Sans and Papyrus walked all the way to Papyrus's first puzzle that a human would encounter. But the thing is, there wasn't anything there. At least, not that Sans could see anyways. But Papyrus was standing proudly as if there was a great puzzle there. Sans of course didn't ask anything, but that didn't stop him from having such a confused look on his face. The lack of a question also didn't stop Papyrus from talking about and explaining his puzzle.
"Nyeh heh heh! I give you, the invisible electricity maze! With this orb, that I hide in the trees, the human will get a shock if they don't walk through the maze correctly. The human will be in for quite a... SHOCKING time!" Papyrus said, laughing at his joke.
Sans covered his mouth as he couldn't suppress a smile. A couple breathy laughs managed to escape him. That was a really good pun. Sans felt his cheek bones heat up a little bit in embarrassment. "W-Wow that sounds like q-quite the challenge. I'm sure the h-human won't be able to g-get through it." Sans commented. Then he noticed something.
"Um, P-Papyrus? If it is a-alight to ask, won't the h-human just... w-walk about it?" Sans nervously asked. It's ok to ask, Papyrus said it was ok to. Right?
Before Sans could start worrying, Papyrus answered his question. "Nyeh heh heh! That's the most clever part! The electric maze doesn't just stop at the end of the flat area. It also extends to beyond! If you're holding this orb, then you have no choice but to figure out the puzzle! Nyeh heh heh!" Pap excitedly explained, holding out the orb in a dramatic way.
"Wow... That's a-actually kind of cl-clever." Sans commented, blushing a little bit. He didn't know what he was excepting. But he felt bad for underestimating his master like that. Sans bet Papyrus got treated that way all the time. Sans himself has been there before. He won't ever underestimate his master-... underestimate Papyrus like that ever again.
"Ok, what I need is a new path for the maze! I change it up constantly to keep myself, and any possible humans, on their toes! So the path is like this right now." Papyrus said. Then with the orb in hand, he walked out into the electricity maze. His footprints got left in the snow, showing the pathway across. He turned when he got to end and grinned at Sans.
"See? I need a new one now! Do you have any ideas?" Pap asked. Sans looked at the path for a moment. He thought of how the short maze could go. Maybe, a left turn there instead of a right turn? Or maybe they could even add a dead end or loop? That would be fun!
Sans was so distracted that he didn't noticed he was grinning. A real one. One that was happy. Papyrus couldn't help but smile at that. It wasn't the star eye lights. But it was something different. It was Sans being happy and having fun. And Papy knew that would be rare to see. So he took this time to ingrain this moment into his memory.
"Uh, ma-Papyrus? H-How do you um... change the p-puzzle? I uh... kind of have an i-idea?" Sans said nervously and blushing slightly. He was more embarrassed than scared. It's true that ideas usually got him into major trouble. But he couldn't help from feeling embarrassed instead.
"Oh that's easy! Just use the orb! Here, I'll toss it to you." Papyrus said. Then he gently tossed over the orb. It landed in Sans' hands perfectly. Even with Sans internally freaking out over having something thrown at him. But he breathed a sigh of relief as he caught it.
"Ok. Um... how do you uh... u-use it?" Sans asked with a nervous grin. Pap just smiled and answered him. "You focus your magic on it and then move the electric field around! It's simple really." Papyrus said. Sans started to shake a little. He was always much too scared to use magic. He didn't realize his eyes went hallow as well.
"Sans!" Pap exclaimed when he saw Sans. He then jumped over the electric field and in front of Sans. He held Sans' shoulders. "Sans. It's ok. You don't have to do it. I'll take the orb and you tell me your idea for the maze. Ok? It's ok." Papyrus said. He gave Sans a quick hug.
Sans calmed down. He took a quiet breath. Papyrus took the orb into his hand and stood back up. "Th-Thank you... Papyrus." Sans said quietly. Papy gave him an understanding smile. Then he turned back to the puzzle. "So... I really would like to hear your idea!" Papyrus said with a grin towards Sans.
Sans actually had fun designing puzzles and trying it out on each other. Afterwards Pap lead them to the library to check out their puzzle books. To get more ideas and such. Sans liked libraries and reading. Even if he wasn't allowed to read too much, he still really enjoyed it. His favorite were sci-fi and fantasy books. He just loved the idea of other worlds were things were completely different. He guessed it was a bit of a dream of his. Things being different and all that. He especially loved true science books.
Papyrus made sure to pay close attention to what kind of books Sans picked out. He noticed it was mostly science oriented. But Sans still seemed to be nervous and hesitant in the library. Maybe a joke would help him relax a bit? Papyrus knew the perfect joke for this situation!
"Hey Sans. I found a really great gravity book!" Papyrus said to get Sans' attention. Sans looked over from staring at the bookshelves at Pap curiously. He waited for Papyrus to continue.
"It was impossible to put down. Nyeh heh heh! Get it? Impossible to put down!" Papyrus laughed out loud. He quieted down to giggling when he was shushed by the librarian. Sans blinked a bit as what he said processed. Then Sans covered his mouth as he tried not to laugh loudly. Some snickering did manage to get through though.
Papyrus smiled at being able to make Sans laugh. They picked out a couple books and checked them out. Finally they went back home. Papyrus had a big smile the entire time and Sans actually felt kind of happy.