The bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The school doors opened and in no time there were children leaving the building, screaming with joy and laughing along with their friends.
Papyrus was no exception. He went outside with Undyne, who he had discovered talked almost as loudly as he did. That made him feel even more comfortable around her since now he knew she wouldn't judge him for his voice, although he didn't do much of the talking: she kept on rambling about this 'Royal Guard' and saying how much she wanted to be part of it. He listened, not saying much, but he still didn't get what that guard was or what its purpose was; he just knew Undyne was waiting for the day she was old enough to get in it.
Once she was done talking she looked at him, then around them; almost everyone was gone by now. There were just a couple of kids left who were apparently still waiting for their parents, but in between all the talking both friends had lost track of time.
"Oh, well, I guess I should be going then. My parents will be soooo mad if I get home late" she laughed, as if the idea of being in trouble was funny "What about you Paps? Where do you live?"
The skeleton turned around to point in the direction of Snowdin "Over there. In Snowdin. Do you know it?"
Undyne made a face "Yeah. It's super cold out there, I don't like it at all." She saw Papyrus' expression at the comment and quickly tried to fix it "I mean, it's really nice! I'm just not made for it, y'know? Not like you" she punched him lightly in the arm "You don't have skin, so you're not cold, right?" she asked.
"Not really. I still feel cold, but not as much as you would I guess. I don't know how it works," he shrugged "but I think it's just magic"
His friend looked around once again "And are you going back on your own or are your parents coming to get you? Cause I can wait with you, if you want" she offered, relieved that she hadn't offended him with her previous comment.
Papyrus looked down, feeling awkward, then up again, trying to appear unaffected "Uh – I don't really have parents, so…My brother's coming"
Undyne couldn't help her shocked expression "You don't have parents?! Like, you're an orphan? Why didn't you say so?"
Suddenly ashamed the skeleton blushed and lowered his gaze "I mean – I have someone that's like a dad but he's not really…I just like to call him that sometimes. But, yeah, I guess I'm an orphan" he closed his eyes and wondered if that would be it and Undyne would leave. He didn't know much about friends, but he didn't think she'd want to have one with his complicated backstory.
Undyne was silent for a few seconds. "With a semi-adoptive parent" she added finally with a smug tone. He looked up to find her smirking, apparently not bothered at all.
He smiled "Yeah" he breathed out, relieved.
They both went quiet after that, deciding they could talk about the details later, if ever. After all, they were still kids, and wanted to leave aside serious topics for now. With this in mind Undyne took Papyrus' hand and dragged him to the entrance of the school, where they sat down on the stairs.
"Don't you have to go home?" asked Papyrus with a frown.
The fish monster shrugged "I can wait with you. I can handle my parents. Besides I wanna meet your brother! What's his name?"
Papyrus beamed at her when he heard the question, and so they started talking about his brother and how cool he was despite being a lazybones most of the time. Undyne laughed whenever Papyrus made a face, suddenly remembering something annoying about Sans, but most of the time the skeleton was happy to share how amazing his brother was.
When he ran out of ideas about what to talk about he remembered something he had meant to ask his friend before. "Oh, Undyne, I'm sorry that I don't know, but – What is the Royal Guard?"
"You don't know?!" she looked horrified but quickly her expression turned smug and, in Papyrus' eyes, even scary "Let me tell you"
Just when she was about to start rambling again, a shadow loomed over them and she stopped to look over Papyrus' shoulder. Confused, he turned around and quickly found himself smiling.
"Sans!" he shouted as he stood up and hugged his sibling.
Sans smiled at his brother "Hey Paps" he said returning the embrace "What's up? And who's that?" he gestured behind the young skeleton.
"Oh!" Papyrus quickly turned around and grabbed Undyne's hand to help her up "This is my new friend, Undyne!" he said as he smiled proudly, happy to be able to show off his friend.
The girl waved awkwardly "Hey, Sans, right?" the older skeleton nodded "I'm Undyne. Pap's told me a lot about you."
"Good things I hope" he joked, offering her hand. Undyne shook it while looking at him up and down "Something the matter?" he asked with a slight frown, his ever present smile twitching at the corners.
She shook her head "Nothing. You're just…big. Pap's really short" she smiled smugly, knowing what the reaction of the other skeleton would be, and then glanced at him, unable to suppress the laughter at his scandalized expression "No I'm not! He's older, of course he's bigger!" he defended himself. Then he heard Sans laughing too. "It's not funny, Sans!" he protested straightening his shoulders.
"Kiddo, I wasn't as small as you when I was your age. You're just a tiny skeleton, but that's ok. Maybe you'll be taller than me later on, who knows?" he shrugged, smirking, while Undyne laughed quietly in the back. Papyrus huffed and crossed his arms, feeling offended. "Hey, why the long face?" asked Sans playfully, then changed his tone to a more serious one, though still managing to sound relaxed "Don't be mad, bro. You know, Grillby's waiting for us and he'll want you to tell him all about today, not to mention about your new friend," he paused to wink at Undyne "and you don't want to spoil it by being angry with your cool brother, right?"
Papyrus scoffed but relaxed his stance. "Only for Grillby, ok? I'll still be mad." Without waiting for a response Papyrus turned around to face his friend "I'll see you tomorrow then?" he asked hopeful. Of course he knew she had to go to school but somehow it still seemed strange to have someone to look forward to seeing the following day.
Undyne nodded "Sure, punk. I'll see you in class! But now I gotta get going or I'm gonna be grounded" she stuck out her tongue playfully and with that she turned around and started running in the opposite direction. The siblings watched her run away for a few seconds with confused expressions before looking at each other.
"Nice girl, huh" Sans joked. Papyrus smiled at him, happy after school for once. Returning the smile Sans gave his brother a small pat in the back "C'm on, let's go home"
They went home in their own time since they wanted to look around some more in Waterfall and this time there wasn't anything stopping them. They didn't dare take another route for fear of getting lost, but they got excited even with little things they found along the way, such as 'water plants' or 'shining rocks'. They didn't know what they were for or their names, but that made them even more curious. In time Papyrus got over his previous anger towards his brother and ran to him every time he found something he deemed worthy of showing off. Meanwhile Sans was happy to comply and compliment his brother on his 'great' findings while he looked for his own.
By the time they got home it was almost nighttime and the smell of Spaghetti reached them even a few meters away from the house. Sans scoffed without malice,
already knowing Grillby was going to treat Papyrus with that, but Papyrus was as excited as he ever was when presented with that dish. He ran the last few steps, almost falling due to the weight of his schoolbag and his coat, but got to the door in the end, Sans trailing behind him.
"I'm in the kitchen!" yelled Grillby before the children said a word "Lay the table, please, boys"
Papyrus took off his coat and hanged it on the coat rack "Coming!" he yelled back as he ran off to help.
"Yeah, he's going!" said Sans with a laugh. He'd had a long day himself so if his brother was so eager to help he wasn't going to complain. He needed to lay down a bit.
He dragged his feet to the couch and slumped on it, not even stopping to take off his coat. It wasn't that he'd had a bad day, no. It was good, all in all. The teachers acted as if nothing'd happened and the other kids didn't mention the incident, and that was all he could've hoped for. But he was tired; he didn't know exactly why, but he was. Maybe it had to do with all the homework he had, or the fact that he was so bored during the break that he started playing with his magic. Probably the last one. He knew he shouldn't do that, he had seen what using too much magic could do to him, but he was so bored…He didn't have anyone to talk to since he had yet to make any friends and he wasn't up for doing homework at school.
He yawned. He'd had to think it through next time. Playing with magic was cool while he was at it – and while nobody saw him – but the consequences were not all that pleasant. He hoped later he could be awake enough to read Papyrus his bedtime story.
"Sans come here, we're gonna have dinner!" called his brother, apparently oblivious to the fact that he had laid the table on his own, or maybe not caring about it.
With a sigh the skeleton stood up, vertebrae popping into place after being slumped in an uncomfortable position.
Once the three monsters had sat down and started eating dinner – devouring in Papyrus' case – Grillby spoke up. "So, Papyrus, how was school?"
From then on the kid talked nonstop about his day. The teacher, the classes, his friend, the Royal Guard – which apparently was amazing even though Papyrus didn't know all that well what it was – and every little thing that had happened. Grillby nodded and made a comment once in a while but didn't dare interrupt the child's rant. Meanwhile Sans ate quietly but with a pleased smile, happy that his brother had finally found a school he liked. Maybe it wasn't with him, in fact quite far away, but if it put a smile on Papyrus' face then it was worth it.
They stayed at the table for a while even when they were all finished. Once Papyrus had ran out of things to say Grillby turned to the other boy and asked him the same question he had asked his brother, to which Sans shrugged and said 'it was fine'. He added a few details, talking briefly about his classes, but nothing else. After all his day hadn't been all that eventful anyway. The bartender stared at him for a while after he stopped talking but didn't press the matter, for which Sans was thankful. Really, he hadn't done all that much, but he knew Grillby worried about him anyway. Maybe he ought to be more social but it just wasn't in him. Papyrus was the friendly one – Or at least the one who wanted to make friends. He was still figuring out how to make them.
When they had run out of topics to talk about they proceeded to clean the table and wash the dishes. Grillby said goodbye, giving Papyrus his 'goodnight kiss' – which was something the skeleton had found in one of his books and that Grillby was quick to figure out he wanted– and a hug to Sans, who still was skeptical about the whole parenting thing but wasn't about to complain about hugs.
"So, ready for a new story?" asked Sans once Papyrus was tucked inside his bed, his head the only part of his body that was visible. The boy nodded, eager. "Ok, so this one's about knights. You know what those are?"
Papyrus nodded again "They're warriors that fight for their kingdoms, right? To keep them safe?"
"Yeah, basically. D'you like them?" Papyrus grinned, suddenly excited "Yes! And I think that's what the Royal Guard is, right? Knights that protect the king and the Underground?"
Sans shrugged, not really interested in the topic "I guess. I don't know much about them, dad was always criticizing them for doing 'a horrible job' for some reason" he felt Papyrus staring before he even saw him and quickly noticed his mistake "I mean, Gaster. I mean, the doctor. Slip of the tongue, you know" he tried to laugh it off, but it sounded way off.
"Why did you call him dad?" asked Papyrus with a frown, now sitting up.
Sans shook his head and tried to make him lay down again "Told ya, slip of the tongue. Now come on, we've only got so much time to read this story before your bedtime"
"No, Sans. You called him dad!" protested the child trying to shake his brother's hands off him "And it's not the first time! Every time you talk about it you always start saying 'dad' but then say something else! Why do you call him that?" Sans shook his head, which only made Papyrus even angrier "Tell me!"
The skeleton covered his eye sockets with his hands, feeling even more tired than before "It's nothing Paps, really. I just…kinda saw him as a dad. I didn't know better than that" was the only thing he could muster.
"How? He was so mean! That's not what a father is like!"
"I know, Papyrus. But he kinda took care of me, in a way…" he saw Papyrus frown even more, now with confusion "He bought me some clothes, only the necessary, and sent me to buy food at Grillby's so I kinda had something to eat, even if it was almost the same thing every day"
"Really?" Papyrus' shoulder slumped while he got an incredulous look "But he was still mean, anyway, right?"
With his head still on his hands he answered "Yeah, he was still a bad person, no doubt about that. But he was worse when I was a kid. When I grew up he suddenly stopped focusing on me. He had other work to do, he said. Other things to…"
He suddenly shut up. With horror written on his face he raised his head and looked at his brother, who apparently had understood what had happened too. Gaster was too focused on his new experiment to keep working on Sans. Too focused destroying a child to keep hurting the other one.
"Oh my god, Pap. It was you!" he whispered incredulously. He remembered it perfectly: one day the doctor had disappeared only to come back the next day and suddenly he didn't have to say how he was feeling every hour, or go to the lab every morning. Gaster had lost interest in him all of a sudden, and while he wasn't about to complain, it had been strange. Now he knew the reason. And what was worse, he knew how much time Gaster had spent with Papyrus: he had seen him wake up early and come back to the house late in the night. The doctor had never been so dedicated to him, and that explained why Papyrus had suffered way much more than he had.
The younger skeleton buried himself under the covers "Well, I guess now I know why he liked you more than me. You were his son" he mumbled through the sheets.
"Oh, no, Pap, it was nothing like that!"
"But you don't hate him" was the quiet reply.
And that shut him up. Sans had suffered a lot, but Gaster was the only thing he had known all his life and while he was still experimented on, the doctor usually made sure he was at least comfortable, which was more than he had ever expected at least when he was a little kid. He couldn't say he hated him, no matter how much he wanted to. And it was humiliating.
"No. I guess I can't say that" he whispered feeling ashamed. When he didn't hear a response he looked down and found his brother still under the covers. "Oh, Pap, come on. I don't want you to feel bad because of me. Let's read the story and forget about all this, ok?" he offered trying to sound encouraging but failing miserably.
Once again Papyrus didn't answer so, with a sigh, Sans moved away the sheets, only to find his brother weeping with his head buried in his arms.
Sans closed his eyes feeling as his heart broke once again at the sight of his brother suffering. He thought they had moved on, but he knew it was stupid to think that. It took more than a couple of happy days to erase years of torment.
He definitely was the worst brother.
"Oh, Paps" he said as he laid down next to him "I'm so sorry" he murmured as he wrapped the sobbing child in his arms.
He didn't really know what he was apologizing for. For having had it easier? For saying too much? For not being able to take care of his brother properly? He didn't know, but Papyrus sounded so miserably he just felt like he needed to say that.
They stayed like that for a while until the sobs started dying out and eventually Papyrus fell asleep. Feeling exhausted himself, after making sure his brother was safe in his arms Sans closed his eyes and drifted off too.
He didn't sleep for long though, as he was woken up by some distant crying very early in the morning.
That was the first time Papyrus had nightmares.