Chapter 9: It's All In the Compliments
With a sigh, Sans tilted himself back in his chair behind one of the many sentry stations that he had responsibility for. This one was in Snowdin. His jobs were so hard to keep up with. Sitting and watching passersby could get pretty tough. One of them might actually look at him, after all, and then he'd have to shoot a smile their way. Yeah, it was a pret-ty difficult job because of all the effort necessary to man the station. But the skelebro also had other things on his mind: Once he had gotten home a few nights ago, he finally remembered what he wanted to talk about with the human.
Her brother. The one Ebony mentioned a couple times before rushing from the house. Sans had missed the actual opportunity to bring the topic up when and where he had planned on, but wasn't sure whether it would be weird to ask after the whole kiss-on-the-cheekbone thing. Sans' hands flew up to his head and he scratched his head in mild frustration. Why was this whole thing bothering him, anyway? He had just threatened her the other day, and he could have cared less about the human's situation back then. It was probably the kiss; it had to be. It's not like he got affection like that every day, so it just threw him off.
But then again, why did he even seek out a river to clean the scarf and then look for Ebony to begin with? Sans had gotten so flustered and ended up telling the girl that Woshua cleaned it up for her instead. He was doing things that didn't even make sense to himself.
"SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"Whoa-" The familiar voice had piped in so abruptly that Sans jumped in his seat and fell backward, the thick snow cushioning his skull. He glimpsed up and smiled as he caught sight of his little brother, who had gloved hands on bony hips. "Hey, Paps. What's up?"
"WHY WERE YOU MASSAGING YOUR HEAD? DO YOU HAVE A HEADACHE?" Papyrus towered over his older brother and blinked. He stood Sans back up with ease and picked up the chair. "I HAVE THE PERFECT CURE FOR HEADACHES LIKE THAT!"
"Can I go a-head and guess what the cure is?" Wow. That wasn't even the best pun he could have made. Sans cursed his distracted mind.
Missing the pun this time around, Paps folded his arms and looked skeptical, replying, "GO ON, I SUPPOSE YOU CAN. YOU WON'T EVER GUESS CORRECTLY, THOUGH! IT'S A TRICKY ONE."
"Oh geez, it's probably gonna be way off the mark, but... Is the answer 'spaghetti'?"
Papyrus gasped delightedly and took a step forward. "HOW DID YOU KNOW?! YES, BROTHER; SPAGHETTI IS THE CURE TO EVERYTHING!"
Sans shrugged and smiled. "It was just a shot in the dark. You always know what's best, Paps."
The younger skelebro recovered quickly and coughed into his glove, a big grin plastered onto his face at the compliment. "WELL YES, THE GREAT PAPYRUS KNOWS ALL! ANYONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW THAT I KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOWING ALL IS JUST A BIG BONEHEAD!"
"Good one, bro." Sans had heard that pun many times already, and even used it himself often, but he looked extremely impressed for his little brother's sake. The two brothers were always pretty good about each other's feelings, especially where it counted most. Like this obscene pride in spaghetti that Papyrus had. It was the only thing the monster could make decently thanks to Undyne, so he prided himself in its brilliant creation quite often.
"I KNOW. THANK YOU!" Papyrus looked pretty pleased with himself for being clever again. If he had a tail, he'd most assuredly be wagging it with happiness at that exact moment.
Sans lazily stood by Papyrus, allowing a lull in the conversation for some unspeakable reason. It was one of those weird 'comfortable silence' moments. Then, finally:
"So, uh, Paps. Water you dew-ing here?"
Papyrus understood the pun this time and he scrunched up his face, looking entirely comical. "SANS, WHY ARE YOU SO INSISTENT WITH YOUR PUNS BUT YOUR PUZZLES LACK THAT CLASSIC EFFORT TO BE JUST AS FABULOUS AND WELL THOUGHT-OUT?!"
'Fabulous.' The lanky skeleton must have gotten that from Metta. Sans suppressed a grimace and his gaze wandered aimlessly to the side. Well, he did call his older brother's puns fabulous as well, if that were the case. His puns weren't exactly 'well' thought-out; they really always spewed from his mouth like nothing, even though there were some times he could get highly distracted and forget about the good puns. It was just... the idea of Mettaton's habits rubbing onto Paps that made Sans' skin crawl.
Figuratively speaking, anyway. "Meh. That's 'cause your puzzles are genius, Pap. I think my puzzling skills are a little washed up compared to yours."
The soon-to-be Royal Guard preened himself on having been complimented not once, but twice. He was, after all, a darned good master at puzzles. Eventually, he snapped out of it and remembered what it was he meant to bring up to his elder brother. "OH! RIGHT - THE COMPLIMENTS ARE WONDERFUL, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I CAME FOR! I CAME TO ASK WHETHER YOU WERE ABLE TO FIND THE HUMAN. THE ER, OTHER HUMAN. NOT FRISK. THE... GIRL-ONE. WAS SHE WITH UNDYNE?"
"Oh. Uh." Sans' face blanked out only for a moment, as he was caught unawares by the inquiry. And, ohh, there went his damned thoughts again as his brain flicked to the memory of Ebony hugging him and kissing his cheek. "Yeah, she was. I uh, had to give her something the other day."
"AH! YOU STILL NEED TO GIVE IT TO HER? SANS, YOU LAZYBONES! WE NEED TO GET IT TO HER RIGHT THIS INSTANT! YOU DON'T MAKE A LADY WAIT!" And with that, Papyrus hoisted Sans up onto his skinny shoulderbones without a second thought and made way for Waterfall. In the meantime, he dialed up Undyne and had a chat about the cooking lesson that was to be done today. Paps apparently had a new recipe to try, thanks to Mettaton.
Thought after thought after thought flooded Sans' mind as he was practically forced to come along for the ride to see the human. He didn't finish his sentence, but he had already given the scarf to Ebony... Now what was he going to say when seeing her? Sans propped his bony elbows against Papyrus' head. Paps paid no mind to the movement as he chattered away on the phone, all the while jogging steadily to Undyne's fishy house.
Sans was too lazy to fight back and protest, and besides, he didn't want to fight his own brother just to get away from seeing the green eyed human, anyway. It was way too much effort. Looked like he was going to be in for a long ride. His job could wait.
A/N:
I swear, when I listen to "It's Raining Somewhere Else," I'm only ever typing it during a serious feels part or when I'm typing stuff regarding Grillby's bar/restaurant. It's extremely relaxing to listen to.
And then I listen to "All American Bad-Ass" from LISA the Joyful, and it's just one of those super gnarly songs that I secretly connect to Sans, if he were to come strolling up all bad-ass-like with a shit ton of Gaster Blasters following suit. I actually really LOVE that now (gotta be careful how I give out some "LOOOOOVE," hehe), and might try to draw that sometime. xD
OKAY, enough with me being super nerdy... I have work yet again tomorrow, and I worked today from 5am until 10pm... One job after the other... So I am freaking tired! Enjoy your nights (or mornings; wherever you're at!) and take care! Thank you for the amusing reviews, everyone. It makes my day to see a nice review, because I know it takes time out of your own life to leave me that review. I will never turn down a word of support while I'm writing this as-I-go story! :D
Until the next chapter, loves. :)
- LostInnocenz
P.S.: I really wanted to write this short interaction with Sans and Paps because I think they're adorable, and ARE SKELETONS ALLOWED TO BE ADORABLE WTF-
