Someday, we could lose it all.
Maybe some other days, we only have each other. So when my brother treats his brother like that...
SOMETIMES I HAVE TO STEP IN
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"Error, why are you staring at nothing?"
"I w sn't sta ing at nothi-i-i-ing," he replied.
"Use correct grammar! Yes, you were," Blueberry replied. "There's nothing there."
"Wh tever you sa-a-a-ay, Blue."
"Can we go somewhere? I'm bored. Hey, maybe we can go check on Underfell!"
"Y u mean a-a-a-bomination #13?"
"He's not an abomination! He's a Sans, just like me and y-"
"You're an abomination, t-o-o. As am I. If h 's just like us, w-h-h-hat does that m ke him?"
"I'm not an abomination!" Blueberry cried indignantly. "I make tacos! And now and then spaghetti tacos, in remembrance of Papyrus Classic!"
"I d n't col-l-lect Papyruses," Error said over his shoulder as a door suddenly appeared and he walked towards it. "I c n if y-y-ou want, though." He opened the door and walked through it. Blueberry sat for a moment and the blue strings around his soul tugged and he followed Error through the door.
"Get the fuck away from me," Sans growled.
"Sans, I am only trying to help-"
"IF YOU WANTED TO HELP THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE ALL...! THIS!" He motioned wildly around himself. "You wouldn't have..."
Papyrus sighed. Being soft really was not his area, especially with his brother. Lord Asgore had suggested that he try to be more gentle with his brother after Papyrus had inadvertently told him he was worried about his brother.
"And how is your brother, Papyrus?"
"... He is... getting lazier and lazier every day, Lord Asgore," Papyrus said. "I worry that he is getting sick from not doing anything. All he does is sleep and he seems to be fidgety whenever he is forced to be around me and whenever we train. I try to tell him whenever he messes up that he will never make it in the world, but he never listens."
"Try telling him gently that he won't make it," Asgore said, sipping his golden flower tea. "Not everyone takes to orders and criticism. Try to see his point of view."
Papyrus had thanked him and the next day, put his plan into action. Judging by Sans right now, it hadn't been received well. Papyrus just couldn't figure it out. Why was his brother so anxious around him? Nice people were always good to be around.
"Sans, please," Papyrus not-quite-pleaded. "I'm trying to help."
"Help what?" His brother said. "Help me?" He laughed bitterly. "Y-you've never helped me a d-day in my life."
Papyrus rolled his eyes. "Listen," he said, his eye flaming red and lifting Sans up from the ground. "I am going to help you whether you like it or not."
This was so confusing. One day, Paps was angry at him, like normal. He was normal. And now, he's all 'I'm gonna help you.' Sans didn't understand. What was his game? Papyrus had done this once before. He came home. He was nice. Gentle, even. Sans had fallen for it like a moth to a lamp. It was nice, having a nice Papyrus around, even for a day.
Then he'd been smacked across the face and told that if he ever fell for weakness again, Papyrus would have a terrible punishment for him. Then, he was taken upstairs into Boss's room and...
Well, Sans doesn't want to think about that night.
Now, the game is back, and Sans was FILLED WITH DETERMINATION to not fall prey again. He would not.
But he is so utterly confused. His brother was exhibiting the signs that Undyne did when she let her guard down. Concerned. Gentle. Not yelling like usual. But even Undyne didn't do it very often, and more times that he'd have liked, Sans had gone home with an emptier feeling in his stomach than when he'd left.
"Sans, please. I'm trying to help."
"Help what?" He couldn't hold back a bitter chuckle. God, he was going to be in so much trouble. "Help me? Y-you've never helped me a d-day in my life."
He could see Papyrus, debating internally. Sans wanted the game to not be a game. He really did. It was his one wish to have a day where he wasn't forced out of bed at five in the morning; not forced to skip breakfast because Papyrus had called him more than twice; not forced to go out in the cold and sit at a wooden post watching for something that never came. Where he wouldn't be forced to either be a punching bag for Boss because he'd had a bad day. To not have to take the blame for everything that went wrong, even if it was a Snowdrake. To not be forced to pleasure his boss as a relief attempt and then curl up in his bed and try to think about anything but that.
To not be violated.
To not be a punching bag.
To be...
Loved?
No. He had to stop wishing for things that would never come true.
And then that ever-present fear was back as Boss lifted him up and issued a warning Sans couldn't even hear over the rush of fear that accompanied hanging in the air by his Soul. As he scrambled for a hold on something, anything, he was put into Papyrus's bed and released.
"You can't keep going like this, Sans," Papyrus said. "We can't keep going like this."
"And when has that ever stopped you?" Sans shot back. "Y-you're the G-Great and Terrible P-Papyrus. Nothing gets in y-your way. E-ever. 'Specially... n-not me."
"I know," the Boss replied. "Which is why we're both going to do this, not just me."
"D-d-do... what, exactly?"
"Help you get over whatever you're going through."
Sans laughed bitterly at this. "Y-you wanna know w-why I'm going through this? Y-you really w-wanna know why?"
"Well, yes, that is the point," Papyrus said. "Why?"
"It-it's because of y-y-y-you," Sans admitted. "You. I can't fucking get over the anxiety that you fucking gave me from t-the constant y-years... of... of..." He trailed off and laughed again. "Y-you really think t-that you h-have nothing to d-do with this? Think again, Boss."
"Sans..." Papyrus started. "I... I don't- I didn't-"
"You d-didn't mean to? Oh, h-how touching." Sans paused a moment to think about how much trouble he would get in if he kept going, but saying anything in the first place should have already gotten him dead. If he's died already, why not some more? "I-if you didn't mean t-to... Then why did you? Why? Why would you do this to me?"
"Because I wanted to keep you safe!" Papyrus finally exploded. Sans shut his mouth faster than the speed of light the second Papyrus opened his own mouth. "I wanted to keep you safe. I was hard on you to keep you tough and trained for the real world. You have 1HP, Sans. I didn't a-"
"And h-half that 1HP is g-gone now, th-thanks to you," Sans said. "Seriously, check. Around you, you d-drain the HOPE that I have. And this s-s-situation takes away even more."
He should have known. He really, really should have known. No more mouth for Sans! Papyrus angrily slapped him across the face again. Sans landed on his right side, the wind knocked out of his lungs. He struggled to breathe again, but the blood and mucus got in the way and he began hacking it up again.
"Oh my- Sans!" Papyrus exclaimed. "I didn't want to- please, I-"
His shaking brother didn't get up.
"Okay," Papyrus breathed. "Okay. Obviously, you're sick. So, what do I do with you?"
"N-not give a shit," Sans mumbled through his hoodie, pressed against his mouth in order to catch the blood.
"Sans," Papyrus said. "I care."
"We've been o-over this, B-boss," he said.
Papyrus leaned back and thought for a moment. When had Sans started calling him Boss?
"When did you start calling me that?" Papyrus asked, sitting on his haunches.
Sans' eyes flicked up towards him, then down to the floor again. He didn't answer.
"Sans..." Papyrus was at a loss for words. He watched as blood spilled from his brother's mouth and got a shirt and gave it to him, so as not to ruin his hoodie.
"Are you hungry?" Papyrus asked, knowing that Sans probably was.
"No," Sans said, voice muffled by the shirt.
"You have to be," Papyrus said. "You've gone..." He trailed off. How long had it been since Sans had had a meal that wasn't soup that Papyrus had made him?
"...a long time without food," Papyrus continued. "I'll get whatever you want."
Sans looked up at him, his expression torn between suspicion and confusion.
"Y-you're... gonna give m-me... a-a meal?"
"Well, yes," Papyrus said. "And I don't know why you never eat the leftovers in the fridge- they're perfectly good, you know."
"They've all got your name on 'em," Sans muttered into the shirt. "I-I dunno, Boss, j-just... not h-hungry."
Papyrus seemed to concentrate. "Do you remember when we were kids and we used to make spaghetti together?"
Sans looked up, surprised.
"I always used to bother you for spaghetti tacos," Papyrus said. "And then you'd always tell me I 'tacoed' too much. Remember?"
Sans tried not to smile at the memories.
"And then Dad would come home from his lab..." Papyrus's face fell. "Everything changed when he got home."
Sans didn't dare speak. Papyrus reached out a hand involuntarily and Sans looked at it suspiciously before holding it.
"But I remember," Papyrus said, sitting next to his brother on the bed, "We always had each other."
Guess who's back
Back again
Shit I'm back
I wanted this chapter to end on a soft note. Papy and Snas have some issues to be worked out. And what does Gaster do when he gets home? O.O
Shh, right now the precious skellys are sleeping, okay? Review quietly, please.