A/N: Hello and welcome to my first Undertale fanfiction. After seeing so many good fanfictions (and Undertale is - what? - only 4 months or so released? Awesome!), I had to hop on the train and do my own one.

Sadly though English isn't my first language, so the most problems I have is with finding the right words. And don't knowing if they actually fit in the context, heh... sorry if there's something that sounds weird. I'm really practising to change my writing to make it more pleasant. It's hard.

Oh, and just some spoilers from the start:

SOMEONE'S LOOKING DESPERATE! xD

Bill knows it all.

Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. So disclaimer - I don't own Undertale.

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Papyrus stood straight, his face converted in an unfamiliar calm severity as he helped the hectic villagers of Snowdin transporting their frantically packed belongings out of the village to the nearby boats. Escaping with the boat to unexplored and possibly uninhabitable or dangerous areas was a huge gamble, but they had no time for choices. They already were getting desperate.

A terrible and deadly threat of unprecedented level has presented itself.

A human had arrived.

It had been noon as the first distressed monsters run into the village and screaming with heavily laced panic of the terror they've met. Immediately the sentries had taken heel in order to stop the approaching threat, but to no avail. They never came back.

Papyrus was conflicted with leaving. He absolutely wanted to hurry off towards the forest - officially for the purpose of capturing the human but also for proving that this threat-thing was just a big old misunderstanding going on between humans and monsters. Not all humans could be as bad as Undyne and most monsters pictured them, it made no sense. Humans had to be friendly (he could easily prove that fact with any human history film). This human here just needed guardiance – someone telling them that unlike in old fairy tales monsters weren't evil, not at all! However… with all the enthusiasm and passion he had, Papyrus stayed at home. He had promised his sick and shivering brother not to leave and try to find the human.

But now… everything started to escalate. Gravely. None of the guards like Greater and Lesser Dog had returned (even though they've been unusually serious about fighting the human) and neither had Dogamy and Dogaressa. Instead a teary and panicking cow monster was the only one to arrive – and only brought bad news. Nobody could believe it first, but the smell of the dust in the wind that blew over from the forest quickly convinced them – and whatever terrifying roamed there, it was getting closer.

So the monsters did the only reasonable thing – evacuate. To somewhere the frightening human lookalike couldn't follow them.

Nobody had anticipated that… that a single human being was enough to slaughter everyone.

The shouts and noises of the monster boarding the boats in a rush felt dissembled in the mist. Surreal. As if they were far in the distance instead of just some meters away from him. He trained his senses on the surroundings, searching the white mist for any misguided poor human thing to come through. He couldn't afford it to slip past his watch or else the monsters in the boat that hadn't left already would be in danger. As future Royal Guard it was his duty to protect the citizens – and if one could solve it non-violent, it was the Great Papyrus.

The sounds behind him faded more and more. Good, so they were almost ready to leave.

His gaze scurried around for any eye-catching moving form or for any sound that indicated the thing's dreaded arrival. He was so focused on his strained watch that he squealed in surprise at the sudden voice.

"…Papyrus?!"

It came from behind, from the boat dock, along with frantic sounds of feet running through snow. His little squeal quickly guided the person through the mist to where he stood on his dutiful watch. Soon enough his brother's sturdy form emerged from the fog, still loosely wrapped in the blanket Papyrus had insisted he should coat himself in due to his sudden illness earlier the day.

"SANS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Papyrus asked warily. Ever since this early night his brother had been unusually down. Something was bothering him, but as usual Sans just deflected it.

"heh, that's the same thing i wanted to ask you…" Sans retorted with a forced and kind of sad smile. "common, we have to leave before the human gets here."

"I CAN'T LEAVE, SANS. AS MUCH AS I'D LIKE TO, I'M GOING TO STOP THE HUMAN." "what…?" "WELL… SOMEBODY HAS TO TRY AND HELP THEM! THEY'RE PROBABLY JUST SCARED BECAUSE ALL THOSE MONSTERS APPEAR AND THEY DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER…!" "…papyrus…" "THEY JUST NEED SOMEBODY TO TELL THEM WHERE THE STRAIGHT PATH IS! THEY JUST NEED A FRIEND AND A…"

He trailed off his little enthusiastic speech as he felt his brother's shaky embrace. "SANS, WHAT'S WRONG?" "nuthin', bro… nuthin'…"

Papyrus bent over to the trembling form of his brother, confusion and worry etched in his face. "CLEARLY IT'S NOT NOTHING, SANS. YOU'RE LITERALLY RATTLING MY BONES!" Sans mumbled dismissively into his jacket, his gaze fixed on the ground. Not even countering with one of his stupid bad puns. It spooked Papyrus how off this felt to see his brother all shaky and out of character. Probably because he got an illness rendering him defenseless on the worst of times. "YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT BEING WELL, SANS. HERE…" He bundled him up tighter, brow ridge scrunched in worry. "YOU SHOULD GO WITH THE OTHERS AND GET SOME REST." "heh, same thing i wanted to tell you as well…" Again with the strained smile. So sad and melancholic. What was up with his big brother?

"I CAN'T LEAVE, SANS, YOU KNOW THAT. IT'S MY DUTY AS A ROYAL GUARD TO PROTECT THE CITIZENS. AND I WANT TO MAKE SURE THE HUMAN GETS THE CHANCE TO TRY BEING A NICE PERSON!"

"but… everyone in snowdin is already evacuated! and… we can just contact undyne and tell her to evacuate the rest of the underworld! people still need you and you won't be able to help if you… if you're…" The blankets started to shake violently again. "Sans…" Papyrus frowned, guilt hidden in his voice.

To be blunt… he hadn't thought about that. Dreaded. Slim. Chance. That the human decided to decline his great offering of trust and guardiance… and instead chose to fight him…

Normally he would have immediately dismissed the notion. Him – the Great Papyrus – failing? Not possible. However…

As he tried to comfort his distressed brother, his resolve crumbled. His brother was obviously not being well right now… and especially in his current state he'd be in a definite need of Papyrus 'get-better-soon' spaghetti… however Papyrus couldn't just abandon his post – even though he kind of wanted to.

"BUT… SOMEBODY HAS TO STOP THEM…" he absently began.

"no… you can't beat them, nobody can… please, papyrus, you got to believe me with this…" Papyrus bristled up at that comment. "HEY, I'M FAIRLY STRONG, YOU KNOW? AND I'M WAY STRONGER THAN YOU!"

His brother just continued to stare at him with pained eyes. "please, papyrus… i beg you…the villagers need you more than this… thing."

Papyrus felt his arguments deflating at this. Sans had a point… everyone capable of fighting in Snowdin hasn't returned until now and he had a hunch that they won't for a while… that would leave the rest of the villagers defenseless – in a possibly dangerous new surrounding none of them knew about. He couldn't leave the civilians in the lurch!

"WELL…YEAH, THEY DO… THEY NEED THE HELP OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Newfound passion surged through his body. He had still a job to do!

"WELL, LET'S GET GOING, SANS! WE NEED TO PROTECT THE VILLAGERS!" With that he scooped up his surprised brother and set off towards the boats, only to shortly stop and turn back one last time. "I'M VERY SORRY, HUMAN, THAT I COULDN'T STAY TO HELP YOU. BUT I HAVE INNOCENT PEOPLE TO PROTECT!"

Though only the low whistle of wind replied and Papyrus hurried off with Sans in his arms to catch the last waiting boat on the dock.

Sans let out a relieved breath and allowed himself to relax, if only for a short while.

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Water lazily sloshed on the riverside. The only sound swirling through the mist on the docks of Snowdin.

That was until a person materialized out of nowhere, face mixed between guilt, resignation and anxious anticipation. Quietly typing a short update on the phone, then tucking it away and waiting for the inevitable. No sound disturbed the mist.

He slowly slid a hand over his face. Gosh, he really didn't like to deceive his brother. But with Papyrus mistaking his usual nightmare distress as an unlucky strike of illness this morning, he had seen the sudden opportunity he hadn't realized before. Perhaps… perhaps he could play having a cold… perhaps he could somehow use it in his impossible attempt to convince his little brother to not face off with the human (and die).

In secret he had desperately hoped for Papyrus to be responsive to his plea, but after many different and futile earlier attempts he didn't really have the energy anymore to hold his hopes up and gave up halfway through this time. It came as an even greater shock when his brother surprisingly did give in. Finally… after so many timelines he finally answered his request to evacuate instead of confronting the human. The irony of the situation though… at the same time when he finally got his wish granted… he wouldn't be there to relish it.

Sans took a deep breath, trying to shove down his quivering guilt for lying to his dear brother. It was better that way. This time his brother would at least survive a little bit longer. Papyrus would understand, he reassured himself. Even though he knew at the same time that he was deceiving himself with it, wasn't he?

Gosh, he was so tired… so tired of this all. But if he stopped, then the brat – no, the devil – would…

He didn't even dare to think of the future to come, the one that the devil had threatened him with if he slacked off. Heh, one way to keep a guy busy for once.

And he felt so tired to see his brother die over and over again.

Absently he let his gaze drift to the direction where the boats had set off earlier. "sorry, bro." he whispered apologizing "but you're not strong enough… … nobody is…"

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He tensed up at the sound of approaching feet and prepared himself. Somebody needed to have a bad time.