Alexi normally preferred working alone, they tend to feel like the other person in the room is judging them in some way, even if they weren't. It still caused them some stress and because of that, the work would suffer either in quality or quantity. It turned out, surprisingly, to be way less stressful working with Papyrus nearby, they didn't feel overwhelmed. Another thing was silence, Alexi tended to worry more about silence, always feeling the need to fill it with just so it wouldn't become awkward. They would talk for a bit but there were still pockets of silence, but the silence that filled the room now wasn't awkward, instead, it was more peaceful then Alexi was used to. The only sounds that filled the room were the sounds of their sewing machine and the gentle sounds of tapping coming from Papyrus on his phone.

Wait…

Tapping?

How did bone even work on touchscreen phones? It shouldn't work, right? So how was he tapping on his phone? Curiosity got the better of them and Alexi looked over at Papyrus, his fingers were glowing a soft orange and whether it was just the sewing machine going silent or because he noticed them looking over at him Papyrus looked up at Alexi questioningly.

"Sorry!" It came out more as a squeak then actual words, Alexi turned back to their work embarrassed that they had been caught staring at Papyrus. Their ears perked up when they heard Papyrus chuckle and they turned back towards him.

"I'm not surprised you're curious. Want to come over and look?" They nodded and turned off the sewing machine before walking over to the couch to sitting down next to Papyrus. They were definitely curious and it really didn't take much to convince them, Papyrus held out his hand to Alexi, they looked like fingertips, almost human-like if it wasn't for the soft orange glow. "Most human cell phones these days are touch, for most monsters that's fine but for me and my brother. Well, we are skeletons, bone on-screen just leads to scratches and nothing happening, Luckily for us, we can make these almost skin substitutes with our magic called Ectoskin."

"Can you do more than just fingertips?" Alexi looked away from the glowing fingers, they wanted to touch them but felt it would be weird to ask

"Yes, but it's exhausting and there's no reason to waste so much magic on something I don't need." He paused for a second and moved his hand closer to theirs. "You can feel them if you want." Alexi blushed, wondering if it was obvious that it was something they wanted to do or just something everyone else had asked to do. They cupped Papyrus' hand in theirs and started to examine the fingertips, they were soft to the touch but there was almost a static feel from them, it was a nice feeling. They turned his hand over so his palm was facing up and carefully ran a finger down one of the fingers, the action must have startled Papyrus because he jumped. You both froze but before either one could say anything his cell phone went off.

He turned his attention to the phone and sighed when the name Sans pop up on the screen, he gave an apologetic look before answering the phone. "Hello, Sans.." Alexi could hear Sans but they couldn't understand what he was saying. "All right, I'm on my way back." He hung up and looked back at Alexi. "Sorry Sans needs me back home." Despite that, neither one of them moved, Alexi realized that they were still holding his hand and let go.

"Thanks for coming and checking on me, and hanging out with me. Sorry, I wasn't better company but I need to catch up on my work." There was a pause before they continued. "Maybe we can do this again sometime? Hang out I mean." They were nervous about the offer, worried that Papyrus would say no, wondering if they were being stupid by voicing it but when Papyrus smiled all those thoughts drifted away.

"I would love that Alexi, and maybe, after Sans apologizes, of course, you could come over to my place for dinner?" Alexi nodded. "Also I admire your work ethic, so you needn't apologize especially since I was the one who insisted on staying. How about we do this again next week? Same day."

After it was decided that they would hang out again next week Papyrus left to go home, Alexi went back to work, Alexi noticed that the silence in the room was more deafening now that Papyrus was gone. This morning hadn't been the best for them and Alexi was grateful Papyrus came over and got them moving again. They doubted they would have ever gotten out of bed today on their own. Their phone buzzed with a text message, they wondered if it was from Papyrus, maybe he left something? So they paused their work and checked their phone. It wasn't Papyrus, the message was from Grillby checking in on them.

Seeing his name brought back memories from last night. After Sans had bounced and left them there it didn't take Grillby and his patrons to realize something was wrong. Ling had been the first one to them, helping them ground themselves and breathe while another patron had gotten them a glass of water. Really the whole group had been great that night helping them out. Alexi had forgotten that they had even given Grillby their phone number, the message he sent had said that they were welcomed to come back any time, that their order would be placed on Sans tab and then ended it by echoing what Papyrus said about Sans temp ban from the bar. They sent back a quick message saying thank you and asking for him to tell the others thank you, from them, for their help last night. At this point, there wasn't much they could do with the whole Sans thing, not til he apologized at least, so there was no point in worrying, for now, it was best just to get some work done.