Why am I publishing this?

[Papyrus]

It'd overall just been a very dreadful day for the ever optimistic Papyrus. He'd woken up two hours earlier than usual to the sound of his brother screaming bloody murder in the room neighboring his own. He'd burst in to find Sans trapped in the thralls of the year's worst night terror thus far and had spent at least twenty minutes fighting his brother's subconscious before he recognized his sibling and calmed down. Sans had fallen asleep against him and had remained sleeping even after Papyrus had gotten up, cleaned his brother's mattress, washed the sheets, fluffed the pillow, and put him back to bed.

He noticed while preparing breakfast that his leg had been hurting but figured Sans must have landed a lucky blow during his fit and moved on. Papyrus had the higher defense between the two brothers so he really hadn't felt any sort of concern.

In fact it had fled from his mind entirely when that dumb dog ruined his first batch of spaghetti and made a horrendous mess of the kitchen. It taken Papyrus working double time to clean up and finish breakfast before Sans arrived unable to recall any of what had happened the night before. Pap had watched him carefully and tried to be subtle about it, not mentioning the event to his stressed elder, but suspected he wasn't being very convincing. Sans left for Grillbys and Papyrus had thrown out the uneaten spaghetti without much thought or hurt- he still had much to improve on after all. (He wasn't going to make his brother eat something he didn't want to eat either.)

On that point, Papyrus wasn't as sensitive as many thought him to be. He could take some good teasing and jokes made at his expense had him laughing just as hard as everyone else. But, he was wearing a little thin. It had been weeks since he'd last slept more than 2 hours a night and thinking about it now he wondered why he'd never stopped to think that might be why it was so hard to maintain his usual demeanor. He'd tried taking a nap but that didn't work at all so he'd given up.

After Sans had left he'd spent a few hours cleaning the house before going out for a walk, thinking maybe his aching leg needed a bit of a stretch.

This was big mistake number 2 today.

He'd tried to go shopping but found nothing at all on his list and would have to wait until the next merchants came through to actually get proper groceries. Then he'd gone to the inn hoping to borrow some sheets only to discover all the rooms were booked and they had no spares left. Papyrus had checked on Sans at Grillbys but while walking away from the diner he'd tripped and landed on the Christmas tree set up in town, crushing some presents, lightbulbs, and getting whipped in the face by the needly branches. After receiving a stern talking to he'd tried to help fix his mistake only to be shooed away.

Deciding it best to go on a "calming nature walk" he'd left town, his gimp leg having now acquired a limp.

Papyrus'd spent the majority of the remaining length of time outside being tormented by some local kids. At first he'd thought they'd just wanted to play but then their games became dangerous and they started picking on the littlest one- Monster Kid.

He'd tried to intervene.

He'd tried to be the peacemaker.

He'd effortlessly pulled two boys out of a whirling, thrashing pile and held them up by their scruffs.

He'd begun scolding them.

He'd been kicked in the shin.

And then his shin had come off.

Papyrus distinctly remembered the shock of pain rocketing up his thigh, biting his spine, and nesting at the back of his skull as he tumbled with a cry of alarm. There'd been a short pause as the little ones processed what they'd done but before he could try to sooth them they'd all scattered in different directions.

Now he lay in the collecting snow trying to figure out what to do about his latest predicament. Already he was too exhausted to pick himself up. His leg was throbbing and- unfortunately the disconnected tibia hadn't gone numb yet.

It was here, lying face down exhausted in the snow that he realized he was supposed to be at Undyne's place having a cooking lesson. In fact, he was supposed to have gone there about two hours ago.

A very uncharacteristic groan rumbled out of the fallen skeleton that turned into an undignified squawk as the gruesomely familiar sensation of a disintegrating limb began crawling over his dismembered appendage.

"W-wowie…" he said to no-one, looking back at his leg and watching it turn to ash, Sans must have hit me harder than I thought this morning.

Letting his head lie flat again he looked through his memories of the day in attempt to distract himself from the discomfort and yet found very little motivation in them.

One of the coolest things, he decided, about being a skeleton was the ability to regenerate lost limbs. The fact that doing so took so much time, energy, and discomfort, however, was decidedly much less cool. And to make things worse it didn't seem like Sans would be coming out to find him anytime in the next 24 hours or so. Grillby had been sure to mention to him before he'd left that tonight was going to be another one of those nights for his brother. No doubt he'd be getting a call-

Had he the energy Papyrus would have smacked himself in the head, realizing that he'd forgotten his phone at home.

Then, to mark the lowest point of his day, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sans spoke from the back of his aching skull; who'd of thought this tibia problem today.

With that a scream of frustration and pain erupted from Papyrus, barely muffled by the snow.

I'll finish this tomorrow.

Next part: Undyne is out looking for Pap and is horrified/confused by the scream that leads her to him.