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Sans leaned heavily on the balcony of the rooftop deck, a cool summer's evening breeze blowing over his head. He let out a quiet sigh through his nose (or lack thereof, technically) and watched the enormous glowing ball sink lower and lower under the lip of the horizon, as if a giant magnificent ball were slowly rolling away. It was moments like these that he could slip into a peaceful sort of trance, letting his mind wander away from him without going completely to sleep, even though he was more than ready for that.
"Pretty, huh?"
Sans nearly leaped out of the skin that he didn't have at the sound of Papyrus just behind him. The taller skeleton was slurping noisily at what appeared to be a vomit colored milkshake, one hand tucked into the pocket of his 'super ultra deluxe battle smoking jacket' that he had evidently picked up somewhere. In all likelihood, a thrift store. Or, as Sans preferred to call them, 'discount chop shops'.
"Papyrus," Sans let out a shaky breath. "Can you please not sneak up on me like that? What if I had heart palpitations or something?"
"But we don't have any organs," Papyrus took another long drink of his... unpleasant looking drink. "Is that even possible?"
"I'd rather not find out..." Sans let out a weak chuckle, turning back to watch the sunset as the cool breeze ruffled his tee shirt.
Papyrus leaned against the balcony with him, and the wooden barrier let out a reluctant groan. The skeleton seemed uneasy about something, and Sans was positive that if his brother had a lip he'd be chewing on it.
"... I've been meaning to ask you something," Papyrus said after a long minute.
And we're playin' the fued.
"What's up, Paps?" he replied without looking away from the steadily dwindling sun.
"Well, uh..." the skeleton rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, swirling around his empty drink for a few seconds as if to buy time. He cleared his throat, a little frown crawling onto his face. "Sans, are you... alright?"
"Yeah, of course," Sans responded without hesitation in a rehearsed tone. "Everything's great."
"Are you sure?" Papyrus shifted uneasily.
"Absolutely. Why do you ask?"
"You've been up here since morning."
"Well-"
"Yesterday morning," Papyrus's frown deepened. "I know you like your alone time and all, but I worry about you."
Sans didn't answer.
"... Asgore's clone is making smoothies," Papyrus said after a bit, motioning with his empty glass. "They're made with something called 'hummus', because apparently human food is full of preservatives and has a serious lack of snails."
"What's it taste like?"
"It's pretty awful," Papyrus answered honestly. "I'm not sure how the human is managing to keep it down."
"I meant the snails," he grinned, closing his eyes.
"The old goat won't share any with me..." Papyrus crossed his arms grumpily.
"... Right," Sans's eyes snapped open. "So, two things. Firstly, was that pun intentional?"
Papyrus's mouth opened, but he was interrupted before he could answer.
"And secondly," his left eye began glowing a violent shade of periwinkle, "Never call Tori that in front of me again."
Papyrus cleared his throat again uneasily, pulling the neck of his jacket away with one finger bone.
"R-right..." he let out a weak, humorless laugh. Sans was already staring back at the place that the sun had been, the shorter skeleton flipping his has carelessly back at him.
"Ah, fuhgeddaboudit," Sans let out a quiet sigh.
"Forget about what?" Papyrus blinked.
Sans facepalmed.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Papyrus straightened up immediately, all fervor returning in an instant. "Brother, I must insist that you at least join us for dessert. Or, actually, after dessert dessert."
"Extra desserts?" Sans pried one open to give his brother a sly glance.
"Indeed!" he was quick to grin back at him. "I believe Ms. Goat Clone had a suspicion that the hummus shakes weren't exactly the grand idea that she believed, so she insisted upon making a type of pudding as well."
"So, what you're saying is..." Sans's grin slowly grew in size, and Papyrus slowly raised an eyebrow that he didn't have. "You deserted the dessert to tell me about after dessert dessert, and the after dessert dessert was deservedly deserted."
"Sans," Papyrus deadpanned.
"Yes, my brother?"
"You can be a real ass. You're lucky I love you."
"Oh, aye, an ass I can be, but an ass with an amazing alacrity for astounding amounts of alliteration in awesome array."
"That was awful. Never do it again."
Sans only laughed and shook his head, but the unwilling little smile on Papyrus's face said plenty.
He took his time getting the laugh out of his system, letting all the pent up feelings get torn away by the wind. He cleared his eye with one bony finger, though Papyrus seemed utterly unamused.
"... So are you coming downstairs or what?" Papyrus offered a hand, head bobbing back toward the little wooden door.
"Yeah, I could go for some grub right about now," he patted his slightly rotund stomach, which was a mystery in and of itself. His slippers scraped across the deck as he dragged his feet, ever so slowly hauling the door open. "I guess you could say I'm nearly starving to d-"
Sans promptly tripped over something warm and went sailing down the stairs, head over heels as he tumbled with extremely uncomfortable sounding grunts all the way to the bottom.
A set of swift footfalls were heard as he woozily attempted to right himself, one arm somehow twisted around behind him in the fall and pushed hard against the floor beneath his body.
"What happened, who fell?" the upside down sight of Toriel skidding through the hall caused him to jerkily pull himself upward, straining his neck.
"I told you those stairs were up to something," Sans let out a wheeze, only to find himself being gingerly pulled to his feet. His arm swung back into place with a loud crack, and he rolled his neck to see the shocked expressions of both his brother, and to a lesser extent, Frisk, who was hiding with a hand over her mouth between Papyrus's legs.
Nobody laughed except Sans.
Toriel gave him a careful squeeze, and he caught her relieved sigh.
"Well, clearly you're just fine," she released him sooner than he'd have liked. "Just be careful, Sans-"
"I-it was my fault," Frisk's soft voice wafted down the stairway, and he caught the tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm s-sorry, I-I just wanted to see when Sans was c-coming back..."
Whelp, I feel like a jerk.
"Aww, jeeze..." Sans rubbed the back of his neck guiltily, pulling the child into a hug. "C'mon, I'm fine, see?" he lied, forcing a wide grin. "Hey! I said I was planning a trip, and wouldn't you know it..."
Papyrus was violently shaking his arms back and forth behind Frisk, silently mouthing no no no, but it was far too late for that. Frisk burst into hysterical tears, gripping his stomach and sobbing. He spotted the intent glare of Toriel's out of the corner of his eye socket, and was careful not to meet her death stare.
"... WELL," Papyrus clapped his hands together after an extremely uncomfortable few seconds. "Somebody's sleeping on the couch tonight."
Papyrus, you can be a real ass. You're lucky I love you.
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AN – Just a little something I threw together. I might write more if anyone actually likes it. I'unno.
I'm incredibly lazy. –\ _ /–