Papyrus began wailing loudly, the little skeleton's voice echoing off the cavern walls of the dump in Waterfall. The reason for his state of upset was that Sans had been so cruel and taken away a perfectly good piece of food. Never mind the fact that said food had been rotten and black with mold, it was the principle of the thing. Papyrus, in all his three-year-old wisdom, felt his anger was perfectly justified.

"pap, come on, it wasn't good for you, not even i would eat that," Sans tried. "i'll find something much better for you, okay?" He set his hands on Papyrus' shoulders, attempting to calm Papyrus down.

Papyrus continued to wail.

"uhh." Sans looked around quickly for something that would quiet him down, highly aware of Papyrus' increasing volume. A flash of color in a nearby pile of garbage caught his eye and he dashed over to it, splashing water in his wake. The object that caught his eye was a small, multicolored cube with nine distinct tiles on each side. This will have to do, Sans thought as he picked it up and ran back to Papyrus.

Papyrus had not ceased his loud crying and tears had begun running down his face. Papyrus reached up towards Sans as he knelt in the water in front of Papyrus.

Sans swiftly pressed the cube into Papyrus' tiny, outstretched fingers. "pap, look! shiny!"

Papyrus immediately quieted his waling into small hiccups at the sight of the cube. With great concentration, he carefully gripped the cube with one hand and took it from Sans.

The thing about skeletons was that bones made for poor gripping and young skeletons had to learn how to use their magic to grip things. Because Papyrus was three, he hadn't quite learned how to do that and so once Sans took his hand away, the cube immediately plopped into the water.

Papyrus instantly began wailing once more, somehow even louder than before.

Sans' eyelights constricted in panic. "no no no, it's ok!" Sans said, fishing around in the water for the cube. "it's ok, see?" Sans plucked the cube out of the water, holding it up for Papyrus to see. "look, it's just a little damp. i'll just dry it off real quick and it'll be good as new!" Sans quickly dried off the cube on his jacket and held it out to Papyrus. He wrapped it in a thin layer of magic, just enough for Papyrus to grip it easily.

Papyrus quieted down once more and reached out for the cube. This time he used both hands and he successfully relinquished it from Sans. He brought it close to his face and stared at it with wide eyes, tear tracks drying on his cheek bones.

He suddenly grinned happily. "SHINY!" he exclaimed, thrusting the cube out towards Sans.

Sans smiled, relieved at Papyrus' contentment. "heh heh. it sure is, pap." He stood up and wrung out some of the water from his sleeves.

"THANK YOU SAN!" said Papyrus loudly. The kid had a little trouble getting that last 's' in Sans' name and quite frankly, it was incredibly endearing.

Sans' eyelights went big and soft and he smiled gently down at Papyrus. This kid was gonna be the death of him, honestly. He dried Papyrus' face with a dry patch of his jacket. "you're welcome, pap."

Papyrus' eyes sparkled as he brought the cube close to his face again. "PRETTY!"

Sans gently plucked Papyrus out of the water and cradled him in one arm, using a little blue magic to ease the burden. "let's see if we can't find you somethin' sweet to eat, huh?"

"YAY! SAN BEST BRUDDA!" Papyrus proclaimed.

Sans laughed gently. "aww, thanks pap! you're the greatest." He rubbed hand over Papyrus' skull and the bones made a gentle rasping noise.

Papyrus giggled, a sweet, high-pitched bubble of nyeh heh hehs echoing over the water.

Sans quietly thought to himself that he much preferred the sound of his brother's laughter to his crying.

A/N: sans he weighs like ten pounds why do you need to use magic to carry him

i wanted to post something from my ao3 account on here, even if i never visit this site. i've also got some other stuff on there, too, so check it out: /users/therentistoodamnhigh