Warning: Yelling, rudeness, almost accidental injuries, brothers fighting, barely controlled anger, and a nervous breakdown.
An Undesirable Situation
Sweat had started pouring down Sans' skull as both of the Frisks stared at him, each with their own brand of Determination in their eyes. His left eye began to flash red and orange interchangeably as he became increasingly more nervous.
What's wrong, and how can I help? Frisk communicated as she softly moved closer to them, still leaving enough breathing room between her and Sans when she sat on the ground.
"i-i said that there's nothing wrong!" He yelled as an orange-red bone materialized and flew straight at Frisk. Her SOUL materialized as she dodged out of the way.
"HUMAN! GOTHIC! SANS! I'M BAC..." Papyrus was stunned into silence when the bone flew past, only inches from his face, and buried itself into the front door.
He looked over at Sans, bright orange tears gathering at the edges of his eye sockets. The younger Frisk's hands flew to cover her mouth as her expression switched from concern to absolute surprise. Franklin looked up from his hunched over position and his eyes widened at what he realized had almost happened and he gritted his teeth. Sans looked up at what he thought to be his brother and his eyes widened in horror, his left hand flying to his chest, over where his SOUL was hammering in his chest. Frisk began chewing on her lip as she sat against the couch, still recovering from dodging Sans' fast attack.
"SANS... YOUR EYE... WHAT'S WRONG?" Papyrus asked, the glowing orange tears escaping down the sides of his skull.
"b-bro... y-you've n-n-never c-cried b-b-before..." Sans stuttered out, his eye sockets filling with his share of reddish-orange tears as his left eye faded back to the usual white. Papyrus frowned at this and took a step towards him. Sans started to scuffle quickly backwards, genuine fear flashing across his face. The goofy Skeleton ceased approaching and tears began freely falling from his eye sockets.
"SANS... What's the matter? Why are you... so... scared of me?" He sobbed quietly.
At that moment, alpha Sans rushed in, tossing the greasy bag of food from Grillby's onto the table next to his pet rock, and immediately walked past his brother, angrily grabbing the darker Skeleton, pulling him to his feet.
"sansly, what did you do?" He asked, barely controlled anger finding its way into his voice as his left eye cast blue light across the Skeleton's face. The cartoon villain version of himself shrank as far into his black jacket as he could, being help up by the front of his red shirt made shrinking nearly impossible. Reddish orange tears began to fall freely from his eye sockets.
"i-i d-d-didn't d-do anythin'. i-i-i just sc-scared him by a-a-accident. i-i didn't realize he wa-wasn't my p-paps un-until he st-started cry-cryin'..." He sobbed, his hands wringing the pockets of his jacket.
Sans dropped him with a sigh of relief, his left eye fading back to white as the front door slowly closed, not being held open anymore by the red-orange bone. The darker Skeleton shuddered when he hit the ground, scuffling backwards until he was sitting against the wall. Papyrus eyes were wide as he looked from one Sans to the other.
"SANS, WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY ARE THERE TWO OF YOU? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NEED AN EXPLANATION!" He said, stomping his foot.
Frisk got up from the floor near the couch and took Papyrus' hand, tugging him towards the couch, communicating that he should probably sit down for this. Papyrus let her lead him to the couch and they both sat down on it.
"THANK YOU HUMAN." He said, before crossing his arms and staring at both Sans'. "NOW, EXPLAIN YOURSELVES."
"uh..." Sans said as his eyes looked anywhere but his brother's skull, trying to come up with a convincing lie. He knew that he probably wasn't going to get out of this one, no matter how good of a lie he came up with. The other one only looked at the floor, clearly not up to talking at all. The younger Frisk crossed her arms and frowned at the two.
"You two are absolutely terrible. He deserves to know what's going on." She said. Papyrus' eyes bugged out when he noticed the other human.
"HUMAN, DID YOU CLONE YOURSELF? AND SOMEHOW BECOME YOUNGER?" He whispered almost quietly to Frisk on the couch.
"AS DO I." Said a gravelly voice as the front door quietly closed itself.
Darker Sans looked up from his position on the floor and his voice cracked as he stuttered, "p-p-p-papyrus! yo-you're a-alive." He began sweating profusely, a glimmer of fear flashing through across his face before he grinned widely.
Sans turned to appraise the newest tall Skeleton in the room. As his eyes landed on the shattered eye socket, he shuddered in sympathetic pain. This Papyrus also had the same, sharp, cartoon villain look of his doppelganger, who was currently sweating up a storm behind him.
"SO? WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE? BROTHER, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REPORT TO ME HOURS AGO! I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, DO NOT ENJOY BEING KEPT WAITING!" He shouted, angrily stomping his red boot and gritting his sharp teeth into the meanest look the Skeleton could muster. Sans flinched and then growled, his left eye beginning to glow an angry red.
"it's always about destroying the human to you, isn't it. You Don't Even Care, Do You?" He shouted, the T.V., surrounded in red magic, began to float off of the ground a couple of feet.
Alpha timeline Papyrus leaned forward and was reaching for his Sans, trying to pull him from in between the two shouting brothers. His arm was not quite long enough to grab and pull his brother out of harms way. His eye sockets grew wide and scared, as he began to shake with fright. Frisk was biting her fingernails, unable to help in any way. Her younger double was wringing her hands, frantically looking between both of them, before looking to the little yellow flower for help. Flowey looked away from her eyes, trembling in his boot. Sans looked from one angry Skeleton to the other, panicking and frozen in one place.
Franklin stepped up next to Sans and gently pushed him into Papyrus' reaching hands, who quickly pulled the small Skeleton into a hug. Sans, breathing quickly, leaned into his tall brother, hugging him back. Then the medium sized Skeleton raised his hands, light purple magic swirling around them and lighting up his eyes.
"That is enough. There is no point for you two to fight, and besides, you are scaring your hosts." He said as chains of light purple magic encircled each of them, cutting off their magic and causing the T.V. to crash to the floor with a loud glass shattering noise.
Darker Papyrus glared at Franklin, clearly annoyed, the magic casting dark shadows on his face. His brother, on the other hand, broke down as soon as the light purple chains touched him. He began sobbing softly as he curled up into a ball, his hands clutching the sides of his skull.
"fr-franklin, i-i'm so s-s-sorry. i-i-i k-k-killed you, and i-i'm s-s-sorry." He repeated quietly, over and over again.
Papyrus tightened his hold on his own brother, still trembling a little bit.
"hey, paps, it's going to be okay. i'm fine, i'm still here." Sans said, rubbing his brother's back as small, electric blue tears escaped from his own eye sockets.
Cartoon villain Papyrus was taken aback by his Sans' reaction. A look of extreme surprise was plastered across his face. THIS SKELETON... THIS IS THE ONE I HAD BEEN ENVIOUS OF ALL THOSE YEARS AGO? THE ONE SANS HAD CALLED HIS ONLY FRIEND. He thought, his eye sockets widening.
"I... I DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD TO GO... THROUGH THAT..." He said sadly, his eyes fixed on his sobbing brother.
The younger human was attempting to reach out to Sans through the light purple chains, to comfort him. Reddish-orange tears fell freely down Sans' skull as he didn't move, only whimpering coming from him now as he relived the bad memories that he had.
"Finally... I'm glad we could all come to some sort of understanding without further fighting." Franklin said, sounding tired as he lowered his arms, slumping to the floor. The light purple magic slowly faded away, both from his eyes and the two darker Skeletons.
Cartoon villain Papyrus held up his hand like he had something to say, but his mouth only opened and closed, nothing actually coming out. His brother was still on the ground curled up into a ball, but the younger girl had her arms around him, pressing her cheek against his skull, and making comforting noises. A small voice spoke up from the side of the couch.
"Uh... I know you guys want to make up and all, but this isn't the time for it. We still have a really big... problem on our hands."
Finally comforted, Papyrus placed Sans down on the floor in front of him to lean over and see where the voice had come from.
Upon seeing the flower, he grinned kindly down at him, saying, "FLOWER FRIEND! I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE! YOU SEEM PALER THAN USUAL." Flowey smiled back shyly.
"This is... how I normally look. I am from a different Universe from the... 'Flower Friend' you know." The yellow flower said, wiggling his boot towards Franklin so that everyone could see him. Papyrus blinked slowly, processing what the little flower had just said.
Papyrus began organizing his thoughts allowed to the little flower, "SO... YOU, RUDE ME,"
At this the other Papyrus sneered and replied, "THAT WAS FAR RUDER THAN I HAVE BEEN IN THE PAST FEW MINUTES, IMPOSTOR."
Papyrus ignored him and continued, "THE OTHER SANS, AND THE HUMAN'S CLONE ARE ALL FROM ANOTHER UNDERGROUND... THAT'S SIMILAR, BUT DIFFERENT?"
"Yes, that's it, exactly." The yellow flower said, a genuinely kind smile appearing on his face briefly.
"it doesn't exist anymore. th-that demon... it's... g-g-gone, probably f-forever. g-good r-riddance, i'd say." Sans said from the side of the room, seeming to have mostly recovered from his episode with the help of younger Frisk. He was leaning up against the wall, his legs out in front of him, and he was holding her hand tightly. He looked over at his twin brother to gauge his reaction.
"GONE... SO... EVERYONE IS GONE... EVEN ALPHYS?" The tall, dark Skeleton sounded as if his whole world had just been ripped out from underneath of him.
Sans felt sorry for him. i wonder what losing everyone but your brother must feel like... maybe i should try to take his mind off of it... he may not be my paps, but... it still hurts to see him so sad. He thought, looking over at the other Papyrus.
"hey, darth pap, if you keep looking like that, i will be forced to tell you one of my humerus jokes." Sans said, grinning from ear to ear. Simultaneously, both of the Papyrus' groaned and pinched their bone ridges. Both Frisks giggled, Franklin started chuckling heartily from his position on the floor, yellow Flowey smiled, and his double seemed to chuckle nervously.
"Sans, where is the food you got from Grillby's? I'm hungry." The younger human asked as her stomach grumbled.
"oh, sorry kiddo. completely forgot." He went to the table, picked up the greasy bag, and began passing out food. "here you go, frank." Sans said as he handed Franklin a hot dog. Both Papyrus' groaned louder from the combo visual pun. Franklin only smiled gratefully and sat up, tearing into it like it was the first thing he had eaten in years. Sans passed out the burgers to both Frisks and tossed a large jar of mustard at his doppelganger.
"i mustard that up for ya. you're lucky grillbz even had any." Sans said as he plopped down on the couch between his brother and Frisk before uncorking a bottle of ketchup and practically drinking it down.
"thanks..." Mumbled the cartoon villain as he unscrewed the lid and began to lick out the mustard with his red-orange tongue. Darker Papyrus' skull wrinkled with horrified disgust.
"BROTHER! USING YOUR TONGUE TO LICK OUT MUSTARD IS INAPPROPRIATE! USE A SPOON AT LEAST!" He said, stomping his scary red boot down onto the carpet. Sans stopped licking the mustard only long enough to display his long tongue to his brother before going back to slurping it up. Younger Frisk giggled between bites of her burger. Cartoon villain Papyrus just threw up his hands in frustration.
"UGH I CAN'T DEAL WITH THESE CONDITIONS!" He shouted before point at Papyrus, who had been frowning at the display, looking as if he was about to say something about it. "OTHER ME! DO YOU HAVE STORES OF PROPER FOOD AROUND HERE?"
In reply, Papyrus got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, standing in the doorway. "I CAN ONLY BE A GOOD HOST IF THE GUEST CAN MANAGE TO BE POLITE." He said, looking expectantly at his doppelganger. Suddenly, everyone's eyes in the room were on Darker Papyrus. He started sweating nervously from the pressure, the sweat getting into his shattered right eye socket, stinging his eye and forcing him to close it.
"CAN I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME NOODLES... please?" He coughed quite a bit afterwards, as if even saying the word quietly hurt. Papyrus, however, was pleased.
"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO RETRIEVE SOME OF MY GREAT CULINARY MASTERPIECES FOR YOU. I AM THE GREATEST HOST AFTER ALL!" He said, triumphantly turning around and preparing two plates of leftover spaghetti. Everyone went back to eating, Sans playing with his nearly empty ketchup bottle, trying to get the last remains of ketchup from it.
Frisk stole a look at the Papyrus who was still in the room over the top of her burger. Despite how scary he looked, with all of the sharp teeth, black and red clothing, and his broken right eye socket, it was still Papyrus. He looked mutely happy, waiting for his other self to finish preparing food for him. I feel so sorry for him. He has no idea what he is in for. She thought, remembering the last time she had Papyrus' cooking. Trying not to shudder, she took another bite out of her burger. Once Papyrus had finished, he came out of the kitchen with two steaming plates of spaghetti.
He handed one to his double and said, "BONE APPETIT." Before a horrified expression came over his face as he realized that he had just made a pun. The cartoon villain only glowered darkly and wordlessly accepted the plate. Papyrus went to sit down on the couch to be greeted by his older brother's infamous grin. "FORGET IT!" He shouted, twirling his fork to gather some of the food.
The rest of the room chuckled before going back to eating. Dark Papyrus looked down at his steaming plate of spaghetti and sighed, delicately twirling his fork to gather some of his food. Placing his fork into his mouth, he used his sharp teeth to scrape the food off the fork. As soon as it dissolved to nothing in his mouth, the strangest look came over his face. Cartoon villain Sans looked up at his brother and his tongue slowly retracted from the nearly clean jar of mustard.
"papyrus... a-a-are you a-alright?" He said, confused. His brother only closed both of his eyes and hummed as two dark blue tears squeezed out of his closed eye sockets and rolled down the sides of his skull.
"OTHER ME... HOW IS YOUR SPAGHETTI?" Papyrus asked before shoveling a forkful of his own into his mouth. After a couple of minutes the darker Skeleton found his voice to reply.
"IT'S... INDESCRIBABLE. NOT AS GOOD AS STUFFED SHELLS... BUT..." He trailed off as he started happily scarfing down the food on his plate. Frisk stared at the Skeleton in wonder at how he could find Papyrus' cooking to be that good. Papyrus grinned happily at his other self.
"I, THE GREATEST HOST, AM GLAD YOU ENJOY MY COOKING!" He replied, returning to eating.
"i bet you could say that he was... beside himself over the taste." Sans said, grinning even wider.
"BROTHER NO!" Papyrus shouted, grinning despite himself. Having finished his hot dog, Franklin laughed heartily at their antics.
Sans watched his twin, the nearly licked clean forgotten mustard jar still held close to his mouth, with surprise and awe. i-i-i haven't seen a genuine smile like that on his face since before Undyne died.
~Chapter End~
Author's Notes: Hey guys, I know it's been a while, but Finals week actually made me sick, so I've been recovering. Here's the new chapter, I hope you guys like it. By the way, UF!Papyrus doesn't usually make spaghetti, but the chapter where he made spaghetti was a day where they both were low on money and spaghetti is cheap, especially if you buy store brand ;). Anyways, look forward to the next chapter being released sometime next week. Pretty soon another AU's characters are going to be dumped into the Alpha timeline, so if you want to see an AU that isn't mentioned below, send me a message and I will consider it.
Undertale AUs to make an appearance: Switchtale, Underswap, Outertale, Gaster!Sans, Fusion, a mention of Reapertale