A/N: I bet nobody knows who Blue tried dating. Wait, everyone does? Oh...

Sans was walking down the already dark streets, not really paying attention to his surroundings, his mind preoccupied with different thoughts about the upcoming night. He was starting to regret just accepting an unknown person's request for hanging out. That monster seemed weird. They didn't introduce themselves and didn't even ask him anything. And what was that 'just you being there is enough'? He thought that usually the people he would go out with would expect to see him...in certain ways. But here he was with his casual clothes – a collar which he never took off, a black jacket over his red sweater and — his train of thoughts was crashed by someone suddenly pulling him back, putting a hand over his mouth and grabbing his hands. He couldn't see the one who attacked him but he assumed he's pretty tall after his back was pressed against the other. He tried to keep calm, he knew that panic would get him to nowhere, probably just worsen the situation. He started pulling away at moments which seemed right but nothing helped.

"stop resisting and shut up." The ambusher muttered quietly. That voice was strangely familiar but he couldn't really figure out who it belonged to. He didn't know many monsters and humans up on the surface.

Sans' first thought was to listen and give up, but then an idea hit him. Why listen to the other one when he can bite them very hard? People might be staring at his sharp teeth every time he goes out, but having them wasn't really that bad. He growled and sunk his teeth into the other's...phalanges? Was he a skeleton too? What the…

"AGH! what the hell sans!?" He heard them yell. How did they know his name? Trying to calm his breathing down, he adjusted his jacket while yelling back.

"'what the hell sans'? 'what the hell SANS'? no, what the hell YOU! why the fuck did — papyrus!?" He gasped as he turned around and saw a tall skeleton looming over him with the almost same appearance as his boss.

"s-sans..?" Papyrus stuttered hesitantly. No. That wasn't Papyrus. Not his Papyrus at least. Sans gulped as he took a step back. "wait! i uh...you...well..." Papyrus tried to form a sentence but he was too confused to do it.

"yeah, me, sans. sans the skeleton. though you didn't seem to be expecting this sans."

"huh? what do you..." the taller was about to ask what he meant but took his time to observe the other. He noticed the sharper teeth with a golden one on the upper row, the crack on his skull looking more real than the one on the picture and the expression of someone who's seen a lot of shit in his lifetime. Definitely not his Sans. He felt so stupid. "oh...you are not my sans..."

"tch, you better explain yourself, punk. we might be in public but that wouldn't stop me from kicking your ass."

"no, wait, you got me wrong, i have no bone to pick with ya, buddy. i just thought that you were my little bro and shit happened."

"woah, wait, why would you do this to your own brother?" Sans might have been used to abuse and all that stuff but he thought that this universe was nicer than his. Good thing that he had changed because if he was his old self, he would've gotten a panic attack. But he had learnt how to control his emotions better and now he would usually only sweat if things got a little bit too rough.

"look, it's not what you think, i think i have a pretty good reason to do this."

"huh, and what would that be?" the shorter skeleton folded his arms. For a moment, Sans himself wasn't sure why he cared, but then again, this could've happened to this universe's Sans so he felt like he had to make sure to avoid anything bad happening to him. After not receiving an answer, he looked at the other's face again and noticed him staring in a certain way. He was hesitating if he should tell him the truth. He knew that look, his own brother had it. "ya know, ya kinda owe me, so we better sit down and you can start spilling what you had in mind."

Papyrus wanted to protest but he sighed in defeat and walked over to the nearest bench, Sans following him and they both sat down.

"ugh, where do I start. you see, my bro has used this dating site thing before and i really regret letting him. seems like not everyone here is as kind as i expected. i wanted to make sure that everything was going fine, so i followed him and decided to stay a little and then i would've left them alone. but-"

"waaait, you stalked your little brother? that's creepy man."

"but," Papyrus tried to ignore the other because yes, yes, he knew that. "that weirdo tried to uh...touch my bro on their first date, literally moments after they met. i don't think that he was supposed to do that. and for the record, my brother is completely innocent, i don't want some random freak to corrupt him. so i had to step in."

"hm, you know, you can't keep him pure forever. i'm not saying that what you did was wrong but c'mon, if he's your little bro, that means he's as old as mine is. and that is not a little. heh, how did ya even manage that...whatever, i'm not going to be teaching ya how to live your life. so, what does this have to do with the thing you did a few minutes ago?"

"i know that but...if you see his smile, you'd do the same. and, well, he had promised me that he'd never use this site again and when i saw your picture i thought it was him. i got really mad and decided to give him a lesson."

"by fake-kidnapping him? that's pretty cruel, don't ya think?"

"yes, yes, i know...but what if it wasn't me and someone really hurt him...or even worse? he's my world, one of the little things that kept me going when the resets still - oh wait, d-do you..." Papyrus trailed off, knowing that he fucked up right at that moment.

"y-yeah, continue." Sans said after a brief pause, looking away.

"oh. uh, where was i...oh yeah. i can't afford to lose him. though in the end, i'm happy that it wasn't him who came here this evening. i didn't really think much about it, but i just realized that he would've been really upset if i did what i did to you to him. by the way, i'm really sorry about that. heh, kinda late but..." Papyrus smiled awkwardly.

"nah, i'm used to stuff like that." Sans said casually, receiving a weird stare from the other. "actually, my bro had a problem with a dating site too."

"oh?"

"yeah, he was really excited after we arrived here. he wanted to have another person to rely on, but we didn't know anyone up on the surface, so he used that site. but some weird jerk ruined everything, while he was just trying to be nice to his date. i had expected to see him mad when he came back home but he was just sad and confused about what he did wrong. that really broke my heart, haven't seen him so down since he was a whiny babybones. i was even surprised that he didn't jump on that person. he has changed a lot now that i think about it. back in my universe, it was literally kill or be killed. he was the head of the royal guard and had an image to keep so he was pretty rough and even abusive sometimes."

"so that's what you meant by 'being used to it'." Papyrus frowned.

"i-i guess." Sans subconsciously ran his phalanges over the crack on his skull when Papyrus gave him a judging look. "but as i said, he has changed, he was being mean only to keep us and our home safe. now we are on the surface and he acts more...acceptably... he even says some nice things from time to time. i know what you are thinking, that should be normal. but it's pretty hard from where we came from and it takes time to get used to it. though over these past months, he's made a big progress. i'm really proud of him, i honestly thought that he'd even want to go back to underfell. it makes me sad that he's still pretty tense around me. i should be the closest person to him but my guess is that he thinks that he might fall in my eyes. and that'd never happen."

"it's called underfell, huh? how did you get here in the first place?"

"well, i was working on a machine that was in the basement at the back of our house. bo-ugh, my p-papyrus eventually found out about it after seeing me sneak inside late at night. so he forced me to tell him about it and actually supported the idea of getting out of that hell hole. after some work, for which he even helped me, we got here and we liked it, so we stayed." Sans finished and smiled, probably not realizing it. But Papyrus noticed. It was nice to see that from a grumpy skeleton like the other was. Though he supposed that he looked like that when he talked about his own brother, too.

Silence fell over them. It wasn't uncomfortable but it made Papyrus feel weird. He spilled so much information to a person he knew for some minutes. Though, he always talked about how cool his brother was with his close friends to the point it got annoying, so it was probably normal. And the other seemed to be just as fond of his brother as he was so it was okay. Then he remembered the original reason both were here and suddenly felt bad for giving the other false hope that he might get himself a date. He couldn't see the other as the romantic type, but he had to apologize anyway.

"hey, uh, sorry about the date thing by the way. i guess that you didn't expect someone like me, heh." the taller skeleton laughed awkwardly.

"eh, i wasn't expecting anything really, i was actually gonna give up on the night halfway through the walk." Sans shrugged. "i was kinda too lazy to walk so much. and on top of that, i haven't been sleeping so well lately ."

"nightmares?" Papyrus asked without realizing that it was none of his business.

Sans averted his gaze, furrowing his brows and after thinking about it a little, he nodded.

"we have more in common than i expected. if it makes you feel better though, as long as you are here, no resets are going to occur. haven't in years. i had a talk with the kid and they made a promise. i'm not even sure if they can still do anything."

"oh..."

Another moment of silence, this time an awkward one. Papyrus leaned back on the bench and put his hands behind his skull, resting it on them and staring at the sky. Which made him realize how late it was. It was already getting dark and the stars were more visible. That gave him an idea.

"if you really are something like me, you might appreciate the sight above." he tried to take the other's attention somewhere else than where it was right now, which was probably bad stuff that happened in the past. And he succeeded. Sans looked up and his eye sockets visibly widened. Yes, that should've worked.

"no matter how much i look at the real thing, it never gets less exciting." the shorter skeleton admitted.

"same with me, and i've been around for much longer."

"thanks." Sans muttered after a while.

That took Papyrus by surprise. "what are you talking about?"

"w-well i dunno, listening to me 'n stuff. usually people find it annoying when i talk too much about my bro. but you listened. maybe because it was for the first time but still. and as much as i liked our little talk, it's getting pretty late. i should, ya know, go home. don't wanna worry paps."

"oh yeah, of course. uh, could i get your number, maybe? if you don't mind."

Now it was Sans' turn to feel surprised. He didn't expect that. "sure, if i get to get yo—wait a second." He grinned. "you already have it. was that with some kind of purpose?"

"damn, saw right through me. but I wouldn't mind giving you mine." Papyrus said, acting like he didn't even plan this. He still didn't know why this Sans never reacted to any of his puns though. He neither got mad, nor laughed at them. He'd probably learn soon about that. "text me anytime, just don't expect an immediate answer. i'll probably be sleeping or napping."

"yeah, same here."

After they exchanged phone numbers, they stood up. It was time to part.

"see ya, red." uh-oh, that was a slip of the tongue.

That made Sans stop in his tracks and look at the other. "'red' huh? sure, bye, stretch." He grinned and turned around to continue on his own way after waving at the tallek skeleton.
Papyrus felt as if his steps were lighter than usual while he was walking home.

A/N: This chapter was kinda boring, I know, but it's one of those chapters I just can't skip. If anyone is wondering how Paps has Red's number, remember that he was the one who texted him? And Red probably deleted these messages in case his Boss checks his phone.

Next chapter is going to be delayed because I have things to draw and I'll probably be busy the whole day.