Watching her father get hurt by the hands of her uncle, filled Y/n with anger.

"You outta pick on someone yer own size!"

Y/n stood in front of her adopted father—eyes red due to her magic flaring—glaring daggers at Papyrus the culprit, arms stretched out.

A heated argument paired with Sans' snarky comebacks, Papyrus had deemed that Sans was due for a proper punishment. Sans had told Y/n to stay out of his way when their argument started getting serious, code for "go hide" just in case things between him and his brother got a little out of hand.

So she ran under the table near the door, the one with a pet rock that was covered in glitter, courtesy of Y/n herself. She hid there, covered her ears and shut her eyes tight as their argument escalated into full blown shouting. Their shouting shook the 10 year old's very SOUL, making her eyes water and her body tremble, a pitiful whine escaping her. After one last shout from Sans, there was a weird hard sound and then a thump as something hit the floor, followed by the sound of a boot stomping. Y/n fearfully opened her eyes to find Papyrus' boot firmly keeping Sans' skull in place on the floor, an expression of pain on her father's face.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT TALKING!" Papyrus bellowed. "IT SEEMS I HAVE TO REMIND YOU HOW YOU ARE TO SPEAK TO ME!"

With horror, little Y/n watched as Papyrus lifted his foot only to slam it back down on Sans' skull. Y/n gasped as Sans let out a cry in pain, following with stuttering apologies immediately after.

"IT IS TOO LATE FOR THAT!"

Papyrus' foot lifted again, but didn't land on Sans' skull. Y/n took advantage of his distraction with Sans to quickly get under his foot and push it back into him, nearly making him fall backwards. He instead stumbled back and quickly caught himself, surprise catching his features. In front of him he found his niece, protectively shielding Sans from further harm, her eyes red. Her shout at Papyrus was impressive, and he would have been impressed with maybe a condescending scoff if he wasn't already livid.

"YOU, A PITIFUL HUMAN, DARES TO CHALLENGE THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?!"

"Ya ain't 'upposed to hit daddy like that! Yer his brother!"

"I WILL NOT HESITATE TO STRIKE YOU DOWN AS WELL."

That's right, Papyrus hates Y/n. She was convinced by the way he treats her. He treated Sans slightly better, but even that wasn't good. Nothing she did brought joy to Papyrus. He called her stupid, pitiful, incompetent, whatever that means and all of the above.

And she tried. She tried so hard everyday to get him to smile at her. That's all she's ever asked for.

When she was younger, he would play with her, even as he grumbled about it. When Sans was busy, he would feed her and bathe her, even as he complained about it to no one in particular. On easy days, he would even watch TV with her. Well, he would watch TV and she would join him, but he didn't mind. Even after buying a house on the surface and moving in, their relationship was unwavering. Then she got older.

What changed?

"We ain't 'upposed to fight like this! We gotta show love to each other, not LOVE!"

"I GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO STEP ASIDE, HUMAN."

Oh, he did not just—

"Are you kiddin' me?! What kinda brother are you?! You ain't actin' like the uncle I know! Yer actin' like those lug heads that don't know nothin' but LOVE! I don't know who you are, but I want my uncle back!"

Now she was crying. Now Papyrus felt a pang of guilt shudder through his SOUL.

"If ya wanna pick on someone, go pick on Undyne! She'll put ya in yer place real good!"

"NOW YOU LISTEN HERE—" But Y/n was having none of that.

"Blow off yer steam somewhere else!"

Papyrus glowered at her. No one speaks to the GREAT and TERRIBLE Papyrus like that. No one. He thought about hurting her. About throwing her out and finish his punishment on Sans. He even rose his rage-trembling fist toward her, but he couldn't. He couldn't hurt the small, fragile thing in front of him. His small, fragile, pitiful, foolish human niece, who had jumped in front of him knowing full well what he was capable of.

Papyrus instead snarled in annoyance, a noise loud enough to make Y/n's SOUL shake in fear...and he turned, stomping away and slamming the front door behind him so loud, the two left in the house jumped out of their bones.

Pun intended.

"what were ya thinkin', sweet pea?" Sans spoke after his daughter helped him onto the couch.

"I was thinkin' he shouldn't be hittin' you like that."

"he coulda hurt ya. don't do that again."

"I ain't gonna sit back and watch him hurt you!"

"y/n." a warning. She knows better than to raise her voice at her father.

She instantly shut her mouth, but as sad thoughts raced through her head, she couldn't help but utter, "That wasn't Uncle Papy..."

Sans carefully let his skull softly rest against the back of the couch, the makings of a killer headache quickly forming.

"yer right." Sans muttered. "that was boss."

Hours later when Papyrus returned home, he found the house dark and seemingly empty.

He lost his cool, showing Y/n who the Terrible Papyrus really is. She wasn't desensitized to that side of him. He had never shown her, he was mindful to never show her. It was no wonder she reacted the way she did.

He felt guilt. That never should have happened, especially not in front of Y/n. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, not like it matters anymore.

She'll probably hate him now, the realization hit him hard. She was the only other human besides Frisk that doesn't hate him or is afraid of him, but with his behavior, he probably flushed that down the drain.

He heavily sighed, his SOUL also heavy. It was getting late. He should head to bed.

The next morning, Y/n wouldn't look at him. Whether it was either from fear or hate, he couldn't tell and as far as he knew, it was most likely both. He didn't speak or glance her way either, he kept his gaze on the news on the TV. She grabbed her lunch Sans always prepared the night before from the fridge and headed off to school without muttering a single peep or a single glance his way.

If that didn't prove his suspicions, he didn't know what will.

When Sans came down, he was wary of him. Fearful he was still mad from yesterday. Even then, Papyrus didn't move, almost like he was a statue.

Papyrus felt bad, Sans knew he did, but he knew the numbskull would never admit or apologize for it. Only time will tell how this will turn out and he hoped it would turn out for the better. In the meantime, perhaps he could talk to him?

"heya, boss..." Sans was careful with his tone and volume.

Papyrus was silent.

"n-no work today?"

"No."

There was no emotion under his answer. Not pleasant, not monotone. Just hard.

Sans didn't have any other words for the taller skeleton whose gaze was unwavering from the TV. Sans played it safe and kept quiet, sitting on the lazy boy resting on the other side of the couch farthest from his brother. He opted for watching the news with him and let the quiet droning of the news people fill the empty silence in the room.

Later on that day, Sans stopped by Grillby's new establishment to wait for the remainder of the time for Y/n to come out of school, but when he was about to shortcut to pick her up, Y/n called his cell, telling him she was going to spend some time with Frisk and Flowey, her older siblings, she called them. That wasn't anything new. She visited them occasionally, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she was only trying to avoid Papyrus. Even so, he told her to have fun.

At mid evening, Sans met Toriel in the driveway, worried because she brought Y/n home a bit too late for his liking, but she reassured him by telling him that she had decided to stay for dinner.

"Bye, Mama." Y/n muttered.

"Good night, my child." Toriel replied softly and silently urged Sans to stay, watching Y/n sulk her way into the house.

"Has something happened? She seems to be quite down."

Sans inwardly cringed. "it ain't nothin' we can't handle. we'll get over it."

Toriel suppressed a giggle and shot him a pointed look, but he wasn't about to tell her that his daughter witnessed him getting beaten.

"she'll be right back to her old self in no time, heh." his smile felt fake and so did his laugh, even to himself and he wanted to face-palm.

"Alright," Toriel sighed, obviously not convinced. "But if there is anything you need, you know where to find me."

"you jus' bein' there fer y/n is doin' wonders. keep up the good work."

"I try." Toriel let a giggle escape and gave him a patient smile. "Good night, Sans."

"night, tor."

The next morning, as Y/n did her usual morning routine for school and headed downstairs to grab her lunch and head out, her unemotional gaze caught Papyrus' on the staircase.

They stared each other in the eyes, both unwavering. Behind Papyrus' seemingly permanent hard stare, she saw a hidden question, begging to be answered. She didn't answer it, instead smoothly going back to what she was doing. She grabbed her lunch and headed out without another glance.

What was that? Surely if she hated him or even feared him, she wouldn't have kept his gaze for that long, right? Was what he thought before wrong? Certainly the Great and Terrible Papyrus is never wrong! She changed her mind, is what happened. But of course, who can hate perfection?

When Sans finally woke up and came downstairs, he immediately noticed Papyrus' improved mood. Papyrus was doing exactly what he was doing the day before, but he just seemed...better.

"heya, boss." Sans greeted him the same as any other morning.

Papyrus simply grunted, at least acknowledging that he was there. definitely better than yesterday.

Sans silently sat down on the couch and watched the news with him, just as he does nearly every morning.

Later that day, Y/n again called Sans stating she was going to visit her older brothers again. still avoiding the boss.

"have fun, sweet pea."

She ended up staying for dinner again, but Toriel drove her home a bit earlier this time around. Sans met her in the driveway as per usual.

"She seems to be feeling better today." Toriel stated, watching Y/n enter the house.

"told ya. got everythin' under control."

Toriel hummed a sound in agreement, then bid him a good night. As Sans closed the front door behind him, he found Y/n and Papyrus staring at each other. Not knowing what was going on, some sweat gathered on his skull, becoming more and more nervous the longer they stared. Finally, Y/n broke it, calmly walking passed her uncle and up the stairs to her room, while Papyrus turned his attention back to his cooking. Sans was too curious about what just happened and decided to ask her after asking his brother if he was all right.

He didn't get an answer.

Y/n left her door open as she put her school bag away, so Sans knocked on her door frame to get her attention.

"you, uh, wanna talk about what that was downstairs?"

"Not really." Y/n deadpanned.

At that, Sans entered her bedroom and closed the door behind him, then proceeded to sit on her bed.

"well i do."

Y/n sighed. This was as awkward for him as it was for her. Even after all these years of raising her, he still wasn't very good at the sharing of feelings mumbo-jumbo, but at least he's trying.

Which told her the lazy skeleton thought it was important enough to discuss.

"c'mon, sweet pea, 'm tryin' here." when he didn't get an answer, he added a firm tone to his voice. "tell me what that starin' was about."

Y/n paused, not really wanting to talk about this, but she knew Sans wasn't going to let it go, so she sat next to him before speaking.

"...I was tellin' him that I'm still mad at him and I don't forgive him fer what he did." she didn't meet his eye lights as she spoke. "That's it."

Sans sighed. "sweet pea—"

"I know he feels bad, but I'm still mad at him."

"ya gotta let it go." Y/n shook her head. "y'know how long it's been since we fought like that?" Again, she shook her head. "Since right after i started takin' care of you. the boss didn't want you to see us fightin' all the time."

"...that doesn't make what happened OK."

"i know, but it means we came a long way since you've been livin' with us."

"Daddy?" Y/n spoke up again after a moment of silence. He gave a small noise as an answer. "Does that mean Uncle Papy doesn't hate me?"

Sans felt his SOUL drop like his smile. In the back of his mind, he was always afraid she would ask that.

"princess," he scooped her up and sat her in his lap. "papyrus never hated you."

And it's true. He may have thought that she was weak, an inferior creature to him especially when she was a baby, but not once had he looked at her with hatred.

Disgust? Absolutely. But never hatred.

"Before that, he always treated you better than me. He never smiled at me—"

"that ain't true." Sans said with a scoff and a knowing smile. "whenever he thought nobody was lookin', he always smiled at you. you were too young to remember."

"Really?"

"paps has a reputation to uphold an' he's too stubborn fer his own good, but he never hated ya. always remember that." he poked her nose.

With a small smile and sniffle, she nodded, hugging him in appreciation.

The next morning, Y/n glanced at her uncle, who was watching the news for the weather as per usual, as she headed down the stairs. Once he noticed it was her, he kept his eye sockets on her as she headed toward the kitchen to grab her lunch. She felt eyes on her as she opened the fridge, so she glanced behind her and Papyrus quickly looked away, pretending that he wasn't looking in the first place. Y/n shook her head and grabbed her lunch, then headed to the front door, but after she opened it, she muttered loud enough for her uncle to hear.

"G'mornin', Boss."

And she hurried out before he had time to respond to her.

After school, she once again phoned Sans to tell him she was going to the park with a friend to play. She sounded happier, so he told her to be careful and if anything she would have to call Papyrus or Toriel since he has to work later than usual today.

Papyrus cursed to himself as his phone started to ring while he was in the middle of making dinner. Using his magic to place his masterpiece of a lasagna in the preheated oven, he quickly answered his cell before it had a chance to go to voicemail, not even looking at the caller ID.

"STATE YOUR BUSINESS QUICKLY." he ordered with a firm voice.

"...C-Can ya pick me up, Uncle Papy?"

He would have chided her about interrupting him and about how condescending she sounded this morning, if not for her rather stuffed nosed sniffle and broken voice. Instead he replied,

"AND WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Th' park..."

He just put dinner in the oven, it's going to take a while to bake anyway.

"FINE. DON'T YOU MOVE FROM THERE." He hung up.

Quickly, he grabbed his scarf he had hung on the coat rack by the door and wrapped it around his neck as he headed out the door.

After scouring the park, he finally found her huddled on a bench with a sour look on her face and what he saw made his magic flare in anger. She was banged up pretty bad, covered in bruises and cuts. He even saw blood.

If he catches whoever did this...

"Are You Well Enough To Walk?" he asked in an uncharacteristically softer tone than usual when he approached her.

Without a word, she slowly rose from the bench and he took that as a 'yes' as he lead the way out of the park. He watched her with a trained eye, noticing how she winced sometimes, a small sniffle following each time. After hearing a particularly loud hiss from trying to keep up with him, he stopped completely, turned and knelt before her. She couldn't look at his judging eye lights, instead focusing on anything other than him. The ground looked pretty interesting at the moment.

"TELL ME WHO DID THIS TO YOU."

"Two older boys from school." she immediately confessed.

"BOYS? THAT MAKES THIS MUCH MORE INTERESTING. LET US SEE HOW THEY LIKE TO BE BRUISED." he growled.

"I started th' fight, Uncle."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" the confession surprised him. She may not be a pushover, but usually being a well behaved child, she's never started fights. "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT. I WILL BE INFORMING MY BROTHER WHEN HE GETS HOME."

"As if I was gonna let 'em keep sayin' mean thins about you and daddy."

Another surprising confession. She was defending him? After what he did to her?

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT US?"

"They were talkin' about how ugly and idiotic th' skeleton monsters were. Yer th' only skeletons in town."

Well that changes things.

"YOU DID NOT START THAT FIGHT," Papyrus scooped her up, ignoring how she winced and protested. "YOU FINISHED IT." At this rate, dinner is going to burn, so he resumed walking at his naturally fast pace. "HOW MUCH DAMAGE DID YOU INFLICT ON THEM?

"I conjured some sharp sticks around me with blue magic, so it could burn 'em when they tried to touch me again. An' when I threw one, it stuck to th' tree behind 'em an' that's when they ran away like babies."

The baby bones training he gave her when the brothers learned she could conjure blue magic proved useful. Papyrus proudly smirked.

"SERVES THEM RIGHT."

After they got home, he carefully set her down and checked on dinner, which was ready. Quickly, he took it out and set it on the table so it can cool down and completely set. After that, he returned to his niece, kneeling down in front of her. She looked like she wanted to cry. He stared directly at her SOUL without pulling it out, making her feel naked and vulnerable. Her HP was at five out of twenty.

"LIFT UP YOUR SHIRT."

Figures he would know where it hurt the most. Slowly, she did so, revealing big, dark bruising on her ribs and stomach.

He will find the boys who did this to her.

After giving her a look to tell her to stay, he disappeared into the kitchen, clattered a couple things around, then returned in a quick fashion. He knelt in front of her again and held out a hard candy in a blue wrapper, which she stared at in confusion. She wasn't going to say no to candy, but it seemed like a random gesture. She was taking too long, so he unwrapped it and pressed it against her lips.

"EAT THIS." he deadpanned. "IT IS A RARE MONSTER CANDY TO COME BY. IT HAS HEALING PROPERTIES IF CONSUMED."

That's the first she's heard of any monster food with healing abilities. It was pleasantly sweet and she felt the pain all over her body ebb away. HP: 15. If this didn't prove he didn't hate her and in fact did care for her, she didn't know what will. As she came to that realization, she threw her arms around her uncle's neck and started crying, catching Papyrus by surprise.

"I don't wanna fight with you anymore!" she cried. "I wanna watch T.V with you! An' make a puzzle with you!"

Despite everything, she still loved her uncle.

"But you never wanna do any of that with me anymore..." she continued.

Papyrus felt a pang of shame travel through his SOUL. He did want to do that with her. He wanted to do all of that and more, but he thought—since she was a big girl now—that she didn't want to do any of that with him. He had heard a conversation she had with Sans, about how she was big now, that her favorite childhood game wasn't as fun to her anymore. So Papyrus had assumed that now that she was grown, those childhood games and puzzles he used to play with her would now be boring. He realized he was right, in a sense, but now he realized she didn't want to completely stop playing with him.

"An' you were so scary! I thought you were gonna seriously hurt daddy..."

He knew she was scared. Another wave of guilt hit his SOUL as he looked at her with a genuine apologetic expression. It was never his intention to scare her. He was in such a blind anger that he reverted back to how he was before she entered their lives. After a long moment, he hugged her small body against him with a huge hand against her back.

"I UNDERSTAND, NIECE."

She pulled back to look at his face, sniffling.

"That's my line..."

He grunted in response, standing and taking Y/n with him to get the first-aid kit for the wounds that the candy didn't heal. She sat comfortably on his large arm as he carried her to the bathroom. He sat her on the toilet and brought out normal bandages and wrapping bandages from the kit. She winced when he started to silently tightly wrap bandages around her torso. His hands weren't gentle, but deliberate. After that, he cleaned up the scratches that he found, including a scraped knee and scraped palms, wrapping those in bandages as well.

Papyrus was thankful he decided to invest in first-aid kits.

"...Can I help you set th' table?"

Papyrus brightened at the question. "WE WILL FINISH QUICKER THAT WAY. FINISHED."

"You're the best, Uncle Papy." she genuinely expressed as he started packing the antiseptics and leftover bandages back into it's place.

"I KNOW." he smirked.

Sans couldn't completely focus halfway through work. His daughter's SOUL was reaching out to him, to the point where it became borderline unbearable. He almost abandoned work all together when he felt anger turn to fear, but shortly after it went right back to anger and mixed with DETERMINATION. What the fuck was going on?! Is Y/n under attack?! Does he need to show someone the meaning of a e?!

Sans was becoming distraught and only noticed he was clutching his shirt over his SOUL when Alphys called his attention, his SOUL visibly pulsing through his hand and his eye sockets devoid of lights.

Alphys told him to go home, deciding that he wasn't feeling well enough for today's full shift. He didn't need persuasion and just about teleported home to find out what exactly was going on with his little girl—who's SOUL was calm by now—but was surprised when he opened the front door. He was greeted with the sight of a sleeping Y/n cuddled into his brother's side on the couch with a blanket draped over them both, which only covered Papyrus' lap. He was watching Mettaton; Sans could hear the robot's boisterous voice from the low volume of the T.V.

With a relaxed smile, Sans thought to sit on his daughter's unoccupied side. When he sat down, he let out a sigh of relief. Now he gets to relax with his two most favorite people in the world. Y/n stirred slightly, humming as Sans ran his hand soothingly down her shoulder length hair.

Papyrus was waiting for Sans to notice that Y/n was injured, but with the blanket combo-ed with the way Y/n was cuddled into him, he's not going to notice a thing unless he took her to bed. That might be for the best. Personally, Papyrus thought he and his brother can discuss what happened and what they will do about it as she's resting. Especially with how fast she had fallen asleep after dinner. She was clearly more exhausted than Papyrus had first thought.

After Mettaton's show, Sans saw it fit to take Y/n to bed, blanket and all, but as he lifted her, he heard Papyrus mutter:

"WE WILL TALK ONCE YOU COME BACK DOWNSTAIRS."

Sans shot him a confused expression. About what exactly? He knows he hasn't done anything to upset him recently. Not again anyway. He decided to shrug that off and put Y/n to bed, so he headed upstairs carefully, as not to not jostle and wake her up. He tucked her in and gave her head one last loving stroke before standing up straight...but something wasn't right. Are her hands bandaged up? Both of them are, now that he took another look. Sans' eye lights disappeared as Papyrus words echoed in his skull. She was attacked, the way her SOUL felt earlier made total sense now! The only thing missing now was the full information. Sans walked down the stairs, eye lights still missing and his face serious, devoid of his signature grin. Here we go. Papyrus waited for his brother to sit down before he started explaining.

"what happened to her?"

"SHE WAS INVOLVED IN A FIGHT. SHE CALLED MY CELLULAR PHONE TO ASK ME TO WALK HER HOME FROM THE PARK. WHEN I GOT THERE, SHE WAS SULKING ON A BENCH, LOOKING BEATEN."

"who did this?" Sans can barely contain his anger.

"SHE TOLD ME THAT IT WAS 'SOME BOYS FROM SCHOOL'. SHE DID NOT PROVIDE ANY NAMES."

Sans curled his hands in an attempt to keep himself from marching out and finding those boys himself.

"IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT SHE HAD FINISHED THE FIGHT. APPARENTLY, THE HUMANS WHERE BAD MOUTHING US, SO SHE DECIDED TO PUT THEM IN THEIR PLACE."

"she did?" In surprise, his eye lights returned, although dim.

"YES, SO SHE DESERVES A TREAT. I SUGGEST WE GO OUT FOR DINNER TOMORROW."

"yeah, we can go out." he hastily said. "did you tell her how dangerous it could have been?"

"AND REPRIMAND HER FOR DOING GOOD BY DEFENDING THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?! OF COURSE NOT!"

"but she's still a kid, papyr—"

"BOSS."

"papyrus."

"NEVER YOU MIND HOW DANGEROUS OR NOT IT WAS FOR Y/N TO STICK UP TO OTHER HUMANS! WE WILL HAVE Y/N POINT THEM OUT NEXT TIME SHE IS AT THE PARK AND WE WILL SHOW THOSE BOYS EXACTLY WHO IT IS THEY ARE DEALING WITH!"

Sans smirked. "good plan, bro."

Papyrus' smirk matched Sans'.

"OF COURSE IT IS! IT WAS I WHO THOUGHT OF IT!"