This is a birthday story/request for BBPRIMEFAN101, who owns Nyala (aka Red). Here you go, Amiga! Happy Birthday! :)
Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. I own nothing. And before someone points this out, BBPRIMEFAN101's OC is not the same Red from the fan-created game. Her OC is simply nicknamed Red for her clothes.
Now, on with the story! :)
It Takes More Than One Try
Nyala lay on her bed, clutching her favorite stuffed animal in her arms as tears fell down her face. A hour before, her older brothers, Sans and Papyrus, had tried to teach her how to use her magic, something she had been very eager to learn and was excited to learn from the two skeletons she looked up to.
Now, she really didn't want to even learn what abilities she had. She closed her eyes as more tears fell down her face as she recalled what had happened just moments earlier.
An hour ago…
"Okay, kiddo, here's what Pap and I want you to do," Sans said. "We want you to form bones and throw them at those targets Pap set up, okay?"
The seven-and-a-half year old skeleton girl nodded eagerly, seeing the taller skeleton up ahead give her a wave. Smiling, she held up her hands before her face contorted into a look of concentration and a couple bones formed in her hands. "Good job," Sans said approvingly.
Papyrus beamed also before gesturing to the targets. "Go for it, Nyala! You can do it!" He encouraged her.
Taking a deep breath, Nyala threw her right hand out to throw the bone that floated over that hand, but when she did, instead of just one bone flying towards the target, a flurry of bones flew out, going in every direction but straight.
Sans' eyes widened. "Pap, look out!" He cried out, quickly activating his telekinesis to try and stop the wayward bones, but some were already beyond the range of his hastily-summoned power.
The tall skeleton jumped up, quickly summoning a large femur bone in his hands and instantly spinning it like a staff, just like how Undyne had taught him with her spear. This defensive maneuver knocked away the wayward bones that Sans was unable to catch, although one of the bones did hit his shoulder, making him grunt.
Nyala stood there in horror and dropped her hands instantly to make the bones disappear while the two older skeletons assessed the area and themselves for injuries. Papyrus gingerly moved his shoulder and found it was just a little sore, but nothing serious. Sans found one of the bones in a tree nearby that had apparently missed hitting him by less than an inch. "Well, that was a close shave," he said with a chuckle.
He noticed that silence followed his pun and turned to look at Nyala, who would have normally laughed at his jokes, but now, she was looking like she had just been told the worst news of her life and she was staring at the bone in the tree and at Papyrus' shoulder and her eyes widened at seeing the taller skeleton's HP go down a couple points.
Seeing that, she turned and ran. "Nyala!" Sans called out. "Red, come back!"
Present…
But she had kept running and gone to her room. "I hurt him," she said to herself before she began crying harshly again, unable to stop her tears.
Sans and Papyrus were following their little sister's trail. "Looks like she might have gone back for home," Papyrus said.
"Yeah," Sans said. "I wonder why she ran like that. She acted like she had just done something wrong."
The tall skeleton had a thought and checked his HP. It was down slightly, but was climbing back up and his eyes widened. "Brother," he said as realization hit him. "She saw my HP go down. When that wayward bone hit my shoulder."
That stopped Sans short and he quickly checked his brother's stats, and let out a sigh of relief that the damage had been minimal. "That's probably why then," he said. "She thinks she badly hurt you."
"And because it was her attack, even if it wasn't intentional, she feels at fault," Papyrus said.
"Well then. Let's go cheer up our little sister and convince her to try again."
When they got to their house, they immediately headed for Nyala's bedroom and knocked. "Hey, Red, you in here, kiddo?" Sans called out.
They heard shuffling, but no answer, which prompted Papyrus to open the door and they saw the small skeleton laying on her side on her bed. They entered and went over to her, sitting down beside her. Nyala didn't move except for one hand fiddling with the cuff of the sleeve of her red sweater, but the two skeletons knew they had to be patient with their little sister and thankfully, patience was one of their attributes.
"Red?" Papyrus asked softly, one hand reaching out and resting on the smaller skeleton's skull. "Little sister? What's wrong?"
She sniffled. "Careful, kiddo," said Sans, a gentle smile playing at his face. "Those tears will flood the room soon and we'll all be swimming."
The tall skeleton gave him a look, but both of them heard an almost-stifled giggle from Nyala, which made the hoodie-wearing skeleton smile. "I don't think we have flood insurance either, so I guess it would really be sink or swim for us."
That brought a slightly louder giggle from the smallest skeleton who now sat up, smoothing down her pink dress as she faced her brothers and looked at Papyrus. "I'm sorry, Papyrus," she said softly.
"Nyala, it wasn't your fault," he said, using her human name. "I didn't expect a barrage of bones to go everywhere, but I don't think you or Sans expected that either."
"I didn't," Sans said. "Caught me completely by surprise."
The young girl skeleton looked down. "I don't know what happened," she said. "I just pictured the bone hitting the targets."
Papyrus blinked, an idea forming in his mind. "Were you thinking about all three targets at once, little sister?" He asked.
"Yeah," she admitted.
The joke-loving skeleton caught on to what his brother realized. "Because you were focused on all three targets, maybe that's why instead of throwing one bone, you threw a barrage of bones instead," he said.
"I wasn't trying to," Nyala protested in a small voice.
"We know you didn't do it on purpose, kiddo," Sans said gently. "But it's a good theory. One we should look into while teaching you about your magic."
She shook her head. "I don't want to learn," she said, huddling into a ball.
The two older skeletons were a bit surprised. "Come on, kiddo. You didn't hurt Pap that much."
"My HP only went down two points, hardly enough to bring down the Great Papyrus!" The scarf-wearing skeleton said, striking a pose, something he knew would make his little sister giggle. To his surprise, she only let out a small giggle.
"Aw, come on, Red," Sans said. "That didn't have a lot of spirit. Pap can always tickle your funny bone."
She shrugged and looked away, but the brothers looked at each other and smiled, catching on the same idea. Papyrus stood up from the bed as did Sans, who activated his telekinesis, catching the corners of the blanket on the bed and suddenly, moved his hand, making the blanket move and surround Nyala, surprising her before Papyrus picked her up, blanket and all, and began spinning around. "Whoa!" Nyala cried out before she couldn't help giggling and this time, her giggles were louder.
Sans noticed her brown boots were sticking out from the other end of the blanket and winked at Papyrus, going over and carefully removing the brown boots and tickling Nyala's bare feet, something that made her squeal, but being trapped in the blanket, she couldn't really move.
"Come on, Pap," Sans said. "What do you say we really tickle her funny bone?"
"An excellent idea, brother!" Papyrus said enthusiastically. "And perhaps it just might be the way to convince our little sister to not give up on learning her magic?"
"Great idea."
Nyala was placed on her bed and released from the blanket, but barely a second later, Sans was back to tickling her feet while Papyrus began tickling her ribs and neck, to which she laughed harder and squirmed, but they had her. "Tickle, tickle, tickle!" Papyrus said teasingly.
"We've got you, baby bones. Cootchie, cootchie, coo!" Sans joined in the teasing.
"HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! SAHAHAHAHAHAHAHANS! PAPYHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIRUS! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The small skeleton laughed her hardest as her two older brothers kept up the tickle torture.
"The only way to get us to stop is if you say you want to learn more about your magic and give it more than one try," Sans said seriously. "Or Pap and I will tickle you silly."
She was feeling better thanks to her brothers and nodded, making them stop as she took a chance to recover and giggled when she felt Papyrus pick her up and hug her. She returned the hug. "I promise I'll be more careful," she said to him.
"So will Sans and I," he said with a smile before handing her to his older brother, who held her as she hugged him too.
"Kiddo, it takes more than one try to get your magic," he said as he hugged her. "It took Pap and I a few times when we first learned it."
Papyrus actually looked a bit sheepish. "I blew a hole through the kitchen ceiling one time," he admitted.
"And I nearly accidently blasted River Person with my Gaster Blasters when I first learned to summon them," Sans admitted. "Thankfully, he heard my warning and ducked in time."
Nyala felt better now at hearing that and giggled a little. "Guess we all had rough magic starts, huh?" She asked.
Sans and this time, Papyrus, both laughed at her play on words before heading downstairs and getting ready to try teaching their little sister how to use her magic. "Papyrus?" She asked and he turned to her. "Piggy-back ride, big brother?"
Her large, hopeful eyes were something he couldn't say 'no' to and he lifted her up and placed her on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled as they headed back to the target practice sight.
And the small skeleton felt more confident now that she could learn magic just like her older brothers.
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GoldGuardian2418