encouragements to it that he figured Sans would have said if he could. If only…

Chapter Text

The following days, Papyrus mostly stayed in bed talking to his jar; ignoring the knocks on his door and the message spam on his phone. At one point he got so hungry he actually ate the can of pickled onions.

He was in the middle of reminiscing when his thought was interrupted by a loud crashing and the sound of glass shattering. He bolted up and hurried to the hallway.

Reaching the stairs he spotted Undyne climbing through a broken window.

“You smashed my window!? And now you’re breaking and entering! Since when does the head of the Royal Guard break into monsters’ homes?” he complained descending the stairs.

“You didn’t leave me much of a choice,” she stated. “Paps, we have to have this talk. So we’re doing this now.” Glancing around her, she finally noticed the current state of the living room. “Err, Paps? What the hell happened here?” she asked, assessing the damage. Papyrus crossed his arms defensively but didn’t answer. He stared at the floor. Undyne came up with her likeliest theory, which happened to not be all that far from the truth, and decided to ignore the broken furniture. “Can we just sit down for a bit, please?” she asked him, gesturing towards the couch. Papyrus nodded glumly and they both sat down. There was a moment of silence.

“I need you to tell me what happened to Sans,” Undyne said in a sensible tone. “I know this is the hardest thing in the world, but you gotta tell me.”

Papyrus could feel panic surging inside him. He was in enough trouble already; the last thing he wanted was to cause more pain to anyone else. “I don’t want to put you in danger too,” he sighed.

“Danger? You mean…” she paused to finish her train of thought, “…from someone who killed Sans and maybe is threatening to kill you too if you tell anyone…?” she gave him a questioning look. Papyrus sort of caved in on himself, curling up to try to protect himself from all the pain and suffering in the universe. He wished he was somewhere else.

Undyne moved closer to him. “Who was it?” she asked, sounding stern. Papyrus was trembling. “Paps, I need a name.” She leaned in.

“I-I… can’t,” he whimpered. She put her arm around his shoulder.

“Please just tell me who did this,” she coaxed, “so I can make sure they can’t hurt anyone else.”

Papyrus shook his head, fighting back his tears. “Well what if you can’t?” he protested. “What will I do if he kills you too?” He looked at Undyne, she looked concerned.

“Paps, I think you’re underestimating me here. I promise you I will handle them. And I’ll still need to know who it is, so I can warn the other monsters to stay clear, to keep them safe.”

Papyrus let out a deep sigh as he thought it over. He was scared, and all too aware that telling her was probably hazardous, but what else could he possibly tell her? He was a terrible liar anyway. Papyrus closed his eye sockets for a moment and made the decision to gamble; he needed to get this off his chest.

“H-He umm, he said his name is Flowey. He’s, umm, like a weird flower-thing… I don’t know what he really is but he’s definitely not a normal boss monster. At first, I thought he was my friend. I liked him, and I thought he liked me too. But he’s actually just…” he paused to wipe away the tears running down his cheekbones, “…really evil.”

“Where’d you meet him?” Undyne queried.

“I would go meet with him in this cave in Waterfall, behind the sliding rocks.”

“Then I guess that’s my next stop,” Undyne concluded and got up from the couch.

“NO!” Papyrus cried out, grabbing Undyne’s arm and yanking her back down next to him. “I am NOT losing you too, we need to think about this, we need a plan,” he fussed.

“How about this plan…” she stood back up and puffed her chest, “…I’m gonna go over there, find that flower-whatever-it-is and rip ‘em to shreds, how about that?” she gave Papyrus a confident nod and turned towards the front door. “Have you forgotten what I can do?” she continued, “I’m not in charge around here by blind luck, you know; I am the most skilled warrior in the entire Underground. And this punk is about find out just how merciless I can be…” She made a fist and punched her gauntlet with the other to emphasize her point.

Papyrus tried to grab her again but missed, she moved too fast. She sprinted to the door and opened it. He needed to stop her from running head-first into this confrontation he knew would not end well. He stumbled up to follow her. When he got out the door, Undyne was already running full speed towards Waterfall. Papyrus scampered after her, calling out her name in desperation, begging her to stop running.

                                                                                       ---

Undyne arrived at the waterfall and summoned her spear. She paused, letting Papyrus catch up.

“I’m doing this, and I am doing it right now,” she declared, “help me if you want.”

Papyrus tried to gather his thoughts but before he could say anything convincing, Undyne was already headed into the cave. He followed her in. The cave looked empty.

“I know you’re here, show yourself!” Undyne roared. Hearing a rumble behind them, they turned around to see the exit get covered with vines and thick branches. They were trapped.

Flowey popped up and smirked at Undyne. “What do you want, loud fish?”

“JUSTICE!” she shouted and began rapidly firing her spears at Flowey. Flowey dodged them all with relative ease. “You’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that,” he taunted. He was confident he had her patterns down, after all, he had long ago lost count on how many times he had kicked Undyne’s ass. Too bad she couldn’t remember any of those times.

“Paps are you just gonna stand there?” she yelled, summoning even more spears. Papyrus kicked in to gear and sent a neat array of blue bones at Flowey. Moving around to dodge the spears, he had to get hit by one or the other. Undyne and Papyrus timed their attacks together so that it became impossible to dodge both.

Flowey wasn’t impressed, though; this was all old news to him. It was time to make it more challenging. He began attacking back, forcing both heroes to start moving, blocking and dodging his vines. And boy, Flowey was good at multi-tasking. Plus, he had the advantage of repetition; he knew the moves before they were even cast. Once he got into the rhythm, it was almost hypnotic; a very special dance that they did together, a dance with a high chance of death.

They went at this for quite awhile; spears, bones and vines flying in every direction; hitting, scratching and scraping. Undyne went on the offensive and Papyrus acted as both of their defenses. It worked very well for them, but little by little as more time passed, fatigue began setting in and their movement and casting speeds started rapidly declining with each and every move. They kept pushing but for every vine cut down, another grew in its place. At some point they’d have to admit that despite all the effort and drain, the battle hadn’t progressed at all as Flowey healed himself faster than the heroes could deal new damage.

Papyrus went down first. Sending out one more line of bones, he collapsed on his hands and knees, weary. When Undyne failed to summon another spear due to sheer exhaustion, Flowey quickly grabbed her ankles and lifted her up. Undyne wriggled upside down; swinging her arms wildly, trying to punch the vines. “NGAAAAHHHH!”

“You guys are pathetic, you know that?” Flowey scoffed, switching to his sprite with the razor-sharp teeth while one of his vines slashed down hard against Undyne and spliced the side of her torso open; leaving a long gash running down her side. She roared and the vines released, letting her drop to the ground. Papyrus screamed and crawled over to her, repeatedly calling out her name. He knelt right next to her, panic written all over his face. Undyne looked calm. She held her side with her arms.

“Well then, she is now bleeding to death,” Flowey recapped, “and now I am going to offer you a deal, my sweet Papyrus; a way out of this misery. But you’ll have to think fast, she doesn’t have a lot of time…”

“What deal?” Papyrus snarled.

“She’s a goner anyway,” Flowey explained, “but… IF you kill her, right here, right now, I will use my unfathomable power to take us all back, back to the time when everything was fine and your family and friends were still alive. However, if you let her bleed out on her own, we will keep going with this, and you will have to scrape her dust off the floor and deal with the consequences of your choice. Choose quickly, she’s almost gone…”

“I can’t kill her,” Papyrus gasped. He looked down at Undyne; her HP was really low, and dropping as her insides slowly leaked onto the ground. “Do it, Paps,” she whispered, “do it and set this right.”

“NO! Undyne!” he wailed.

Flowey looked incredulous. “You always do this, Papyrus,” he complained, “you always wimp out and don’t fix your issues when you have the chance. Think about it; one attack and this could all be over and done with.”

“I can’t…” he protested, but it was clear that gears were turning in his head as he considered the situation.

“Please, Paps…” she moaned, “hurry!”

Papyrus stared gravely at Undyne and the puddle spreading out beneath her. He raised his hand and closed his eye sockets for a moment; he had one more attack left in him. “I am so sorry,” he whispered and closed his fist tightly. Bright white bones shot up from underneath Undyne. Her body twitched, she let out one last breath as her form began crumbling to dust. Papyrus dispersed his attack and her clothes dropped to the ground. He couldn’t believe how much dust there was.

“You… finally did it,” Flowey sounded completely awe-struck; he kinda was. He was witnessing the first time Papyrus had actually taken the deal and followed through; his adjustments to the run had worked. “You didn’t wimp out this time!” he raved.

Papyrus felt his sins crawling on his back; he was a murderer now. “YOU…” he said in a low and deliberate voice, “…WILL GIVE ME WHAT YOU PROMISED. We had a deal. Now DO IT.” He didn’t look particularly threatening, but he certainly felt the part. Murderer.

“Why of course, my friend,” Flowey chirped, “you deserve it. After all, this was not the outcome I was expecting. Great job, bravo,” he used his leaves to mimic a clapping motion. “This has been an interesting run,” he continued, complacent. “I suppose I really do owe you this one. I’ll see you on the other side, my dear Papyrus.” Flowey smiled and dove back down under the earth. Then he hit RESET.

The End.