Chapter 2

Papyrus looked after his beloved brother as he raced away. He began to think of what had made him act a little strange a few moments ago. He began to assess the things Sans had mentioned that could have provoked his episode. Puns, human-capturing, Undyne. Papyrus's eyes widened when the last of these topics crossed his mind. He wondered why the thought of Undyne made him lose his train of thought.

The tall skeleton put his hand to his chin and thought. "Something about her warms these bones but in order to truly be great, I need to put these feelings aside. I, the great Papyrus have power over my mind!" He exclaimed to himself a little too loudly, for he had caused something to draw near. He heard small footsteps. "Who has come to encounter the great Papyrus?" No one answers. More footsteps are heard, this time slightly closer. Papyrus anxiously looks around, beginning to get a twinge of fear. "Wh-wh-whooo's there?"

All of a sudden a small creature could be seena few feet away in the snow. The creature looked rather different from the creatures Papyrus usually came across underground. Papyrus looked the being up and down, his eyebrows showing his wonder. This creature looks all too foreign. Papyrus's eyes widened with shock and excitement. "Human!" The child simply looked up into his skull face without much emotion at all. "Today is your lucky day, human, for today is the day that the great Papyrus will capture you! Isn't that an honor?" The human continued to stare, eyes boring into the cranium. "Not very talkative yet I see, but nonetheless, this will get me in the royal guard for sure!" The child just looked at Papyrus like he was crazy. Papyrus wanted to provoke reaction from the child because what's the fun in capturing a human if they aren't going to be sad or put up a little resistance. "I assume you got passed my brother Sans?" The child nodded. "How could that be, he was going to look out for humans a while ago and he was to notify me if one showed up, but here you are in front of me!"

The human looked up at Papyrus and sort of smiled nervously. "Well, he actually greeted me and sent me this way. He said I'd run into his awesome brother if I came this way."

Papyrus looked at the human with pleasure. "Well, I am the great Papyrus after all so…. Wait a minute! Why are you smiling? I am going to capture you! You should be frightened! Nyeh heh heh!"

The child's grin only grew when Papyrus laughed his maniacal laugh. "The underground doesn't seem so bad, you skeletons could keep me entertained forever with the puns, costumes, and radical laughs."

Papyrus blushed, but quickly returned to his threatening. "Your feelings about this place will soon take a turn because you will be captured after being made to solve the hardest puzzles know to all creation created by none other than me!"

The child continued to smile at Papyrus. "I'm not sure you could do anything bad enough to frighten me. You may capture me, but I doubt I'll be miserable in your company, you're hilarious!"

Papyrus looked offended. "I am not hilarious, I am menacing! I can strike fear into the hearts of humans who wander down here! The Royal guard isn't in need of a jester, they need a strong knight!"

The child only continued to smile at Papyrus. "Maybe you have it in you to be frightening, but I don't feel threatened. I can sense that you want to seem hard on the outside, but really, you are soft on the inside and would never purposefully harm an innocent being. Children can tell these things in others quite easily, even though adults don't give us the credit for being perceptive. You are determined, however, so I will just allow you to put me through whatever you've got in store."

Papyrus's jaw dropped at the child's speech. How could the child be so young and new to this place but already know my heart? He is very intuitive. I think this kid just solved the puzzle to behavior and the mind. He seems like my kind of peoples. "I'll have you know, human, that the great Papyrus isn't as soft-hearted as what you may think, but you have impressed me with your inference based on little observation. I think having you as a captive will be pretty fun after all, even I you won't give me the satisfaction of feeling big and bad."

The child flung his arms in the air in excitement and did a little happy dance. He stopped and retained a toothy smile, with hopeful eyes on Papyrus. "So does that mean we're friends?"

Papyrus, once again, froze and lost his train of thought. Friends rang through his mind. Popularity is what he strived for and it seemed logical that the road to popularity involved the accumulation of one friend at a time, why not make this kid the first? He seems pretty cool too, Sans and I could consider him a brother and teach him the ways of the underground and I could make him a costume and cook spaghetti for him and talk puzzles and logic with him and…. Papyrus regained awareness of the child and smiled, "I guess we could consider each other friends in a captor-captive sort of relationship. Nyeh heh heh!"

The child began to jump excitedly, startling Papyrus. "Yay! So what can we do first, friend?"