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It was on a cold winter day, the snow was falling heavily and the wind was blowing up flurries, that a strange thought struck Papyrus.
Sans had never been swimming.
Okay so out of context this thought might have seemed like a very strange one indeed. However it was a cold winter day. Sans was out of his costume cuddled up next to Papyrus sipping his hot chocolate under a pile of soft blankets. They were having a movie night and Sans was in a particularly good mood.
The movie they were watching was one of the few they owned. It involved a princess, a pirate, a giant, a swordsman... okay well you get the idea. Every Time they watched it Sans would act like it was his first time. Yelling at the exciting parts, jumping at the "scary" bits, it was going about the same as always .
When the princess jumped off the boat and into the eel infested waters Papyrus idaly thought about a buoyant humans were compared to skeletons. If a skeleton tried to jump into a body of water like that they would sink to the bottom in no time flat. Unless they were wearing a life jacket or something like that.
When the eal jumped out of the water ready to eat the princes Sans jumped like always. This time though Papyrus saw him, really saw him and had a sort of epiphany. Sans was the same as the people on screen.
Like they were the same species.
If Sans wanted to he could probably swim in water without sinking like Papyrus would.
One thought lead to the next and soon Papyrus had an idea. A weird wonderful idea. That would be sure to knock Sans' socks off.
* * * * *
It was two weeks later that everything ready for him to spring his plan. When Papyrus came down that morning for breakfast Sans was sitting at the table fully dressed and ready for the day.
It was hard for Papyrus to keep his poker face. Somehow breakfast went about as well as normal. Sans spent most of that time talking about his plans for the day. When breakfast was being cleaned up the phone call Papyrus had been waiting for finally came.
"Hello?" Sans asked answering on the second ring. There was a pause as Sans listened to the line.
"Yes ma'am!" he said energetically.
Sans noded along with whatever the other person was saying. Slowly he lost some steam and seemed a bit disappointed.
"Oh, yes I understand. Yes, I will see you another time."
With a couple more good-byes Sans hung up his cell phone.
"Who was that?" Papyrus asked knowing very well who it was.
"Alphys, she is busy today so she cancelled our training today."
"That sucks, if you're afternoon opened up though you can come to Undynes with me."
Of course Sans agreed and after they finished their patrols the two set off for the Hotland labs. Papyrus had already called ahead. Everything was going well, the plan was in motion.
When they reached the Labs Papyrus was the one to knock on the large metal doors. Not ten seconds later the doors slid open. Undyne was standing there big nervous smile plastered across her face. She was playing with her hands and Papyrus wanted to smack himself in the face. Undyne had no chill. Hopefully Sans wouldn't think about it too much.
"Hi Undyne!" Sans said happily.
"Hey." Papyrus said a second later pulling one hand out of his pocket to give a lazy half wave.
"Oh, umm hey boys, come in." Undyne stepped aside to let the brothers into her home.
"So what are we doing today!" Sans said running into the messy space. The bone around his forehead creased as he saw the piles of papers and the cups of tea balanced precariously on almost every table. Papyrus could see Sans was trying to decide if scolding Undyne on her messy behavior was rude or not.
Undyne has walked up next to Papyrus and the tall skeleton gave his friend a bit of a nudge with his elbow. She looked at him seemingly confused before Papyrus cocked and eye ridge and gave his head a jerk in the direction of the elevator.
Realisation lit up the scientist face as she said, a bit loudly, "Oh! I was thinking you boys would help me with some stuff downstairs."
Sans spun around on the balls of his feet striking a "cool" pose.
"Of course! The most wonderful and amazing Sans would be most happy to assist you on this fine day!"
Papyrus laughed a bit "I ain't got nothing going on. I guess I can help too."
Papyrus was pleasantly surprised at how well his friend was handling herself. As they descended into the lower levels Undyne never got anything more than her usual twitchy nervous energy.
As the doors opened with a cheerful ding Undyne lead them out and to the left. "The thing I need help with is over here." Undyne said. Papyrus noticed one of her eyes was twitching but didn't comment. He was starting to feel bad about putting her under stress. He knew she didn't handle that kind of stuff well.
"Wowie I haven't been to this part of the lab before." Sans said looking around at the various large containers lining the walls. They were all hooked up to tubes that ran along the ceiling into the next room and appeared to be filled with a clear substance.
"Oh yes." Undyne said leading the two to the other side of the room. "Having an aquatic monster living in Hotland they had to make some accommodations to the living space to make it more comfortable."
The tubes in the cleaning went through a grate located the the very top of the wall and Undyne opened the door that lead to the next room.
"Wowie!" The smallest of the group said when he saw what was in the room.
It was a large pool of water. It was a little larger than the average swimming pool but instead of a gentle slope to the deep end the whole thing was at least ten feet deep. Scattered about the pool floating in the water were various pool toys and inflatable balls.
"You get to play in this pool all the time!?" Sans exclaimed as he ran to the edge. "That's so cool!"
Papyrus and Undyne shared a look. They were both wondering which one was going to take the lead. It should have been Papyrus because it had been his idea. However true to his nature he just gave a shrug. Therefore an uncharacteristically excited Undyne spoke up first.
"Would you like to go for a dip?" She asked hands twisting together once more.
Sans looked up from the water the eye lights of his mask darting from Undynes face to his brothers face to the pool toys back to Undyne.
"Come on bro it could be fun." Papyrus said leaning against the wall next to the door.
Sans looked back to the water pulling off his glove so he could tentatively slap at the water's surface.
"Oh it's warm!" He said pulling off the second glove so he could dip both of his hands in the clear liquid.
"Well yes, we are in Hotland and It takes a lot of energy to cool stuff down." He didn't need to know that she had let the pool get a bit hotter than she liked it for her warm blooded friend.
"I would love to Undyne." Sans said standing up and shaking water off his hands "However swimming is not one of my many talents. I also do not have the appropriate attire for such an activity."
There was a bag placed next to the door and Papyrus leaned down to grab something out of it. In his hand was a light green pair of swim trunks. He tossed them to Sans who caught them.
"Well that is very fortunate but I still don't know how to swim and that water looks very deep..."
Papyrus once again reached into the bad and pulled out some crumpled up plastic and tossed it once again to his brother.
"What is this?" He asked uncrumpling what he had been given. It turned out to be two flat bits of plastic.
"Water wings." His brother said with an amused smile.
"They don't look like wings." Sans said holding them in front of his face.
"They're not wings in the literal sense." Undyne said trying to keep the laughter out of her voice. "You blow them up, put them on you're arms and they help you stay afloat."
"Really?!" Sans asked "I won't drown?"
"Nope." Undyne said. "If you want I could even give you a few pointers."
"You'll teach me how to swim?"
Undyne nodded enthusiastically "I can't let Alphys have all the training fun."
"Yes! I shall not only be the best royal guardsman but also the best swimmer!" Sans said throwing the objects he was holding in the air excitedly.
Undyne directed Sans to a little area where he could get changed in private. After a few minutes Sans returned in nothing but his new swim trunks. Sans bright blue eyes were looking down at the two deflated water deviced his face was scrunched up in confusion.
The scars that littered his small frame use to cause Papyrus a lot of stress but now they only made him a little sad. It had been a long year for the both of them. Papyrus had come to learn that the past was in the past and the only way the two could move on was to look to the future.
Of course Papyrus was pulled out of his thoughts when his brother walked up to him holding out the water wings.
"How do these work?" he asked still confused.
"well you blow into that little plastic nub to get it to inflate."
Sans puffed out his cheeks in annoyance "I already tried that! It doesn't work, see." Sans put his lips around the little plastic bit and blew. The inflatable stayed un-inflated however and Sans thrust it into his younger brothers hands.
"See! I think it's broken!"
Papyrus gave Sans an amused look as he pointed to the pace Sans had been trying to blow up. "You have to put some pressure on it so the air can get in."
"I don't understand. Can't you just do it for me?"
"Bro, I don't have lungs ask undyne" Papyrus pointed out handing the inflatable back to his brother.
"Lazy bones." Sans said good naturedly as he ran over to Undyne for assistance.
She manage to assist Sans in blowing up and putting on the floatation devices. Undyne herself was wearing a pair of swim shorts over a black bathing suit.
"Ready?" Undyne asked.
"Yes!" Sans replied happily turning to Papyrus "Aren't you going to join us?"
Papyrus shook his head "Nah, 'm not really much of a swimmer. Actually 'm more of a sinker if you catch my drift."
Undyne had an unusually large and sharky grin directed directly at the tall skeleton. It made him very nervous.
"I have something that may help with that." She said as she ran out of the room only to return suspiciously quickly with an orange life vest in hand.
"Well I don't have any of the... 'Appropriate clothing'."
Undyne supplied another pair of swim trunks instead of green they were red. She pushed them into the tall skeletons hands and told him to get changed.
"This was not part of the plan." Papyrus said softly so Sans wouldn't hear.
"Too bad." She replied with a huge grin.
When he looked over Undynes shoulder he saw Sans standing there giving him one of those puppy dog faces that were so much more effective with that mask off.
"Fine." Papyrus finally responded grabbing the stuff out of Undynes outstretched hands.
When he was finally all dressed Papyrus realized he looked like a total dork. Undyne was an evil person. He now truly doubted their friendship. Papyrus walked back to the pool with as much dignity as he could muster, which wasn't much.
He heard splashing and shouting as he approached and in all honesty should have expected the facefull of pool water he got. He had not though and ended up shaking water out of his skull.
When his vision had cleared he saw Undyne and Sans both floating in the pool holding water guns that were pointed directly at him.
Sans dark black hair was matted down and covering his eyes. His little feet were pumping away as he tried to push himself away from the edge of the pool to get away from whatever retribution Papyrus was planning.
Papyrus himself was just happy to see Sans was enjoying himself. He didn't know if Sans ever went swimming on the surface but he had certainly never been in the Underground.
"Having fun you two?" Papyrus asked walking over to the edge of the pool.
"Of course we are!" Sans said floating in the middle of the pool water gun aimed at Papyrus.
"Care to join us?” Undyne asked as she leisurely swam around on her back.
"I don't know..." Papyrus respond in a playful tone.
"If you don't get in here I am going to shoot you with my amazing water gun!" Sans shouted from the far side of the pool.
"I don't think-"
But Papyrus was once again cut off as another stream of water hit him in the face. He sputtered but before he could even get the water out of his eye sockets another splash hit him in the face from the directions Undyne was hanging out in.
"You guys don't play fair." He said as he started to back away from the edge. It was a good thing he moved when he did too because Undyne had made a grab for his leg in an attempt to get him into the water.
"Case and point." Papyrus said as he saw Undynes failed attempt. "I am not getting in the water and you can't make me."
Of course that was short lived as he heard his soul ping and Sans gravity defying magic gently started dragging him towards the edge. He looked up to see a big smile on Sans face and his normally baby blue eyes glowing a light cyan.
"Come on Papy join us." Sans said in the creepiest voice he could muster.
Undyne joined the fun and soon the royal scientist and the little Snowdin sentry were both chanting " join us, join us." As Papyrus was slowly being pulled.
He made a show of trying to get away but the smile on his face gave away how amused Papyrus was. Soon there was a splash and Papyrus was bobbing in the water like a cork thanks to his life jacket.
When the three of them were done giggling Papyrus asked what they wanted to do next.
Sans threw him a water gun and asked him to help him "get" Undyne.
Papyrus obliged and the three of them played for hours until Sans and Papyrus were completely exhausted. When they were done they took the party upstairs. It turned into a sleepover.
All in all Papyrus' plan worked out better than he had ever dared to hope.