His soft snores echoed across the room, the dim lamp on the bedside table just barely casting a glow on his bones. The house was peacefully silent, the occasional surface breeze flowing through the half-open window.

Sans rolled over in bed, blankets caught between his ribs and without a care in his dream world. He was flying alongside Birdie, a hot cat in his mouth and arms spread wide as the world all around. He dipped and dived and ducked and dodged through the air, all while relishing the sweet morning breeze and his body moving restlessly in his sheets. Sans was just about to fall under an arch of The Grand Canyon when he was jolted out of his rest by Papyrus slamming the door open.

"SANS! SANS! WAKE UP! BROTHER IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Ever since the barrier had fallen, the monsters of the underground have had a fairly difficult time adjusting to the overwhelming cultural differences that the humans had. Firstly, having to realize humans didn't see socks as being 'scandalous', among other things. It really didn't seem fair for them to have to change their ways just to fit in with the population, but that's how it usually goes with minorities, doesn't it?

However, monsters had managed, one of the easier differences being the humans' religious holiday of 'Christmas'. Sure, they had completely different reasons for naming it the way they did, but for the monster population? It seemed better to roll with the human version so as not to cause any tension between themselves and those overly religious badgers the humans call 'priests'.

In any case, both holiday traditions were almost eerily similar, and despite their difference in reasoning ("No Undyne, this isn't the human version of a royal baby shower."), the act of exchanging gifts and well-wishes remains thankfully the same for both species.

This, however, doesn't make waking up at the ass-crack of dawn for a certain squealing younger sibling any more enjoyable, which explains Sans' dragging footsteps as he followed Papyrus' trail of excitement down the hall. He scratched at his eye sockets as he struggled to wake himself up, rounding the corner with a barely contained yawn and almost colliding with the cup of human coffee Papyrus was presenting him.

"thanks bro," he said, taking the warm cup with both hands.

"YOU ARE MOST WELCOME, SANS!" Papyrus' sunny smile made Sans fight down any complaints about what time it was, instead continuing to follow him as he chattered nonstop about how 'Santa had found the house' and how 'it must have been the ridiculously huge and flashy sign they'd installed' and how he 'hoped the cookies hadn't gotten soggy' and wondering if 'he had been good enough this year'.

(Let's all admit right now, since when has Papyrus ever been anything other than a cinnamon bunny?)

When they arrive at the living room, Papyrus seems about ready to explode with excitement, scrambling over to the heavily decorated (but still nice-looking) fake holiday tree in the corner. Sans notices immediately that there's somehow an additional present under the tree, and he can feel his eyes narrow in a small fit of frustration (I thought that ADT company was professional!).

Papyrus grabs an armful of gifts (most of them being from Undyne), and sets himself on their well-loved couch, already tearing into the wrapping by the time Sans sat himself down. Placing his coffee on the side table, Sans used his gravity magic to slide the remaining presents over to Papyrus' feet, lining them up to leave the mystery gift last. He didn't like the fact that someone had snuck into their house so easily, but a quick glance at the name on the gift wrap settled his nerves.

(Figures the kid would sneak into our house in the middle of the night just to leave us a gift. Who does that? What if they set off an alarm? God knows they'd have it coming to them if they gave me a heart attack. And that'd be sayin' something, 'cause I don't even have a heart!)

Every gift Papyrus unwrapped left him with bundles of ripped paper around him, and a little trinket or picture in his hands. After reaching the surface and seeing a map of the world, Papyrus made it his new goal to visit every corner of the Earth, and started requesting little souvenirs from his friends whenever they travelled abroad. The little Eiffel Tower in his hands was from Undyne and Alphys, who were spending their honeymoon in Paris to allow Alphys to keep up with her work while they travelled.

He was piling up quite an amount of towers and coliseums by the time he got to the last gift, and Sans was honestly worried that the leaning tower of Pisa would soon become the leaning tower of shattered glass on his floor. Keeping a watchful eye on his brother's excitable elbows, Sans leaned forward in his seat to see what Frisk decided to get Papyrus this year, while expertly ducking under a scrap of wrapping paper his brother threw over his shoulder.

"whatcha got there, bro?"

Papyrus pulled out a small gaming console, a little brick of a handheld that seems like it could be a phone from one of those old movies Toriel is fascinated by. He handled it carefully, raising it to his face and examining it with blown-out eye sockets, "... BROTHER, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE WHAT THIS IS."

"well, does it have a name?"

He squinted, then showed it to Sans and pointed with a finger, "THIS IS IT, RIGHT?" He squints at it again, "IT SAYS TETRIS ON IT, BROTHER, IT'S CALLED TETRIS."

"huh," Sans raises a hand towards the game, "it has a power button, do you wanna turn it on?"

Papyrus flips the device and pushes the little green power symbol, flipping it back over to stare at the screen. A moment later, it lights up, and a little tune rings out while the buffering symbol does its little laps (Frisk calls it "The Spinning Circle of Death").

From the opening tune, the game's music takes an allegro-type beat, and the screen changes to display an empty box with statistics next to it. Papyrus looks on in curious wonder, watching as a small tutorial played it's way across the screen. In the next instant, he gasps like a sarcastic Mettaton (almost scaring Sans out of his wits), and squealed with pure joy as he practically shoved the thing in Sans' face.

"BROTHER! BROTHER! IT'S A PUZZLE GAME! THE HUMAN GOT ME A PUZZLE GAME!" He clutched the game to his chest with a tear in his eye, annoying music and all, "OH THIS TAKES ME BACK, BROTHER! I CAN SEE THEY ARE STILL SO DEEPLY INFATUATED WITH ME! BECAUSE THIS COLORED TILE PUZZLE COULD ONLY REMIND THEM OF OUR FIRST DATE! WHICH IS VERY NICE OF THEM, BUT IS ALSO OBVIOUS! BECAUSE WHO WOULDN'T REMEMBER A DATE WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS?"

Sans, after calming his significantly missing heart, leaned back into the couch and watched as his brother immediately started the first stage, finishing it with little difficulty and some help from Sans ("no pap, you won't be electrocuted by the yellow tiles.").

After the first two stages, Sans stepped down from his position as teacher and looked on contentedly as Papyrus completed stage after stage. They sat in relative silence, the jingle of the game being the only sound aside from the occasional sips of coffee from Sans.

Stage 9 passed by after seven tries, and as the stages grew more difficult, Papyrus became even more driven to finish each stage.

"I'M GOING TO COMPLETE THIS PUZZLE, SANS!"

"bro it doesn't end, it just goes on forever."

"THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK!"

(Hoo boy.)