"Papyrus! Get up you lazy bones!" Sans called as he wrapped his scarf around his neck and stomped over to the taller skeleton that was lounging on the couch of their living room. "You're going to be late for work."

Papyrus opened one of his eye sockets as his brother marched over to him. He was sprawled across the furniture with his elbow propped up on the cushion beneath him. His head rested lazily in his hand as he watched his older, yet smaller brother stand in front of the TV. His big, starry blue eyes looked at Papyrus with displeasure and agitation.

"Aww, c'mon bro. Give me a break. I'm just bone tired," Papyrus told him in a teasing tone.

Sans gave a growl of irritation as he grabbed a hold of Papyrus' arm and yanked him from the couch. "You're always tired, brother! Now let's go. We're burning daylight."

Papyrus chuckled as he stood up and let his brother drag him out the door by his arm. A fresh layer of snow had glistened over Snowdin and cranched softly under Sans' boots and Papyrus' sneakers.

"A human's gonna show up today, brother! I can feel it in my bones." Sans exclaimed with excitement.

"You say that every day, bro."

"I know! But it's especially strong today. Can't you feel it too?"

Papyrus chuckled, "Sure bro."

"Mweh heh heh! See? The Magnificent Sans knew it! I am right as always brother."

The taller skeleton smiled as he followed his brother to the sentry station he would be working at for the day. "Course bro. You're the coolest skeleton I know."

Sans giggled and puffed his chest proudly, "I know Papyrus." The smaller skeleton stopped in front of the sentry station and watched as Papyrus hopped over the counter and plopped into his seat.

"Now Papyrus, I am going on my patrol. Do your duty and don't fall asleep." Sans scolded.

Papyrus let out a chuckle as he stuck a cigarette into his mouth, "Heh, bro. You said doody."

Sans stomped his foot on the ground, giving a frustrated growl, "You know what I meant Papyrus! And get that filth out of your mouth! It's not good for you."

"Yeah, yeah." Papyrus took it out of his mouth and watched as his brother left. Once he was gone, the tall skeleton relaxed in his seat. He kicked his feet up on the counter and placed the cigarette back in his mouth. After lighting it with a match, he took a long drag and let the smoke leak from his sockets, nasal cavity, and the openings of his hoodie.

Papyrus didn't remember when he dozed off, but when he woke, a small coat of snow had gathered on his sneakers and his spine felt knotted from leaning back on the chair. The tall skeleton stood up, letting his joints pop with a satisfied sigh.

Then a sound caught his attention. His eye sockets drifted to the nearby bridge and to his shock, he spotted a human standing on the other side of the too wide bars that Sans had built to keep humans from crossing.

Papyrus hopped over the counter and stuffed his hands in the pocket of his faded orange hoodie. He examined the human as they approached him. A young child, probably no older than ten or eleven. Their pale skin was only a shade or two darker than the snow around them. They had short, gingerish hair and dull crimson eyes that stared at Papyrus with little to no emotion. They were dressed in a green and yellow striped sweater that looked a little large for their small frame. Their brown shorts ended just above their knees and sneakers were faded and wore, but were likely once the same shade of brown as their shorts. Papyrus couldn't shake the unease he felt as he noticed a suspicious looking dust that covered their hands and sweater.

"Hey kiddo. Never seen you around here before. You're a human right?" Papyrus said as he leaned back on his heels.

The young human was silent as they stopped in front of the tall skeleton. They continued to stare at Papyrus with that emotionless expression. It was really starting to unnerve him. Papyrus pulled out one of his hands from his pocket and held it out to them.

"C'mon kiddo. Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" There was no response, nor did they acknowledge his outstretched hand. Papyrus decided to return his hand to his pocket as he tilts his skull. "I'm suppose to be on the lookout for humans. But I'm not really interested in capturing anyone," Papyrus closes one of his eye sockets, "But my brother; now he's a human hunting fanatic. He's the one that got me this sentry job."

There was still no response. If Papyrus had to guess, the human almost looked bored and uninterested in what he had to say. Distance footsteps caught Papyrus' attention as he turned his skull slightly. He grinned as he looked back to the young human standing before him.

"Actually, I think that's him now. You might want to head over to that conveniently shaped lamp over there," Papyrus pulled his hand from his pocket and pointed a thumb to the lamp that rested on the ground beside his sentry station. But the human didn't move. They just sat there with that blank stare.

Papyrus shrugged it off and turned to his brother as he jogged over to him, "Papyrus, you're actually awake."

The taller skeleton nodded, "Yup. And look bro, I found a human."

"Really!? Wowie! Great job brother! Keep them distracted while I go get my puzzles ready! Mweh heh heh heh!" Sans ran off immediately after that. Papyrus chuckled softly to himself. Despite getting some bad vibes from this kid, at least Sans was excited and happy to finally have someone to play with his puzzles.

"Hey kid. Don't mean to be a bother, but my bro has always wanted to find a human. So you'd be doing me a big favor if you kept pretending to be one."

With that, Papyrus left them to explore on their own. Using one of his short cuts, Papyrus found his brother and helped him set up his first puzzle.

Sans hummed happily as he went to work, his excitement to have a human to play with rubbed off on Papyrus. He joked and laughed with his brother as they waited for the human to arrive to the first puzzle. Once they approached, Sans puffed up proudly, holding an orb out in front of them as his eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Human! I, the Magnificent Sans, shall capture you! But first, I have a trail of puzzles that will surely-" Before Sans could finish his speech, the human began to walk across the puzzle towards them. Sans' happy expression faltered as he turned to Papyrus, "Brother! T-They aren't listening! I haven't even explained what the puzzle does yet."

Papyrus felt his chest tighten with guilt as his brother got upset. "Maybe they just don't like japings?"

"Nonsense Papyrus, everyone likes japes."

"Alphys doesn't."

"Alphys doesn't like puzzles, but loves japes." Sans corrected him, then the small skeleton thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "I will capture them with the next puzzle. Yes, that's right! The next one is set up by my amazing brother Papyrus! There's no way you'll get away! Mweh heh heh heh!" With that, Sans ran ahead to prepare the next puzzle.

After the other skeleton was gone from sight, Papyrus turned to the human. "Y'know. You might actually like puzzles if you actually gave them a try. It would certainly make my bro's day." There was still no response. They simply walked past him with that blank expression on their face. When the human was gone, Papyrus narrowed his sockets a bit. He muttered a few insults into his hoodie before taking another short cut to meet with Sans.

As Papyrus arrived, so did the human. Sans glared at his brother as he stomped his foot into the snow, "Papyrus! Where's the puzzle!?"

"Right there bro," the taller skeleton motioned to the piece of paper on the ground, "Trust me, there's no way they can get by this one."

The human walked by the piece of paper without even giving it a glance. "Huh. Guess I should have used Junior Jumble instead."

"Junior Jumble!? Brother, that is nonsense! Crosswords are much more challenging than those word scrambles!"

"Crosswords? C'mon bro, those are for babybones. All ya gotta do is fill the boxes with Z's since all they do is put ya to sleep." Papyrus teased.

Sans gave a frustrated growl as he turned to the human, "Settle this dispute! What is more challenging? Crosswords or Junior Jumble?" When the human reminded silent, Sans became visibly uncomfortable, "Er, this is the part where you agree with one of us." When there was still no answer, Sans tossed his hands in the air in a sign of defeat, "Bah! Brother, this human is no fun!" he whined before storming off to the next puzzle.

Papyrus felt bad that his brother was having such a hard time. He scowled as the human continued on without another word. There was definitely something wrong with them. The taller skeleton couldn't put his finger on it, but he was certain they were bad news. After these puzzles, Papyrus would have to talk Sans into leaving the human be. But for now, he couldn't take his brother's games away from him.

The rest of the puzzles were the same. Sans tried desperately to get the human to play along, but the human was unresponsive. Papyrus gave up on trying to talk to them. Instead, he tried to keep his brother in good spirits, which wasn't too hard. One thing Papyrus always appreciated about Sans was how he never got discouraged. And if he did, it wouldn't take much to bring him into good spirits.

As they walked together back to Snowdin, Papyrus looked down at his brother, "Are you really going to fight the human?"

"Of course brother. It's time to put all the training I've done with Alphys to good use. I'll defeat them in battle and capture them!"

Papyrus felt a sense of dread suddenly wash over him. He didn't want to crush his brother's dreams, but he had a terrible feeling about this human. "Y'know, maybe you should leave this human to the guard bro. There'll always be another human. Who knows, maybe the next one will like puzzles."

Sans puffed his chest as he looked up at his brother with his big, sparkling blue eyes, "I know you're scared Papyrus, but worry not! Your big brother will protect you and save the day! They may be weird and walk around with that weird dust all over them, but there's good in them! There's good in everyone! Trust me, won't you?"

Papyrus sighed, then he gave a weak smile. It was hard to say no to a face like that. "Alright bro. I trust you," he gave his skull a playful noogie and chuckled as Sans whined, "I don't know anyone better who can talk some sense into them."

Sans grinned at his brother, "Of course! No one is better than the Magnificent Sans!" The smaller skeleton ran ahead of his brother as they arrived in Snowdin, waving at Papyrus from behind, "I'll come find you once I've successfully captured the human!"

Papyrus smiled as he gave a lazy wave back, "Alright bro. Meet me at Muffet's. I'll treat ya to a milkshake for all your hard work today."

The taller skeleton watched as his brother took off to the thick snow ahead. Papyrus made his way to Muffet's and entered the spider themed bar. He was shocked to find the place deserted. Even Muffet herself was nowhere to be seen. "Huh, weird…" he murmured quietly as he took a seat at the bar.

Papyrus couldn't get rid of the unease he felt. The kid was weird, but what was it about them that made his bones rattle? Maybe it was because they never said a word to them. Pap blew off his unease as just paranoia. He grabbed a bottle of honey as he relaxed against the bar and started to down the condiment.

As Papyrus came to, he couldn't recall when he had fallen asleep. He lifted his head away from his folded arms. The fabric of his sleeves stuck to his teeth from stray honey that lingered on his face. Papyrus rubbed his eye sockets before he glanced at the clock above the bar.

Three hours. The skeleton blinked slowly. "That can't be right… Sans should be here by now…" he murmured to himself. He slid out of the bar stool and left Muffet's. It was then that Papyrus realized it wasn't just the bar that was deserted. There wasn't a single monster in Snowdin. Alarms went off in the back of Papyrus' mind as the skeleton ran to his home.

"Sans? Bro, you in here!?" he called as he searched the house. Panic gripped his chest tightly as his brother was nowhere to be found. Papyrus rushed out of the house and searched around frantically, "Sans!? C'mon bro, don't play with me. Where are you!?" he called as he searched around the town. There was no one. Not Sans. Nor Muffet. Nor the guards. He was alone in the small, snow covered town he called home.

Papyrus stared out at the last place he saw his brother. The fog and snow was dense in that area and he couldn't see from where he stood. "Sans?" he yelled. No answer came to him. Papyrus pulled up his hood and marched into the fog. "Sans! Bro! I'm worried sick! Just answer me, would ya! Sans!"

Papyrus squinted through the fog as he waited for an answer, "Sans! Enough playing around with the human! C'mon! It's getting late! It's time to go home!"

Finally, something caught his eye. The scarf. "Sans? What do ya think you're doing laying in the snow? You're gonna get sick if-" Papyrus froze. He was close enough now to see that his brother was not there. Just his blue scarf, a pile of dust, and a red liquid that stained the snow around them.

"Bro…" Papyrus' voice was small and hollow as he approached the mess and dropped to his knees. With a shaky hand, he picked up the scarf and held it. The baby blue was now speckled with dark stains and smeared with the grey dust that fell away as the tall skeleton moved it.

"No… Sans. This… This can't be real…" A weak chuckle escaped his non existent throat as he tilted his skull back towards the ceiling of the Underground. "Just another bad dream… Right bro? Any minute now… You're gonna wake me up and scold me for falling asleep at Muffet's again… Right bro? ...Right?"

Papyrus' voice grew weak. He knew he was awake. The reality of the situation was slowly sinking in, but Papyrus wanted to push it away. He wanted to deny it. How could anyone hurt Sans? His brother had never done anything to anyone. Sans was the most lovable, kind souled monster he knew.

Papyrus' bony hands tightened on the scarf as his body suddenly felt heavy. "Sans…? Please bro… Please wake me up… Please tell me this is a bad dream… Please..." Papyrus looked back at the scarf in his trembling hands. He brought it close to his chest as his teeth grit tightly together.

"Sans… You can't be dead Sans! Please! You're all I got! Sans! You can't leave me alone, bro! Who's gonna take care of me? Who's gonna deal with my shitty puns? Who's gonna… Gonna…" Papyrus' voice broke and he buried his face into the scarf as he began to sob. "SAAAANNNNNNNSSSSSSS!"

Papyrus sat in the snow long enough for a thin layer of cold, white snow to cover his body. He screamed and cried until his voice was gone and his tears froze to the inside of his eye sockets.

Slowly Papyrus calmed down as his sobs were reduced to mere sniffles. He pulled the scarf away from his face, taking deep breaths as he relaxed. The skeleton felt emotionally empty inside. He didn't want to live without his brother. He began to wonder if the human would come back to put him out of his misery. At that thought, his emptiness was replaced with boiling hatred.

"Kid… When I get my hands on you… You'll be sorry you ever came to the Underground…" the skeleton growled. Papyrus pulled himself to his feet and wrapped Sans' scarf around his neck. "Time to make a trip to the lab…" he murmured softly before turning back to Snowdin. The human would pay for what they did, even if it would cost him his life. After all, he had nothing else to lose.