Ch. 10 Summary – For all Paps greatness, sometimes even the great could be flawed. Or, where paps convinces Sans to try blind dating and meets Red, his soulmate. The only problem? Red is a criminal.

WARNINGS: Swearing, gang activities, kidnapping, mentions of human trafficking, and mentions of violence.

Ch. 10 – Forever Alone Together

"Paps, my bro. I love you but this is gettin' outta hand."

His brother screeched from the kitchen and the second oven glove sailed through the doorway. "It will work, brother! I just know it!"

Sans lifted his head from the couch cushions and whined. "But I don' wanna be mitten with anyone! I like being single."

"Sans." Paps scolded and stormed into the living room. "Don't you know every single glove has a mate? Nyeh heh heh!"

While Paps grinned and plucked the gloves from the floor, Sans tried to scowl despite the pride at his brother's joke. "Alright, good one, I'll give you that. But! Consider this: I don't want a partner."

Paps straightened, gloves secure on his hands. "But brother! Soulmates are an age-old tradition! Not to mention when you finally meet the other that horrible language will fade from your radius!"

He snorted and rolled onto his side. He tugged the left hoodie sleeve up to stare at the words. Who the fuck are you?

"You wound me, Paps. It's almost like you only want me to meet them so the swear will go away."

"It would not be true if I denied it!" Paps agreed and returned to the kitchen. "But once you meet your vulgar-speaking other, you do not have to stay with them!"

"Aw," he pushed himself to slouch against the armrest. "So what's the plan for tonight?"

"Well!" The smell of oatmeal wafted his way as he oozed to the floor. Huh. Not burnt. "Do not tell Undyne but I have been receiving cooking lessons from a skeleton who looks just like me! His name is Edge and–"

"Whoa, wait, what?" Sans snapped upright. "A lookalike? Where did he come from?"

"Oh! From Fell City! He recently moved to Tale."

Sans shuffled to the kitchen and leaned against the doorway. "Uh, bro? Don't know if you've heard but Fell folks are…not the best monsters around."

"And that is why he and his brother moved here!" His bro agreed and presented two bowls of breakfast with a flourish. "I have not met his brother but Edge is…hmm, unique! I thought it best you meet Red and show him around while Mettaton, Edge, and I visit the theater!"

He stifled a groan and sat at the table. "But Paps, are you sure it's safe to–"

"Perfectly so!" Paps sat and dug into his own bowl. "Nothing will go wrong!"

Sans sighed, "alright, bro," and took a bite. He lit up. "Hey, this is great!"

"But of course!"

And so the day continued. Though Sans tried to stall and distract Paps from the oncoming time to meet with the Fell brothers, Paps steadfastly remembered and happily dragged him out of the house. He sagged under Paps arm and let the other dump him outside a cafe in the downtown district while he ran off to meet with the others.

Sans fully intended to leave when he heard muffled shouting. Curious despite himself, he wandered to the source and peered into the dead-end alleyway. A group of monsters fought against an equal amount of other monsters with fists and weapons. Cowering in a corner was a bound and gagged human child.

Oh, great. A gang fight that was probably just a turf war. With a human caught in the middle. A human child. Cursing to himself and hating every last promise he ever made, he retreated and pulled out his phone to call the police. Once he let them know the situation, he snapped his fingers and shortcutted to the child's side.

The monsters were too caught up in their fighting to notice as he grabbed the kid and teleported away. He reappeared outside the café, startling humans and monster alike, and ignored the frightened stares as he set to untying the kiddo.

"Alright, kid." He fumbled with the (gross, filthy sock) gag. "Mind telling me where your folks are so we can get you home?"

The girl spat out another sock. Gross. "…thank you, mister monster."

"Right, sure, yeah." He tugged on the rope around her wrists. Damn was it tight. And where the hell were the police? They should've shown up by now. "So where's home?"

"Um…" her voice crackled. Ugh, she probably needed water. "Waterup Town."

He gapped. "Wateru–"

Oh hell no. That was in Fell City! What was a kid doing so far from home? A sinking suspicion settled in his soul. A kid who was clearly kidnapped by a gang and found in the downtown area of Tale City. Wasn't there rumors Fell City had begun human trafficking? And that the slimeball gangs in Tale City were beginning to pick up on the horrid exchange?

And the police still weren't here yet. Another suspicion weighed on him. Rumors also said the downtown police were slowly becoming more and more corrupt. If he handed the child to them, the bribed officials might just return the poor thing to the gang that kidnapped them. Damnit. Stupid conscience.

"Alright, listen kiddo." He sighed as the ropes wouldn't budge and visibly cut into the kid's skin. "I'm gonna take you my home and get you cleaned up. Then we'll figure out how to get you home, okay?"

She shuddered but quietly nodded until she abruptly froze, eyes wide. Confused, he followed her gaze to meet an angry-eyed lookalike of himself. He blinked as the other, slightly taller skeleton bared a golden fang and barked.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The words on his bone burned. He managed a confused. "Uh…"

The other drew back as if burned himself, left eye twitching. "…who's the brat?"

Sans shut down the urge to check his radius bone and instead focused on the kid. "Huh? Oh, just some…whoa, kid, are you okay?"

Trembling with pale skin, the girl stared at Red as if he had just killed her favorite pet right in front of her. Nope. The kid was definitely not okay.

"Uh, heh. Not okay, then…" he turned around and blinked as a crew of vaguely familiar monsters gathered around him. The monsters from the alley. Absently, he was aware of people fleeing the area. "Uh…"

The lookalike scowled. "I think we have a lot to talk about."

Nope. Not happening. Not today. Nope. He slapped on a smile and grabbed the kid. "Gotta go!"

He teleported home.

The girl stumbled as he released her. He fled to the kitchen in search of scissor or a sharp knife. When he found both, he returned to the shaking girl and realized how filthy she was. Urghhh. Paps was gonna freak about the floor.

Still, he turned her around and cut the ropes and ushered her to the bathroom. He quickly pointed out what she'd need and excused himself. While she showered, he hurried to the kitchen to both freak out and to heat up some food for them both.

He sat himself at the table and shakily checked his left radius. The words were gone. The words were gone.

He needed some ketchup.

Stars. His soulmate was a freakin' criminal. And since the police never showed up then he probably had the downtown police wrapped around his phalange. Great. Now he had to come up with some excuse to Paps for why he couldn't ever go downtown anymore. Urghhhhh.

This day just kept getting worse.

~oOo~

Notes: Partially inspired by Soulmate AU in the Prettiest Shade of Red by kaiwuff on AO3. Except I went in a different direction.

After all that, I figure Red has no clue where Sans vanished so he's a bundle of anger. Not only did he lose 'cargo' but also his soulmate! And his blind date didn't show up at the café either. Great, fine, whatever.

So he storms away to throw a tantrum. He sulks off to ruin Edge's outing with Pap and Mettaton. Edge is amused at Red's failure "to do his job properly." Paps is happy for the company but disappointed that Sans didn't show to the blind date. He plans to throughly scold that lazy brother of his!

Paps invites the other 3 to the house but Mettaton has to leave and kisses Pap's cheek farewell. The Fell bros and Paps return to the house to find Sans balancing hotdogs atop his head, a bottle of ketchup in one hand, while the human child watches with round eyes from the safety near the couch. When Sans spots Paps' entourage or, more specifically, Red, the hotdogs topple. They shower around him and smush to the clean tiles.

The human squeaks, terrified.

Sans stares, disbelieving.

Red grins, horribly amused.

Meanwhile, Paps is not happy. "NOT MY FLOOR!"

And that's all I got.

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