XXXX

Getting Alphys to drop the idea of sparring with him had been an annoyingly repetitive series of events. Every so often, she would pause Blue's training to ask him if he wanted to join in, and a few times, she just flat-out challenged him. He'd considered agreeing just to get her off his back, but he wasn't really up for having a battle right now. Hell, he never really was. He just had to fight to survive sometimes. Plus, he was bone-tired. Papyrus and Blue eventually had to tell her to knock it off, which resulted in a weird brand of pouting that reminded Sans of Undyne when she lost to Papyrus when they were kids.

Thus, Red had begrudgingly agreed to show her some of his attacks.

And the smiling, aggressive excitement Alphys displayed once he was done made his heart ache in two different ways. She was so much like the Undyne he once knew, and yet had the face of one of the many people who'd tried to kill him over the years. He couldn't help but acknowledge that the ache was more from the nostalgia, through. If seeing this world's Alphys was having this effect on him, he wondered what it would be like to meet this world's Undyne.

"THAT WAS SO FRICKIN' COOL!" Alphys shouted. "YOUR BLASTER THINGS ARE SO SPIKY!"

Despite himself, Red let himself smile just the tiniest bit, though he covered it with his hand, attempting to disguise the motion as a cough. Papyrus gave him another one of those knowing looks before standing up, his stance casual.

"Welp, it's getting pretty late, so we should probably get going," he said.

"OH! I need to start on the dinner tacos!" Blue exclaimed.

Mentally, Red sighed. As much as he could tolerate terrible food, the absolutely ridiculous ways Blue managed to make tacos incorrectly were astounding. He half-thought that it was on purpose. How could anyone be so obsessed with a particular food and yet not seem to know its basic ingredients or how to prepare it? But no, there was no ways that someone like Blue would have subjected his brother to so many years of awful cooking just for the sake of being a jerk.

And so, the three skeletons left, teleporting back to Snowdin. The cool air was an instant relief from the sweltering heat of Hotland. Toward the end of their visit, Red had started ignoring the discomfort of the high temperatures, but he was glad to be back in a hoodie-friendly climate.

Well, all things considered, today hadn't been a very bad day. Yes, he hated the heat, and Alphys had been annoying, as had been that half-conversation with Papyrus, but he felt better than he had for a while. Definitely the best he'd felt since coming to this universe, and probably better than he had felt for a long time before that. He still didn't feel good, but he hadn't considered jumping into the lava, at least.

Now that they were home, Blue scurried off into the kitchen to begin dinner. With nothing better to do, Red and Papyrus followed him.

Sure enough, half of the things that Blueberry started putting on the counter had absolutely no business being on tacos. He'd even brought out the strawberry yogurt again. Again.

Red really didn't care that much, he would probably eat just about any abomination that Blue set in front of him, but he knew everyone would prefer that the meal be slightly more edible.

"Um. Hey, Blue," Red spoke to get the other skeleton's attention. "I think your bro would be berry happy if you left the yogurt out this time."

Blue froze, and Red immediately cursed himself. He knew it was rude to insult someone's cooking, but he hadn't been trying to be rude. It was just a light suggestion.

"AAAAH, NO!" Blue shrieked, flailing his arms. "YOU DO LIKE PUNS!"

Wait, it was the pun?

Oh.

Oh, Boss hated puns.

And Blue hated puns.

He knew that.

Had he just messed up? Sure, Blue wasn't really violent, and he never got seriously mad at Papyrus for the puns he made, but the way Blue was screaming suggested that he was really angry.

Just as Red was about to start panicking and apologizing, Papyrus let out a loud guffaw that shocked him out of it.

"HAHAHA!" he laughed. "Sorry, bro, but you should have seen that coming. Red's like me, remember?"

"Well, he hasn't made any puns until now, so I thought maybe he didn't like them!" Blue retorted, hands on his hips. "But now that his punning has awakened, I bet you two are going to start doing it all the time!"

Wait. Was this just Blue's normal half-amused, non-serious anger?

"Aw, but my jokes are punderful. And I bet Red's are too," Papyrus replied. "And I know you think they're punny!"

"PAPYRUS, NO, THOSE ARE AWFUL!"

Of course it was. This was Blue. At this point, he knew that Blue wasn't going to punish him like Boss would. He took a deep breath in.

"Punfortunately," Red began. "The floodgates have been o-pun-ed."

Blue gave him a long, blank look.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

XXX

Sans had been gone for a month now.

Sans had been gone for a month, and Papyrus was practically certain he was dead.

Papyrus was practically certain he was dead, and he was almost as certain that Red had done it himself.

No one had seen him, no one knew what had happened to him, and no one whispered any rumors about who might have killed him unless they were whispering Papyrus's name as the culprit. And Papyrus still hadn't been able to find that damned hoodie. It wasn't in the house, so he knew Sans had been wearing it when he left. He knew that the waterfall in the trash dump was a popular suicide spot. And he suspected that Sans had stood there a few times before backing out and tracking dirty water through the house. This time, he thought, Sans must not have backed out.

The reality of the situation didn't hit Papyrus until early in the morning, the day after he finally accepted that Sans was dead. He had gone to wake his brother up for work, as he had mistakenly done every day that month. And then he realized that he never had to do so again, never could do so again. His younger brother was dead. Gone. Nothing would ever wake him up, not even his early-morning screeching.

The thought left him motionless for a long time as he tried to wrap his head around it.

He really was going to have to hold his brother's funeral.

And he didn't even have his brother's dust.

Truly, what had everything he'd done to him been for?

XXX