My first Papyrus-centric work! I hope this is good enough, because writing fics like these are kind of challenging in my opinion, at least considering that it's Papyrus... I hate to hurt the cinnamon roll (and he's my favorite character, for that matter) ;-;

Like always, I apologize for any mistakes in the writing.

Hope you enjoy it!

Cooking together had to be one of Papyrus's favorite activities. Why wouldn't it be fun, he asked himself? And when it was to surprise people he cared about, the amount of fun he had was bigger.

Papyrus had been improving quite fast. His food was gaining many compliments from his friends and his brother, which was a great thing. The passionate looks on their faces when they tasted his spaghetti was simply the best! He was already proud of himself, but he came to be even more. And in that day, Frisk was attending to their first cooking lesson with him.

Papyrus had been convinced by them to make another type of pasta - lasagna... the one type of pasta that had been eaten by that stupid dog one day. Papyrus had promised he would never cook it again, but eventually, he decided to do it for his friends and Sans. If his spaghetti was already delicious, imagine the lasagna, then...! That thought was the reason why he agreed on doing this, honestly.

Frisk and Papyrus were doing everything right. The skeleton had to admit that Frisk was already great at cooking, even if they had only started attending to cooking lessons recently. Sans, Toriel, Undyne and Alphys, who weren't home at that time, would be very proud of them both!

"YOU'RE ALREADY DOING GREAT, FRISK!" Papyrus complimented the small human, who gave him a smile in return. "MAYBE SOMEDAY WE CAN WORK AT A RESTAURANT TOGETHER!"

Frisk nodded in agreement. Finally, Papyrus got the tomatoes in order to make the sauce. While he had learned with Undyne that smashing the vegetables would be better, he had discovered afterwards that all he had to do was to cut the tomatoes and put them in a blender. It did taste better than smashing them... Papyrus had never been fond of doing that to the poor vegetables anyway. They didn't deserve such treatment! They were quite important for food, after all.

"NOW, FOR THE SAUCE," Papyrus claimed. "WE MUST CUT THE TOMATOES!"

Frisk nodded. "I'll get the knife!"

The child's footsteps distanced a little and Papyrus heard the noise of the drawer and the silverware. His eyes widened when he realized that a child would be holding the knife and he turned around.

"BE CAREFUL WITH THE KNIFE-!"

Once Frisk faced him, he... he froze where he stood.

And... suddenly, everything became... different.

Papyrus suddenly realized that... He wasn't in the kitchen anymore. He... He was back at... Snowdin. He could see the snow falling on the ground, the haze almost hiding the tall, green pinetrees that were slightly covered by the snow.

Frisk was right ahead. They approached in a way that... didn't make Papyrus feel comfortable at all. In a way that genuinely... scared him. The human's eyes were covered by their bangs, their usual smile was replaced by a frown that truly... showed hatred for Papyrus.

The knife they held in their right hand... its pointy part was aiming at him.

Frisk's footsteps on the snow became louder as they approached him.

Papyrus realized he... he was shaking. Shaking out of fear.

Why was he scared of Frisk? They were one of his best friends! They wouldn't hurt him, would they?

No... maybe... maybe that wasn't Frisk.

But... it was their old striped sweater that... was covered in dust. As well as their hands and their sharp knife.

"F... F-FRISK?" Papyrus called them, as they were very quiet while they approached him. "W... WHAT ARE YOU...?"

Frisk's head came to raise a little. Their mouth came... to form a smile. But it wasn't their good old, lovely and adorable smile they usually offered their family and friends. It was... rather creepy, to say the least.

Not only that, but... Papyrus caught a glimpse of Frisk's eyes. They...

They were red.

No, that... that couldn't be Frisk.

They continued walking in his direction. Papyrus... wasn't feeling well.

What happened to Frisk? Why were they acting this way out of nowhere?

"F-FRISK?" He called them again.

Frisk suddenly laughed evilly and they started walking faster in his direction. Papyrus felt his skull sweat, his bones started rattling and he opened his arms in order to... wait, what did he intend on doing by opening his arms? Maybe... offer them mercy?

Because... they appeared to want to attack him.

"W-WAIT! FRISK, WHY- W-WHAT'S WITH THAT SMILE?" Papyrus asked. He didn't have a heart, but he could feel something inside his chest beating faster.

Papyrus stepped back on impulse. That... that couldn't be Frisk, he repeated to himself. They- They would never hurt him!

"W-WHY ARE YOU ACTING THIS W-WAY?!" Papyrus asked again, but the human completely ignored him. "I-IT'S ME, PAPYRUS! YOUR FRIEND!"

Nothing happened. Frisk wouldn't stop.

"W-WAIT, NO, D- D-DON'T DO THIS! D-DROP THIS KNIFE RIGHT THIS INSTANT! I-IF THIS IS SOME OF KIND OF JOKE, I-IT'S NOT FUNNY!" He ordered... but to no avail.

Frisk raised their right hand, the knife shining. Papyrus was too terrified, he couldn't understand what on earth was going on- why, why was this happening? Why was he back in Snowdin? Why did Frisk want to attack him?

Their creepy smile widened and the knife was soon approaching him. Papyrus fell backwards as he tripped in the snow.

"NO!" He screamed as loud as he could, bracing himself for the upcoming attack and closing his eyes out of fear.

...

...

He felt someone lightly shaking his body.

P-Papyrus?! Papyrus, talk to me! A voice echoed.

It... it was Frisk.

They sounded... worried. Scared.

Papyrus slowly opened his eyes, only to stare at the human's kitchen apron that contained a red heart, with the words "cooking fills me with DETERMINATION", something that Toriel had made to them a few months ago. Papyrus looked up to Frisk, whose eyes... were brown as usual. Not red. Their hands were clean, no dust could be found. The knife... was clean as well, yet it still shined. However, it wasn't directed at him anymore.

The skeleton checked his surroundings. He... wasn't at Snowdin. There were no snow and no trees around him. He was back at the kitchen. The sun could be seen from the window, as well as the white clouds next to it. He... he wasn't in the Underground, he was on the surface.

He... He was okay. And... Frisk was back to normal.

...

What... what had just happened?

Had it all been some sort of dream? A kind of dream in which you are actually awake?

"Papyrus, w- w-what was that?" Frisk asked. "You suddenly froze a-and then..."

Papyrus was still shaken by the... vision he had. He came to stand up with difficulties, as his arms and legs were shaking furiously. The human stared at him with a terrified face.

"Y-You... Y-You looked and sounded scared, I- I didn't understand why you suddenly panicked like that!" Frisk said. "W-What happened?"

"I..." Papyrus attempted to explain, but he came to think about it...

How would he explain that he had seen Frisk making a murderous face and that wanted to attack him like they had never been friends to begin with? Papyrus couldn't understand it himself.

"I... I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY..." He admitted. "I THINK IT WAS JUST... SOME KIND OF... PANIC ATTACK."

"B-But... you never have those-"

Papyrus's eyes widened as he touched the tomatoes when he leaned on the counter.

"OH, THE LASAGNA!" He said. "COME ON, FRISK, GIVE ME THE-"

Frisk offered him the knife, despite not understanding what was going on, but Papyrus... couldn't hold the knife. He stared at the sharp object. He was... afraid of that thing touching his bones.

"N-NO, WAIT!" Papyrus yelled when the knife almost touched his gloved fingers. "WAIT, LET'S-"

Frisk looked far more concerned than before. Papyrus tried to take some deep breaths without letting his fear too obvious. He had only seen things, Frisk was just a normal, determined and friendly child who would never, ever hurt him. It had indeed been some sort of hallucination he had out of nowhere. Things like this happened once in a while, right? He knew that a lot of people suffered from the same thing.

However, Papyrus... stared at the knife. He didn't want to touch it. At the same time, though, he didn't want Frisk touching it. They were just a child, they could easily get hurt by it- wait, was that really the reason why Papyrus felt so intimidated by Frisk holding that knife?

Or maybe... he was scared of them?

No, that- that was stupid. The vision he had had was not real.

"G- G-GIVE ME THE KNIFE! I DON'T WANT YOU GETTING HURT!" He told them, taking it from their hands. "I-I OFFER MYSELF TO CUT THE VEGETABLES!"

Frisk stared at him and he couldn't face them anymore. He carefully... cut the tomatoes, trying to dismiss the bad feeling he still had under his spine. He didn't want to think about it anymore, but he couldn't stop-

He had suddenly felt panic, fear... and... and somehow betrayal as well. He had felt that Frisk would have attacked him and taken his life away after everything they had gone through.

Papyrus shook his head. THIS IS SILLY! I TRUST FRISK, THEY ARE AN AMAZING FRIEND AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD THEY HARM ME! THIS... DREAM, OR WHATEVER I SAW, WILL NOT PREVENT MYSELF FROM COOKING FOR MY FRIENDS!

He frowned a little and started cutting the tomatoes in... some sort of aggressive way. Something he had never done before to any vegetables... but all he wanted was to get over these thoughts for once and for all.

"Papyrus, b-be careful..." Frisk said.

"I AM BEING CAREFUL!"

"You can hurt yourself-" They said louder, but they were interrupted by Papyrus.

"DO NOT FEAR, FRISK! I HAVE NO SKIN, SO IT CAN'T POSSIBLY HARM ME!"

... which was a lie. While he was a skeleton, it could hurt him indeed... at least that was what Sans had told him when he was just a mere babybones. And Papyrus had never cut himself because he had always been careful.

"NOW, ONTO THE NEXT STEP!" Papyrus said once he finished cutting the tomatoes without hurting himself, surprisingly enough... he still wasn't feeling well.

"Papyrus, you- you're not okay." Frisk grabbed his arm before he could do anything. "D-Don't you think you should take a break or something-?"

"OF COURSE I AM FINE! WHY WOULDN'T I BE?" Papyrus interrupted.

Frisk frowned a little and Papyrus couldn't help but lose a bit of his smile.

"OH... ABOUT THAT, WELL... IT- IT WAS NOTHING, REALLY!" He assured them. "THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!"

Frisk didn't seem very convinced.

"I AM FINE!" He assured them again. "FRISK, I WOULD NEVER LIE TO YOU."

The human was about to say something else, but Papyrus came to escape from their grip and continued their cooking lesson without mentioning anything he had seen. Frisk didn't force him to talk, anyway, but they became awfully quiet. The environment then became awkward as well, and... it kind of stopped being fun like Papyrus had expected. It didn't help that every time he looked at Frisk, he would get a glimpse of the red eyes and the creepy smile they had had in his vision.

UGH, STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS! Papyrus thought. THE LASAGNA IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN THESE... THINGS I SAW! LET'S DO THIS FOR SANS, UNDYNE AND ALPHYS! AND FRISK AS WELL! THEY DIDN'T COME HERE TO NOT HAVE THEIR FIRST COOKING LESSON BECAUSE OF A STUPID VISION!

With this thought, Papyrus strived (for real) to avoid the bad feeling he still had under his spine. It... it wasn't very effective... But he had to be strong in order to make that lasagna delicious! Nothing could intimidate the Great Papyrus at that moment!

Eventually, he came to put these thoughts aside and he cooked normally... regardless of Frisk still looking at him with concern. The human chose to remain silent, much to Papyrus's relief.

I've actually seen this idea before, but with Sans. So, I thought to myself, "What if Papyrus had this instead?", because I'm cruel :'v

I'll most likely continue this when I can.