"Today is the great day, huh?"
Papyrus says, energetically. The awful smell of his cooking already fills the whole house, causing Sans to cover his nasal cavity with his jacket.
"Yeah, I guess so, bro..."
"Are you sure about this? I mean, it is just a stupid festival, you don't NEED to..."
For Sans's surprise, Papyrus seems extremely worried.
"Why wouldn't I?"
Sans smile, but the worried look on Papyrus's face intensifies.
"You know, brother... Your health..."
"Nah, don't worry about it. I had a good night's sleep already. My health is far abone the normal now."
Papyrus take a deep breath:
"I'll pretend I didn't notice the infamous pun. How much?"
"How much what?"
"How much abone, I MEAN, ABOVE?"
Sans laughs:
"Glad that it is impossible to get under your skin, bro.
"SANS! Stop fooling around and tell me!"
Papyrus clinch his fists and smashes the table.
Sans finish his laughing:
"Well, 3."
"THREE? You call THIS 'much above' the normal?!"
"Of course! It is three times the normal."
Papyrus was staring in a reprimanding way at his brother.
"Relax, bro. The goat boy will not even know what hit him."
Papyrus sighs:
"I hope so, brother..."
Asriel admires himself in the mirror, adjusting any little flaws that might appear in his fur or clothes. By giving a close look, he notices a small yellow strand of hair pointing out from his chin.
"I am really going to look like my father, huh?"
With two fingers, he pulls it off his face.
"But not today."
He passes his fingers through his hair, pushing it back. To his surprise, there were more yellow strands up there.
"Prince Asriel!"
Alphys's voice startles him. He quickly pulls his hair back to his forehead while the lizard hushes into his room.
"Alphys, how many times do I have to tell you to KNOCK AT THE GODDAMNED DOOR?"
"S-s-sorry, sir... I just... J-just... It won't happen again."
"You say that every time. I hope it is something REALLY important. You know I don't like to be disturbed by nothing."
"Yes sir, I know, my prince... It is... Uh... About your challenger..."
"What about them?"
Asriel looks at Alphys. The rules prohibit the prince to know his challenger's identity beforehand, but Asriel couldn't worry about it. His sibling subscribed to the challenge, and the prince hopes their name wasn't been drawn. He could never fight his beloved Chara.
"It is... Very, very fragile... Have a weak heart... Please, sir, take on Undyne instead, she's really willing to fight you..."
"Wait, who is it?"
"Sans the Skeleton, sir."
"Sans... Sans..." Asriel pretends to be trying to remember who was the doctor talking about. "You mean, Papyrus's brother? The one who thinks he's funny?"
"Y-yeah, my lord... He is an old friend of mine... We... We were doctor Gaster's trainees back then..."
"Enough of it. I am really not interested in your school days. Neither of that skeleton's."
"S-sorry... Please... Don't engage him..."
"His name was drawn."
"Yeah, but... He can't..."
"Of course he can. Otherwise, HE would be here, imploring. Not you. Now leave, we've finished."
"But sir..."
"LEAVE."
The lizard lowers her head and silently leaves the prince's room.
"BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES!" Announces Mettaton on their microphone. "IT IS AN UNSPEAKABLE PLEASURE TO BE YOUR HOST TONIGHT! We're all here to celebrate prince Asriel's birthday in this absolutely beautiful festival! Today our beloved prince brings us back an ancient tradition... THE BIRTHDAY CHALLENGE! WARRIORS OF ALL UNDERGROUND SIGNED UP TO IT, AND NOW THE MYSTERY ENDS: WHO WILL FIGHT THE PRINCE? Unless, of course, you subscribed to MTT UnderTube Channel, where I revealed the lottery results yesterday. If you don't, there is still time! Go to my Channel on UnderTube to check it out! Don't forget to like all the videos and SUBSCRIBE for more news about me, my fabulous legs, or my outstanding face!"
While Mettaton makes his many advertising, Alphys nervously approaches Papyrus:
"This is no good, no good, no good... Papyrus! Asriel, he... He will not give up on fighting Sans!"
"Oh, darn! Why didn't he accepted to fight Undyne instead?"
"Because he is a stubborn, spoiled, proud teenager!" She immediately covers her mouth with her hands. "I-I shouldn't say such things about our prince..."
"Oh no... What should we do? Sans CAN'T fight!"
"I... I have a plan B..."
"Good! What is it?"
"Let's exchange the envelope that contains San's name for the one that contains Undyne's."
"But... That's cheating!"
"It is not cheating! Well, a little, maybe... B-but it is for a good purpose!"
"As a member of the royal guard, I must say I feel really uncomfortable by breaking the rules..."
"Ugh, Papyrus, it is not the time for that!"
"However, as you cleverly observed, it is for a very good purpose! A noble deed! To save my brother!"
Alphys breathes, relieved, but her relief fades away when she sees Shyreen on the stage close to Mettaton with the envelope in hands.
"Oh no... It's too late..."
Shyreen approaches the robot gives him a pink envelope and move away as fast as she came.
"Thank you, beauty. INSIDE THIS ENVELOPE LIES THE NAME OF A BRAVE WARRIOR WHO DARES TO STAND AGAINST OUR MIGHTY PRINCE! WHO ARE THEY? WILL THEM PREVAIL OR WIL THEM FAIL? We'll know soon enough, but first, a word from our sponsors..."
"I'm good for nothing." Alphys sit down, holding back the tears in her eyes.
"It's not true." Papyrus sits beside her, passing an arm over her shoulders. "You are the brilliant doctor Alphys! You brought our prince back!"
"I wonder if it was a good idea..."
"Of course it was, don't be silly! Look at the king's and the queen's happiness! You're reunited their family!"
Alphys looks up to the royal family; she never thought she would ever see the King smile that way. The Queen seemed concerned, but her expression softens as the King lays a kiss on her hand.
"Yeah, I guess..."
"AND THE CHALLENGER IS..." The robot poses dramatically and opens the envelope. "SAAAAAANNNSSS THE SKELETOOOON!"
The crowd whistles and screams as the combatants enter the arena. Sans walks with his hands in his pockets, posing with his head held high to the cameras.
Asriel comes in a far more proud way; he flies around the arena dressed in a ceremonial robe and cloak, his arms wide open, asking the crowd for more noise. He withdraws his sabers, making them shine at the colorful lights that dance on the stage.
"For you, my beloved Chara."
The prince approaches his sibling, who was sitting next to their parents; from under the cloak he withdraws a yellow flower, lands a soft kiss on it and puts it in Chara's hair. Surprised, Chara blushes and smiles at their brother. Asriel finally flies back and stands in front of his duelist.
"Ready to have a bad time, 'your highness'?" Says the skeleton, his left eye glowing blue.
"So you really think you can beat me?" The goat smirks at Sans. "I'll crush you, just like I did so many times before."
"As you all know, the fight ends when a monster reaches 1 HP. Doctor Alphys is monitoring your HP from her computer, over there!" Says Mettaton on their microphone, pointing to Alphys's seat. "If anything goes wrong, we have specialized blah blah blah, safety blah blah blah, oh, we can skip that. LET THE BLOODSHED BEGINS!!!" Announces the robot, and the combatants charge at each other.
As soon as the bell rings, Sans takes a hand out of his pocket and hold it high. Immediately four Gaster Blasters are conjured and shot against prince Asriel. Sharp bones come out of the ground and cross Asriel's body. Sans snap his fingers and a last, enormous Gaster Blaster appears, and its blast lifts a thick dust screen.
"What? Impossible!" Exclaims Sans. In front of him, from within the dusty fog, Asriel's silhouette stands still, as nothing happened.
The dust goes down and surprised (and some relieved) gasps are heard from the crowd: Asriel Dreemurr was really standing there, unscathed.
"Well played, my friend. Well played." Asriel slowly claps his hands. "Is that all you got?"
Sans lifts his hand again, and a torrent of sharp bones falls towards the young goat. With swift moves of his sabers, Asriel manages to deflect all of them.
"Too slow... Are you getting old? Or just lazier?" Mocks the prince.
Sans moves up both hands, and a wall of bones circles around Asriel, trapping him in a huge bone-made block. The goat jumps and flies as the columns zigzag towards him, finally breaking his bone prison with a star-shaped explosion. Sans weighs and gasps while leans his hands on his knees, tired.
Asriel laughs.
"My turn."
The prince readies his Chaos Buster. The large rainbow beam does not hit Sans, who steps aside just in time. Asriel charges against him with his sabers, but the skeleton blocks the blow with a huge conjured bone.
"Gotcha."
Asriel smirks, and Sans rolls backward just in time to escape the prince's Shocker Breaker. The skeleton runs around the arena, managing to dodge the sequence of electric attacks.
"STAND STILL!" Growls the furious prince as he keeps missing attacks against Sans. "STOP DODGING!"
"Hahaha... Nope. What kind of idiot stands still and waits for a blow?"
Asriel's growing gets louder, and he gets off the flight again. Stars start to fall all over the arena, and a huge one was moving fast towards Sans. Cornered, the skeleton had no other choice than to teleport. He steps out of the teleportation, successfully dodging the burst of small starts, but the huge one unexpectedly expands in an explosion, almost covering all the arena, leaving no place to teleport to.
Sans conjures a wall of bones to protect himself from the certain blow. The massive star expands itself very quickly, crashing the bone barrier and knocking the skeleton against the arena's walls.
It was not a serious injuria, but the pain brings Sans to the ground. The last thing he sees is Alphys desperately waving her arms, indicating that his HP has reached 1.
"AAAAAAND IT IS OVER!" Announces Mettaton's metallic-sounded voice.
"SANS! SANS! BROTHER, ARE YOU OKAY?"
Papyrus hushes to his sibling, kneeling beside him. Sans's eyes were closed, and he didn't move.
"SANS!"
Papyrus shakes his brother's shoulder and Sans answers by putting a thumb up.
"I" m fine, bro... Just... So... Tired..."
"Sans! Oh, thank god you're okay! You got me worried to the bone, brother! Promise me you'll never compete again!"
Papyrus complains were interrupted by Sans's loud snoring. Papyrus facepalm.
"Sans, wake up! I haven't finished worrying! Sans!" Papyrus sighs, and finally takes his brother on his arms in order to carry him home.
"APPLAUSE OUR CHAMPION! PRINCE ASRIEL DREEMURR!"
Mettaton holds one of Asriel's hands up high, and the crowd goes wild. The Prince holds his head proudly high, smiling in satisfaction to his sibling, who was now cheering on, smiling at him. Yes, he has fought for that smile. He would kill for that smile. That smile makes everything worth it, all the training, all the pain, all the dirty deeds. If he could please Chara, nothing else matters. And who are you to judge? Everyone has THAT ONE person...