Papyrus happily walked down the street of the shopping district, a bounce in his step as he hummed a catchy tune. Sans was spending the morning with Alphys, working on fixing his machine with the much better technology on the surface, so this meant Papyrus would have a chance to get Sans's Gyftmas present without him sneaking a peek(again). He greeted everyone who passed him cheerfully. Some greeted him back happily while others gave the tall, oddly dressed skeleton a weird look and a wide berth.
At a specialty clothing shop where you could have logos or words printed onto outfits, he bought Sans a blue hoodie similar to his old one, but got the words SANS-sational Brother printed on the front. He knew Sans would never let him hear the end of it for actually using a pun, but his brother would love it and that was most important. He also got Sans an assortment of fancy bottles of homemade country ketchup and a DVD of the latest season of Legend Breakers, a human show Sans had gotten into. Sans would be so happy on Gyftmas morning! The Great Papyrus had picked out the best Gyftmas presents ever!
Done shopping for his brother, Papyrus then set to the very enjoyable task of picking out the perfect gifts for all his friends. He quickly found an anime DVD for Alphys, a nice Japanese sword for Undyne was now for a hobby store so he could get Frisk a new radio controlled plane. The one he always let her borrow had been destroyed when that stupid annoying pooch had knocked her over and grabbed the remote control from her. Papyrus had tried to grab it back for her, but the dumb dog hadn't let go, and with them both hitting the buttons wrestling over control of the control, the plane had gone haywire, nearly hit Frisk in the face, then crashed through the window when she ducked.
As he searched for the hobby store, he came upon a large store that had a bright sign in rainbow colored neon reading Bitties 'R US.
"WOWIE! ...WHAT'S A BITTY?" he asked himself curiously, though the loudness of his voice made some people stare at him like he was nuts. Whatever a bitty was, it sounded kind of cute. The excitable skeleton scratched his chin with his gloved hand, then decided to wander in to see what it was all about. He could hit the hobby shop afterwards.
But as he stepped inside, he couldn't believe what he saw.
Glitch couldn't remember a time where he was wanted.
Sure, it MUST have happened at some point, before he was deemed 'defective' (just like Paint, though they had a reason for that; the poor Inksplotch was mute) for his personality.
So he wasn't really surprised when he was put with this gangly band of rejects.
On one side of the group, there was him and Paint. They probably looked weird, huddled together in an attempt to stay safe (Erritties are supposed to hate Inksplotches, after all), but it was the only comfort he really had, and he was willing to bet it was the only comfort Paint had as well.
To the left of them was a sobbing Boss and a blind Baby Blue. He could tell the Baby Blue was blind by the way he was feeling his way around (the Blue had nearly fallen off the table when they'd first been put there), and the Boss was probably there for 'personality issues' (just like him).
To the right was a Sansy and a Ray. The Sansy looked like he'd been through hell (probably a drop-off that got sorted out with the rest) and the Ray was attempting to protect him from the large human towering over them (he'd watched the fire elemental bite the human's fingers when it got too close).
He'd accepted his fate a while ago.
Which is why he didn't react to what looked like an overgrown Papy coming in the door, not even when the skeleton gasped and ran over to them./p
"OH NO! ARE YOU HURT, LITTLE GUYS? WHAT'S WRONG?" Papyrus asked in shock and worry. He didn't know if they were injured or just sad, but either way, he knew they needed help. He noticed that most of them looked like his brother, especially the little one with the blue hoodie that was a tiny version of his brother's, but how afraid they looked and the fact that one of them was crying was much more of a concern to him. He wanted to make sure they were okay.
The Baby Blue recoiled and nearly fell off the edge again, barely saving himself. He growled deeply.
The shopkeeper looked at him. "Oh, these ones are defective. We're, ah, taking care of them. Maybe you should go look at the others?"br /Glitch almost laughed at the shopkeeper's words. 'Defective? Oh, that's rich. It's not like we can't hear him, after all.'
Papyrus actually glared at him as his gloved hand gently supported Baby Blue so he didn't fall. Couldn't he see that these were not objects, but tiny monsters who were scared, possibly hurt, and needed help? And calling someone defective was mean! There was no such thing as a defective person! "THEY'RE NOT OBJECTS, THEY'RE PEOPLE! THEY'RE NOT DEFECTIVE AND IT'S MEAN TO CALL THEM THINGS LIKE THAT!"
Paint glanced up at him. 'Does he really care about what happens to us? That's rare in other people...'
He absentmindedly wondered if the large skeleton knew sign language, before shaking off the thoughts. 'More important things to worry about right now. Like not dying.'
"Glitch looked at him, worried. "You doing ok there?"
'I'm fine, worry about it later.' He signed back.
The tall skeleton switched his attention from the cruel shopkeeper to the frightened bitties. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT? DO YOU NEED HELP?" Papyrus asked them, very worried as he tried to think of a way to help them.
Glitch stared at him. "Do you even care?" He laughed bitterly. "You heard the damn human. We're 'defective'. Nobody would want us anyway. We were pretty much doomed from the start." Paint looked at him with the expression of a mother attempting to get her child to stop insulting random strangers.
Papyrus's eye sockets widened. "NO, YOU'RE NOT DEFECTIVE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS SAYS SO, SO YOU KNOW IT HAS TO BE TRUE! AND YES, I DO CARE. AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PLACE TO STAY, YOU COULD ALL COME HOME WITH ME AND I COULD MAKE YOU MY FAMOUS GOURMET SPAGHETTI!" he was quick to tell them.
The Baby Blue seemed to perk up at the mention of spaghetti. He spoke in a quiet voice (Glitch almost found this strange, as Baby Blues usually spoke as loud as they possibly could, but then again he could have been deemed 'defective' for more than one reason). "I-I...can help...if you...really want us..."
"OF COURSE I WANT YOU GUYS! AND I'D LOVE THE HELP! IT'S ALWAYS MORE FUN MAKING SPAGHETTI WITH A FRIEND!" Papyrus said happily. He placed his hand very gently on the table, careful not to startle them. "I NOTICED THAT YOU DON'T SEE VERY WELL. MY HAND IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU IF YOU'D LIKE TO CLIMB ON IT SO I CAN GIVE YOU A RIDE."
The Baby Blue nodded and climbed on. Glitch and Paint gave each other looks before making their way over to him. Papyrus held out his other hand for them and smiled at them happily.
Paint climbed on without hesitation. Glitch, on the other hand, glanced back at the other three bitties, before going up to the Boss and grabbing him (he didn't really want to risk getting fried by the Ray). The Boss barely looked up at him.
He looked over at the Ray and the Sansy. "You coming, or do I have to drag you like this idiot?"
They nodded, the Ray giving him a warning look.
"I WON'T EVER HURT ANY OF YOU! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID!" Papyrus said, thinking that was the reason for their hesitation. He gently placed Paint on his shoulder, but continued to gently hold Baby Blue in his other hand, not wanting Baby Blue to fall.
Glitch jumped on his other hand, still dragging the Boss. He looked down. "I really don't want to call you Boss all the time. What's your name?"
The Boss looked up at him, just shrugging.
Papyrus looked towards Ray.
pThe Ray looked back, staring at him before muttering something under his breath. The Sansy looked at him worriedly, and the Ray spoke up. "My name is Sunny. His name," he pointed at the Sansy. "is Terrace. I have no idea if the Boss even has a name."
Glitch shrugged. "I'm just gonna call him Red then. Easier than 'the Boss'."
Papyrus nodded. "AND WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" Papyrus asked Paint, Baby Blue, and Glitch.
Paint looked at Glitch, who sighed, not really eager to speak to this tall, loud skeleton. "My name's Glitch. The Inksplotch staring daggers at me for being rude is Paint, he's mute. I dunno who the Baby Blue is."
The Baby Blue shivered slightly. "Don't...really have one...neither does he..." He pointed vaguely in the direction he thought the Boss was (Glitch noticed he was about three feet off; he probably couldn't judge distance very accurately).
"DO NOT WORRY, LITTLE BLUE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL SOON THINK OF A NAME FOR BOTH OF YOU!" He then turned to Paint. "IF YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO ME, I KNOW SIGN TOO SINCE MY DAD ALWAYS USED IT." He sounded sad at this.
Paint looked relieved at this. Glitch looked up at him, trying to judge his character more accurately. 'He seems fairly nice...'
Once everyone was on board, Papyrus started to make his way out with them.
The shopkeeper looked vaguely irritated that he'd gotten them, but seemed to not care very much. Glitch may or may not have given him a rude gesture on the way out (he could tell Paint had seen by the way he was glaring at him; if looks could kill, Glitch would be dead ten times over).