Okay, several warnings for the chapter. First (and least seriously) MAJOR spoilers for 'There's a Hair in my Dirt!' the book that Sans is reading at the start. If you want an idea of how into it he gets, check out this dramatic reading below. (The actual book is hilarious, if dark, and I definitely recommend it as a novelty present to any friends and/or family with a slightly black sense of humour)

( www . you tube watch?v=1nWDEh1TyXA&feature= &t=14 )

In terms of more serious warnings though, this is a Fell universe so there is going to be some death and violence. I don't believe I'm extremely graphic in my descriptions but there is child endangerment and injury, murder and mentions of abuse.

This is a side-fic to Almost Alone. The first two-three chapters can be read without reading that but after chapter 3 it will link into the other story much more.

I hope you enjoy what I have written and if you have any requests for a chapter relating to this or 'Almost Alone', please let me know in the comments :)

"- Father worm stretched himself out across the table as close as he could get to his son's face. 'Which brings me back to that hair is your dirt, or should I say hair-iette!" Sans finished the book with a flourish, spindly hands waving in the air for dramatic effect.

Papyrus snorted quietly, eyes heavy, and murmured something indistinguishable into his cushion. Sans beamed down at his little bro as he snuffled softly and wormed his way deeper into his ratty covers.

Sans stood up, stretching out his bones, and went to put away Papyrus's favourite book: 'There's a hair in my dirt!' Sans had no idea why Papyrus found this story so amusing, what with the rather bleak outlook and horribly dark ending, but he appreciated how it seemed to put his brother's mind at ease enough for him to fall asleep. His brother hadn't been sleeping well the last few months or so. Sans wanted to put it down to growing pains but he didn't think that was it.

Papyrus did seem to be going through a strangely early growth spurt though. He was about the same height as Sans now. Sans didn't know whether to be happy at this or annoyed that his eight year old brother was the same height as him at fourteen.

Sans looked at the book on the shelf again and sighed. It was such an inappropriate book for his little brother but Dad had thrown away all the nicer ones a long time ago, after having a better look at them and saying they would give Papyrus dangerous thoughts. Sans had read them all and didn't see why stories about gallant heroes and fluffy bunnies could do anyone a lick of harm. They were educational even!

Sans shook his head and slipped out of his and Papyrus's bedroom to tiptoe downstairs.

"D- Dad?" He called, looking around very carefully as he edged down the stair case.

There was no answer and Sans smiled in relief, tiptoeing to the front door to open it and breathe in the cool, stale air there.

Sans loved his little brother to pieces and he... he loved his father too... but it didn't get half claustrophobic not being able to go out.

The trees stood still and dark before him, shrouded in shadow as they always were, still and unmoving and the perfect hiding place for someone who wanted to explore. Sans couldn't tear his large, glittering blue eye-lights away... perhaps- perhaps there would be something out there. Like in the trash-heaps Dad went to sometimes... perhaps there'd be some books, something nicer for Papyrus to read... or maybe something yummy to eat like those dried noodles Dad once gave them. Perhaps anything to eat.

Sans, feeling both nervous and excited, nodded to himself and stepped outside of the house.

It had been two hours. Two hours since Papyrus had fallen asleep, two hours before he woken up in an empty house and possibly two hours in which Sans had been missing.

Papyrus stood by a cracked window, his water-warped telescope pressed tightly to his eye-socket as he swept it over the snow and trees surrounding his home.

Many times in the past, Papyrus had thought their bedroom window pointless. Unless the point of windows was to stupidly let freezing cold air in, there was no reason for them. It didn't even let in enough light to be worth it, it never would, everything was dark in the underground. It always was and it always would be. Windows were completely pointless. At least, that's what Papyrus had believed until the moment when he woke up and realised Sans was no longer in the house. He had dashed to the glass pane, desperately searching for some small sign of movement. Papyrus turned his gaze from the trees, to the surrounding empty expanse of snow. He froze when he finally caught sight of a small set of footprints leading into the eastern woodland, and several larger groups of footprints following.

"Sans," he breathed, dropping the telescope with a crash of glass, shoving open the window and clambering out, uncaring of the distance to the icy ground as he fell, and of the grating, clicking sound his bones made when he landed. No, all he cared about was in the woods right now and he had to move.

Snow billowed up behind him as he ploughed through the trees, stumbling over roots and skidding on ancient, frozen puddles. He wouldn't fall. He kept on going. Branches whipped at his face and snagged at his oversized coat, grabbing at him and trying to slow him. He wouldn't slow. He kept on going. On and on he ran, until, quite suddenly, voices sounded out before him.

"-ow love levels! C'mon try and hit me! You couldn't even turn a moldsmal to dust, you piece of shit!"

Papyrus creeped closer, watching as his brother quivered between three semi-transparent slime monsters, one small eye-light twisting from one to another to another as he clamped a hand over his other eye.

Papyrus recognised these monsters. He had seen them out at the dump in waterfall many times before, sucking up whatever the could find into their gelatinous bodies and fighting anyone who even looked at them funny. He knew the leader was called Traka and had a ridiculously high LV. At least, that's what he overheard the other scavengers say. No one ever found out what their LVs were for sure though. Dust couldn't tell tales after all. There were always three of them and they would destroy anyone who got even remotely close. No one ever caught one by themselves to fight, even though many desperate monsters had tried.

Papyrus didn't know why they were in Snowdin and he didn't care. All he cared about was getting Sans away from them.

"I don't want to turn anyone to dust, f-friend. Let me go," Sans stuttered out, shuddering softly between the monsters as he tried to reason with them.

Papyrus winced. No. That's not the way to deal with these people. Dad had told them this, he had taught them this, you had to use violence and scare them away. No one respects kindness. Why was Sans even trying this? Why did Sans always act like this?! So kind, so nice?

Papyrus eyed up the cruel smiles curling at the monsters' puffed up lips as they looked at each other with dark amusement, sliding closer and closer to his brother. There was no other choice now. He took in a deep, stuttering breath, and walked out into the clearing.

"Brother, w-what did Dad say about playing with your food?" He tried to drawl, fighting down a wince at the way his voice hitched.

The slime gang paused, looking back at Papyrus with a flicker of surprise, which soon turned to amusement. Papyrus stood there, feet bare in the snow, oversized clothing hanging off his thin frame, trying to stand tall and sneer at them. Traka, the leader, started gurgling out a choked up laugh while the other two grinned fiercely. They moved to face the little skeleton properly and Papyrus got a clearer view of his horrified brother.

"Papyrus," Sans breathed, his one visible eye widening and face contorting into true terror. "What are you doing out here?! Go!"

"What, so you can get dust all over your clothes again? Nah bro, I'm fed up with cleaning that stuff off."

Sans stared, confused for a moment before finally catching on and forcing his quivering frame into a steady stance and his frown into a painfully false smirk. It was a little too late for that though.

The slime monsters snorted and threw their gelatinous heads back in raucous laughter at the children's' pitiful attempts at bravado, and that was when Papyrus struck.

Bones squelched up though ice and slime alike as Traka was speared multiple times in the space of two seconds. All of them looked to the leader, all frozen in place until the speared monster looked down at its body and... laughed.

"You gotta mean it, brat," he hissed through his chuckles, raising a bloated limb to bring up a ring of oozing projectiles out of thin air and aiming them at Papyrus. "Let me show you."

"WHO SAID THAT WAS MY BROTHER?!" Sans shouted, echoingly loud as he succeeded in diverting their attention from Papyrus. All the monsters turned to look at him, standing there with his little fists raised as if to strike them and hand no longer clamped over his eye.

Papyrus's eye-lights constricted into pinpricks as he took in the two, jagged cracks in his big brother's face.

Suddenly, the slime monster let loose a pained, strangled scream as the bones that were pinning it down blazed a bright orange. Its body started to convulse as it tried to move, as it tried to escape, but it was too late. It screamed once more, a howling, blubbering scream, and collapsed into a column of dust.

"Traka!" Shouted the remaining slime monsters, voices breaking in their pain, before rounding on a horrified looking Sans with murder in their eyes, globby bullets forming around them like a misshapen swarm of wasps.

Papyrus shook off the queasy shiver to his frame and focused on the monsters as they readied their projectiles. A barrier of white bones erupted from the ground around Sans. It only just withstood the attack. Before the two slime monsters could even think of launching another attack, a wave of bones flew at them. They moved quickly to avoid the orange magic, only for their HP to drop horribly low as the bones flashed blue at the last moment.

Sans tore his gaze away from Papyrus and shakily raised his hands, creating a blue bone wall around the monsters as they hissed out pained puffs of air between their blubbery lips.

"Y- you move, you're dust." He tried to snarl this but it was clear his heart wasn't in it, at least, it was clear to Papyrus who was watching his brother with painful intensity. Sans glanced round at Papyrus who quickly turned his face to the ground, where dust, slime and snow had melted into a grey, slushy mixture.

The only sound that could be heard in the clearing was the agonised wheezing breaths of the monsters and the soft, crunching tread of Sans making his way through the frozen snow towards Papyrus.

"...Let's go, little brother," Sans murmured, gently taking Papyrus's hand and leading him back through the snow.

"W- we'll get you for this you fucker! You and your brother! We'll kill him! See- see how you fucking feel!"

Sans stopped walking, his hand clamped painfully tightly over Papyrus's fingers. Papyrus didn't complain, he just stared at the medley of expressions whirling across Sans's face and at the soft tinge of red outlining his eye lights, with a peculiar sense of apprehension.

"Like I care about this fool!" Sans snapped, dropping Papyrus's hand and whirling around. A large series of bones formed in his hands, fusing under his touch and growing larger and larger and larger, into a pointed, jagged spinal column. The monstrous weapon continued to grow until it towered over the treetops, looming over them with shadowed edges and glistening bone. Slowly, Sans tilted the the colossal length towards the petrified monsters, his frail arms shaking with the strain of keeping it steady. "He's- he's only family but, unluckily for you, that means he's marginally more important than you."

And with that, he raised his weapon as high as he could and slammed down the huge spinal whip, the pointed edge of it arching forward to slice through one of the slime monster's body, turning it to ash instantly. Sans's body was shaking now and he looked like he was about to throw up but he still turned to the other monster and raised his arms up again.

"No, no, bro, that's enough," Papyrus murmured, raising his hands to still his brother's movement. Sans looked at him with an expression of such self-loathing and pained relief that in that moment Papyrus made a promise to himself to never let his brother kill another monster in his life.

"You go on home, I'll take out the trash," Papyrus urged him. Sans stared at him for a few moments, eye-lights flickering, then shook his head.

"... That's not n-necessarily. I am sure this monster has learned their lesson. Am I right?"

The remaining monster shivered and nodded desperately and Sans forced a toothy smile onto his face. "Don't cross me again you- you p-piece of shit."

And they left. Water was running down from Sans's eyes but, as no one but Papyrus could see him, it didn't matter. As soon as they were out of sight, Papyrus practically fell to his knees before his brother, burying his face in his thin chest.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I d-didn't realise I'd kill that monster. I j-j-just wanted to scare them but I saw your face and what they did and I- I- I'm sorry you had to- had to-" Papyrus cut himself off, unable to say exactly what they had done, unable to get it past the heavy weight growing in his chest.

Sans didn't move for a few moments, nor did he make a single sound but, eventually, his arms came up around Papyrus to hug him tightly into his fragile frame.

"It's okay Papyrus, Dad always says I need to toughen up. I suppose this is just the way I have to do it."

"No, I don't want-"

"It doesn't matter what you want, brother," Sans interrupted him, voice less soft now. "This is how it is."

And with that, Sans pulled himself from Papyrus's desperate hug, grabbed his brother's shoulders and pulled him up. Papyrus blinked across at him.

"We need to be strong. No one will mess with us if we're strong. I'm sorry but... I don't think there's any other way."

Papyrus deflated, eyes puffy and his wonky, battered teeth pulled tight into a fake smile. "You know best big bro."

"Of course I do. I am the best," Sans laughed, running his blue handkerchief across his eyes and wincing at the white liquid that stained it.

"Let's get you home and fix you up," Papyrus smiled, almost sincerely this time, silently making a promise to himself to never let Sans get hurt like that again.

It was a promise he wouldn't be able to keep.