There's a bit of miscommunication which leads to some assumptions about pedophilia that aren't directly referenced. No one was happy with this, least of all me for writing it. T_T
"hey edge!" An arm was slung around Papyrus's shoulder along with the shout, pulling him in close to his slightly taller alternate as he murmured in his audio canal, "all us younger bros are gonna sneak off and leave the big bros to themselves for a bit. a chance for us to get to know you without them hovering."
Papyrus carefully peeled off Stretch's arm (and seriously! They may all technically be the same person but that didn't give them permission to be all touchy feely like they knew him) and nodded. Stretch just laughed and nodded towards the back of the room, glancing back at the others before leading the way out. Or Papyrus thought that's what he did, it was hard to tell with the way his eye sockets didn't have any pips in them. All the other Papyruses were like that, it was really weird.
Papyrus followed Stretch through a smaller room with nothing but a table and chairs, a vaguely familiar rock surrounded by what appeared to be chunks of colorful rock candy on a plate in the center of the table. Just past that was a curtain already pulled back to reveal a sliding glass door, they walked through it onto a wooden deck that spanned the entire backside of the house and led out to a wide, grassy expanse. Papyrus stepped out and to the side, no doubt the others would be coming through the door soon, and tipped his head back to bask in the warm glow of the sun.
One week since a small human child bravely emerged from the Ruins and somehow planted themself right into Papyrus's and Sans's lives as if they'd known them for ages. Six days since the barrier was shattered and Monsterkind freed. Six days since they found out about the other, alternate Undergrounds that were all somehow inside the one cavern. Papyrus honestly didn't understand it, something about timelines and parallel universes and butterflies flapping in someplace called Australia. No one had yet, but if someone said the word "paradox" he was just going to walk away from the whole mess. They had the whole world now! It was bigger than he could have ever imagined, it would be so easy to just leave and never come back.
The gist of it was that there were alternate timelines that split off when the Barrier was created, each one emptying onto the same mountainside as each Barrier was destroyed. Theirs was the fifth so far, and there was no knowing just how many there were. Sans… no wait, he picked the nickname Red. He'd said it was possible there were infinite alternate timelines and monsters would continue to flood out of the mountain in waves for the rest of eternity. Papyrus didn't think that was possible, but what did he know?
The sliding door opened. Sunny came out of the house along with Slim, who he'd roped into helping carry the chairs he and Stretch had passed by earlier. There were only the four (twice the number of chairs he and Sans owned) so someone was going to end up in one of the two so called "lawn chairs" sitting on the deck. Likely Stretch and Slim would fight over who got it. Or maybe they'd each take one and Sunny had brought out an extra chair for no reason? Papyrus was still getting used to the thought of even having alternates, let alone getting to know all their quirks and differences.
"EDGE!" Sunny called with a cheery wave after setting the chairs down around the lawn chairs, "COME SIT DOWN, ASTRO WILL BE OUT SHORTLY." He smiled and patted one of the chairs.
Papyrus walked over and sat down. He watched in amusement as Slim took a lawn chair only for Stretch to abandon the one he'd claimed and bodily shoved Slim over to share. It seemed Papyrus wasn't the only one he was touchy with.
"SO, HOW ARE YOU AND RED LIKING THE SURFACE SO FAR?"
"WE'RE LIKING IT VERY MUCH, SA- I MEAN RED…"
"it's okay, dude, the nicknames are for us to call you, not you to call your bro," Stretch mumbled.
"yeah," Slim agreed, "we all know when anya us say "sans" we're talking 'bout our own bro. s'long as you know who we're talking 'bout is all good." While he talked he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Stretch looked completely offended and got up (with much flailing elbows to the ribs on both sides) to return to the other lawn chair.
"WE'RE LIKING IT VERY MUCH. SANS GOES TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN TO WATCH THE STARS EVERY NIGHT, IT MAKES HIM NEAR USELESS DURING THE DAY BUT HE SEEMS SO HAPPY."
"SANS WAS THE SAME WAY WHEN OUR BARRIER BROKE TOO!" Sunny said enthusiastically.
"yeah, it seems to be a sans thing." Stretch laughed from his laid back position, "he refused to give up his rocket ship bed when we got the house up here."
"AND WHY WOULD HE? HE HAS SUCH A COOL BED! ALMOST AS COOL AS MY RACE CAR BED, WHICH I ALSO REFUSED TO GIVE UP. SANS EVEN HELPED ME MOVE IT TO THE SURFACE." Sunny turned his attention to Papyrus then, along with the others.
"I STOPPED SLEEPING IN MY RACE CAR BED WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN," Papyrus said proudly. Never mind that it was within weeks of his eighteenth birthday and it had been a bit of a scramble for Sans to find him a new, stylish, mature bed frame. "WE DID PUT IT INTO STORAGE FOR SOME REASON, THOUGH I SUPPOSE IN THE END IT WAS A WISE DECISION, THE BED BELONGS TO FRISK NOW."
"same," Slim said. "frisk really likes it, says is the coolest bed ever. but sans got 'imself this space print bedding set."
"OH? THAT'LL BE GOOD FOR WHEN WE GET APPROVED FOR A HOUSE UP HERE," Papyrus said eagerly. Even with this being the fifth Underground to move up to the surface it still took time to find or build the entirety of Monsterkind new homes and get them moved up. "WHERE DID YOU GET THEM?"
"if you're lucky the big box store'll 'ave 'em, but if not you can get anything from the web."
While Slim was talking the door opened and shut again, Papyrus turned to see Astro carrying a small, white box, his steps incredibly light despite the fact he towered over even the tallest of them. (Edge wasn't jealous at all, nor was he the least bit bitter about being the undeniably shortest Papyrus.)
"SORRY TO TAKE SO LONG, IT WAS HARD TO SNEAK AWAY ONCE OUR OLDER BROTHERS NOTICED YOU HAD LEFT."
Papyrus doubted they hadn't noticed him sneaking away too, or Sans at least.
"IT'S ALRIGHT, WE UNDERSTAND," Sunny said cheerfully as he grinned up at Astro. "WE HAVEN'T STARTED YET ASIDE FROM A LITTLE SMALL TALK."
"EXCELLENT," Astro exclaimed as he opened the lid on the box, revealing it to be a small chest full of bottles and ice. Far more bottles than should be able to fit into such a small thing. Papyrus plucked out a bottle and simply held it as he waited for the others to pick out their own and deftly open them. He felt validated when he noticed Slim doing the same. Astro set the chest onto an empty chair before taking the other for himself. "SO HOW SHALL WE DO THIS? IT'S REDUNDANT FOR US TO TELL EACH OTHER ABOUT OURSELVES AGAIN, BUT IT WOULDN'T BE FAIR TO EDGE TO MAKE HIM TELL US EVERYTHING WITHOUT HIM GETTING TO KNOW US TOO."
"'ow 'bout you two chatter boxes tell 'im 'bout us for us?" Slim suggested.
"YOU TWO JUST WANT TO BE LAZY," Astro scolded.
"BUT IT WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE THINGS MORE INTERESTING," Sunny said thoughtfully. "AND THEY CAN'T COMPLAIN WHEN WHAT WE SAY IS PURE OPINION."
"OH! THAT'S TRUE!" Astro grinned widely, then sipped his drink. "ALRIGHT, WE CAN START BY GOING AROUND AND GIVING SOME INFORMATION ABOUT OURSELVES. FOR INSTANCE: IN THE LOW LV TIMELINES DAD ADOPTED SANS WHEN HE WAS GIVEN UP BY HIS PARENTS, BUT IN SLIM'S TIMELINE DAD WAS VOLUNTEERED TO FOSTER BLACK BY QUEEN TORIEL."
Papyrus shuddered, his father had adopted Sans in other timelines? How disgusting! "MY TIMELINE ISN'T SIMILAR AT ALL THEN, SANS WAS ABANDONED AND LIVED AS A STREET ORPHAN FOR A FEW YEARS BEFORE GETTING CAUGHT BY THE GUARD AND HANDED OVER TO HIM TO BE A TEST SUBJECT."
"HOW HORRIBLE!" Sunny said sadly, his face full of pity Papyrus didn't want and Sans didn't need. Not now, not after so long.
"ARE ALL THE FRISKS REALLY AS SIMILAR AS I WAS TOLD?" Papyrus asked as an obvious subject change. He finally took the first sip of his drink, surprised that it tasted of alcohol. He checked the label: Muffet's Hard Spider Cider. Huh, well it's not like this was his first ever drink. He took another swig.
"YES," Sunny answered, oblivious to Papyrus's surprise over his drink. "IT SEEMS THEY WERE DUPLICATED ACROSS ALL THE TIMELINES WHEN THEY FELL INTO THE UNDERGROUND-"
Astro scoffed.
"… AND NOW THEY GET A BRAND NEW IDENTICAL TWIN EVERY TIME A BARRIER IS BROKEN," Sunny continued.
"hold up, what was that just now?" Stretch asked from his prone position on the lawn chair.
"WHAT WAS WHAT?" Astro asked in confusion.
"edge and the drink, what's with that weird face you made?"
Papyrus shrugged, "I WAS A LITTLE SURPRISED IT HAS ALCOHOL IN IT."
"DO WE REALLY SEEM LIKE SUCH STICKS IN THE MUD THAT WE WOULDN'T HAVE A LITTLE TO DRINK WHILE HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS?" Sunny asked with his hand pressed dramatically to his cropped knit sweater.
"YOU WOULDN'T START YOUR CAR UNTIL BOTH SANS AND I HAD BUCKLED OUR SEAT BELTS." And what a glorious drive that had been, Sunny had a car with a retractable roof! Papyrus wasn't too proud to admit he coveted that car and had immediately looked up all the requirements to get one.
"WELL YES, SAFETY IS VERY IMPORTANT. BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH HAVING A FEW DRINKS IN THE SAFETY OF SLIM'S HOME?"
"IT'S JUST YOU SEEM LIKE SUCH STICKLERS FOR EVEN THE STUPIDEST OF HUMAN LAWS, IT'S STRANGE YOU'D IGNORE THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE."
"WE'RE NOT?" Sunny looked to the others in confusion.
"I WAS TOLD IT WAS TWENTY-ONE?"
"IT IS," Astro agreed, "SILLY FOR IT TO BE A DIFFERENT AGE THAN LEGAL ADULTHOOD."
"wait, hold up, how old are you?" Stretch asked as he sat up and threw his legs over the side of his lawn chair, leaning forward to stare up at Papyrus.
"NINETEEN, OF COURSE." Papyrus looked around at the others, all staring back at him with jaws hanging loose. "WAIT, HOW OLD ARE ALL OF YOU?"
He was met with a chorus of "22" from the others.
"HOW ABOUT WE JUST TAKE THAT AWAY…"
"I WILL BITE YOU," Papyrus snarled at Astro's approaching hand. He pulled it back, then shrugged and took another swig of his own cider.
"okay, but how are you a different age than us? i thought we were all on the same year?"
They compared their calendars and found out that yes, they were all definitely on the same year. Strangely the two birthdays were about four months (and three years) apart.
"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT," Papyrus said and held his hand up. "HOW OLD ARE YOUR BROTHERS?"
A chorus of "34" echoed around him.
"THAT'S… THAT'S SANS'S AGE. JUST HOW OLD WAS HE WHEN YOU WERE BORN?" The math couldn't be adding up.
"twelve, duh."
"DON'T DUH HIM, THAT MAKES RED FIFTEEN WHEN EDGE WAS BORN."
Twelve. The same age Sans had claimed to be before he told Papyrus the truth. So either the alternates hadn't been told the truth yet and their Sanses were also three years older or…
Or they had actually been…
Papyrus felt ill.
"SO IT SEEMS OUR PARENTS WAITED A FEW YEARS TO HAVE YOU IN YOUR TIMELINE," Astro started, "BUT WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS HOW REN WAS STILL AROUND TO EVEN HAVE YOU WHEN IN OUR TIMELINES THEY FELL DOWN AFTER THEIR MOTHER DIED WHEN WE WERE JUST OVER A YEAR OLD."
"WHAT?" Papyrus asked blankly, still reeling at the news. Sans was still alive, and so were both his parents. That sequence of words didn't make any sense.
"you know, renny. our mother," Stretch said helpfully. "arial."
Papyrus's jaw flapped a few times as he tried to force the word "WHO" out, but it seemed to be stuck.
"IT'S SO SAD I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM, SANS SAYS THEY WERE ALWAYS VERY KIND TO HIM," Astro said sadly.
"yeah, photo albums and stories just aren't the same," Stretch added.
"THEY REALLY AREN'T," Papyrus agreed absently. His hands were shaking just the slightest bit, so he clutched his cider a little tighter.
Slim eyed them all, but remained silent. Perhaps Black didn't have fond stories of this Arial person to tell him.
Their conversation continued without him, Papyrus let it turn into buzzing background noise as his thoughts whirled around this new revelation: he doesn't have the same parents as his alternates.
It made a strange kind of sense, the first thing he'd noticed was he was the only one of them to have pips lighting up his eye sockets; all the Sanses had pips, but the other Papyruses all had tall, empty sockets. He had also noted he was the only Papyrus to not have cheekbones that could cut glass. For all that he had fangs just as sharp as Slim's (and even longer, too!), his cheeks were quite dull, almost rounded compared to even Sunny or Stretch. And he was noticeably shorter than them all too. Before Papyrus, Slim was the shortest. They had all thought it was a consequence of living in a violent timeline, but Sunny, Stretch, and Slim were all within an inch or so of each other (Astro and Cosmic both stood a full head taller than their own counterparts and didn't count). Papyrus barely came up to Slim's nasal aperture, not as short as even the tallest Sans but…
"EDGE?"
Papyrus took a deep breath, blinking as he came back to the here and now. He hadn't realized how caught up he'd been in his own thoughts.
"THERE YOU ARE."
"no, don't touch 'im."
Papyrus's pips (he was the only Papyrus to have them) trailed down to where Sunny's hand was reaching out for him, Slim tightly holding his wrist.
"give 'im some space, yeah?" Slim turned his attention to Papyrus. "'ow ya doing?"
"SORRY, IT SEEMS I GOT LOST IN MY OWN HEAD FOR A MOMENT." He took a swig, a little mad at himself for letting his guard down so thoroughly. Alternates or not they were still complete strangers.
"look, if you don't want to talk about renny or our childhoods that's fine," Stretch said carefully.
"OH YES!" Astro agreed happily. "THERE'S PLENTY OF OTHER THINGS WE CAN TALK ABOUT, LIKE UNDYNE OR THE ROYAL GUARD OR SNOWDIN."
"WAS THERE A SNOWDIN ON YOUR ASTEROID?" Edge asked curiously, but also gratefully. He welcomed the change in subject.
"IT WAS A COMET, ACTUALLY. AND YES! THERE WERE A LOT OF THEORIES THAT IT WAS MONSTERS AND OUR INHERIT MAGIC AFFECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT, WE DID SPEND A FEW CENTURIES INSIDE BEFORE VENTURING TO THE COMET'S SURFACE AFTER ALL, BUT SINCE THE BARRIER BROKE THE HOT NEW THEORY IS MULTIVERSAL CONVERGENCE. SANS AND COMIC HAVE BEEN STUDYING THE TIMELINES TOGETHER AND THEY SAY THE "SEMI-ARTIFICIAL"," he even did the exaggerated finger quotes, "NATURE OF THE TIMELINE SPLIT MAY HAVE HAD THEM AFFECTING EACH OTHER." Astro went on to explain what he understood of his brother's work, Papyrus nodded along as he listened.
The topic did move on and change, Papyrus gathered more differences between his own timeline and the others. He found out his father was the first to erase himself from existence, the others all having their accidents within a few months of each other but not at the exact same time, but all years after his own birth. Despite that Papyrus was the last to move to Snowdin, the other Sanses going straight there and asserting themselves in the house that was a universal constant. Papyrus reasoned that being a couple years older was enough for him to have developed the confidence to pull such a stunt. Not to mention having a younger brother just old enough to start school rather than a screaming newborn made living on their own viable.
None of them had ever met the Naiad of their timelines.
Papyrus felt sick at soul when that latest realization hit him. He might not remember Nana, but he knew Sans still did and treasured those memories. He quietly listened to them go on about who was or wasn't in the Royal Guard, what their Undynes were like, whether the various Mettatons or M. C. Overclockeds were better looking, and an argument over the various Asgores' and Toriels' ruling styles. Papyrus kept his mouth shut on that one, so did Slim.
He grew tired of sitting there listening to the others prattle on, forced to talk about his own timeline in turn. He really just wanted to go home and talk this over with Sans, maybe they could even figure out why their timeline was so different, where he went so wrong. Likely it was whatever caused Arial not to be in his life. How should he even feel about this stranger that wasn't his mother? Were he and the others even the same person if they didn't have the same parents? Was their name just a coincidence? Was his birth just the universe trying to fill an empty spot and Sans was the unfortunate means?
"edge, where'd you go?"
"SORRY, GOT LOST IN MY THOUGHTS AGAIN."
"WELL IT IS A LOT TO TAKE IN, PERHAPS WE SHOULD GO BACK TO JUST SMALL TALK."
"I THINK I'D BE BETTER OFF JUST GOING HOME."
"OH DEAR, WHAT'S WRONG? CAN WE HELP IN SOME WAY? ARE YOU ILL?" Sunny's brow wrinkled in concern. "SLIM, DO YOU HAVE ANY MEDICINE FOR AN UPSET STOMACH? I BET IT WAS THE ALCOHOL."
Papyrus rolled his eye pips, "THAT WAS HARDLY MY FIRST DRINK." He decided to down the last of it, then stood and headed for the back door.
"y'know there's a side gate, just 'ead that way," Slim pointed in the opposite direction, "and sunny can take you 'ome, yeah?"
"I'M NOT LEAVING SANS BEHIND," Papyrus snapped indignantly.
"well it's just after three so…" Stretch trailed off into a shrug.
"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?"
"three o'clock slump," Stretch said with a sage nod. The others all made varying noises or motions of agreement.
Papyrus had no idea what that even meant and he was done dealing with these… other… skeletons. He nudged aside the space between him and the door so he could leave as quickly as possible. Inside the living room he found out what Stretch meant, he hopes assumes. All the Sanses are laid out in various places, Zs floating up and away (or in Cosmic's case down and away because he was ignoring gravity so hard that he was floating near the ceiling) from them. Sans was half leaned back into the couch's corner, his legs over the front at such an odd angle they didn't even touch the floor. Comic was on the other end of the couch, lying spread eagle, face down over the arm with his head dangling off the end. Blue was sitting in the armchair upside down, his feet hooked over the back of the chair and his head dangling off the seat, much like Comic but on his back instead. And Black, for some reason, was curled up on top of a bookshelf like some sort of bony cat.
Papyrus had seen Sans nap in weird places, but this was like they had all decided to have some sort of weird nap contest (and sadly it looked like Sans was in last place). He pinched his nasal bridge, trying to fight off the oncoming headache.
"see? three o'clock slump," Stretch said smugly. "most monsters just grab a snack and power through or give in and lay down for a nap, but these guys just conk out wherever."
"yours might, sans always ends up someplace secure first," Slim said proudly while looking up at Black.
"WELL SANS WILL JUST HAVE TO FINISH HIS NAP AT HOME." Papyrus went to stand in front of the couch.
"OH, SHOULD I GO START MY CAR?"
"NO NEED, HE CAN JUST SHORTCUT US HOME." They may be lazy, but the Surface was huge and Sans's shortcuts had turned out to be incredibly useful.
"EDGE, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TRY TO WAKE YOUR BROTHER, ARE YOU?" Astro sounded horrified, or possibly personally offended.
Papyrus ignored him, instead he put his hands on his hips and said, "SANS, WAKE UP," perhaps a bit harsher than he meant to.
"huh? wuz goin' on?" Sans slurred, eye sockets half lidded and fuzzy pips darting around the room.
"oh shit, that actually worked!"
"SANS, GET UP! WE'RE GOING HOME."
"wha' 'appened?" Sans asked blearily as he sat up and rubbed an eye socket.
"I'LL EXPLAIN LATER, AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR NAP. AT HOME. PREFERABLY IN YOUR BED." Or the couch. Neither were half acceptable after seeing what was available on the Surface, but for now it was all they had.
"right, ok." He yawned wide, then looked up at Papyrus and squinted. "wow, ya look freaked out. just found out the other sanses ain't the other papyruses' moms?"
"WAIT, WHAT?!"
"OH MY GOD, SANS!" With a loud clack Papyrus buried his face in his hands.
"what? i thought we agreed that people findin' out didn't really matter?"
"FOR THE MOST PART, BUT I DID JUST FIGURE OUT THAT WE," Papyrus motioned between himself and his not-alternates sharply, "AREN'T ACTUALLY THE SAME PERSON AFTER ALL AND I'M HAVING A TINY LITTLE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OVER IT. CAN WE PLEASE JUST GO HOME ALREADY? NOW."
"well since yer all polite an' shit. i'll never understand where ya got yer manners from."
"CERTAINLY NOT YOU."
"wait, wait, wait, don't go just yet." Stretch grabbed onto Papyrus's arm, "did he just say he's your mom?!"
"yeah, i did, and i'd 'preciate it if ya let my kid go." Sans grinned sharply up at Stretch.
"aren't you going to explain?!"
"YES! PLEASE EXPLAIN BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"
Sans grunted, "i already explained the whole thing to yer bros, ask them when they wake up. can't believe they're all sleepin' through this, expected blackie at least to wake up the moment intent got goin'."
"that's 'cause you can't muster up any intent against 'im," Slim said casually, hands stuffed deep in his coat pockets. "stretch, jus' let 'im go. our bros can tell us the 'ole thing later, an' red looks 'bout ready to drop."
Sans glowered sleepily at Slim, probably angry anyone besides Papyrus could read him so well.
Stretch reluctantly backed off. And there were the expressions of vague horror and pity on their faces he had wanted to avoid. He wondered if the other Sanses looked like that. He wondered how Sans hadn't torn them all to shreds for it. He wondered if having his face (or his face) was enough to keep Sans from tearing the other Papyruses to shreds.
Then he blinked, or maybe the world blinked, and they were in their own living room. Sans flopped onto the couch, eye sockets half lidded as he tiredly patted the cushion next to him.
"YOU SHOULD LIE DOWN, APPARENTLY NAP TIME IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR SANSES."
"c'mon, boss, i can hear yer gears grindin' from here."
Papyrus sat down on the couch and thumped his skull against the backrest, heaving a great sigh. "I'M NOT THE SAME AS THEM."
"neither am i."
"BUT YOU'RE ALL STILL THE SAME PERSON AT YOUR CORE, YOU HAVE THE SAME PAST, THE SAME PARENTS."
"we may have the same parents, but that don't mean we got the same past. did the others tell ya about how i'm the only sans that lived on the street before meeting him?"
"YES."
"that's a whole slew of skills an' experiences they ain't got, maybe no other sans in any timeline ever got."
"AND NONE OF THEM ARE A MOTHER EITHER," Papyrus spat out bitterly.
"ya sound like ya regret bein' born."
"I REGRET THE SITUATION AROUND MY BIRTH. YOU WERE FIFTEEN, SANS! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EVER BEEN IN THAT SITUATION TO BEGIN WITH."
"no, i shouldn't have, but i still don't regret gettin' to be yer mom."
Somehow living most of his life believing Sans's lie about being brothers made Papyrus doubt that.
"is that really what this is about? yer upset the other sansies had slightly less messed up childhoods?"
"WE ALL HAVE THE SAME NAME, AND TO EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT A SELECT FEW WE ALL HAVE THE SAME RELATIONSHIP, BUT THEY'RE NOT ACTUALLY MY ALTERNATES. WE'RE DIFFERENT PEOPLE."
"yer all still his kid, that's gotta count fer somethin'."
"IT'S JUST," Papyrus sighed again, staring up at the ceiling as he forced out the words. "IS HAVING A PAPYRUS IN THE TIMELINE, ANY PAPYRUS, SO IMPORTANT THAT THE UNIVERSE PUSHED YOU INTO THAT SITUATION?"
"ok, no. you can't blame yourself for something that happened before you were born. before you were even conceived! you didn't flirt with the closest thing you had to a father figure. you didn't flirt back with a child one fourth your age. you didn't cart homeless children off to that lab and you didn't abandon a baby to die alone on the streets. a lot of bad decisions led to your birth, but you didn't make a single one of them."
"SOMETHING CAN BE YOUR FAULT WITHOUT IT BEING A CHOICE."
"nothing that happened before you were born can ever be your fault! if ya wanna blame someone then blame yer grandparents. or asgore, either one works." Sans glared up at Papyrus, who was giving him an incredulous stare. "look, the low lv monsters weren't ever gonna let something like what he did slide like in the high lv timelines, no matter if they were right or left handed, so the only one so far that could've had a situation like ours was black an' slim's. so far as i can tell the difference is black was given up to be a ward of the crown, but in our timeline that'd just get ya dragged before asgore. if yer lucky he'd just throw ya in jail and ferget ya were down there, if ya were lucky. an' hey, didja know he and arial weren't married yet when that happened? so somethin' about havin' me around made them stick 'round, something that didn't happen in our timeline."
"BUT WHY DID THE UNIVERSE PICK YOU TO BE MY MOTHER? WHY DID I HAVE TO BE BORN SO BADLY?"
"oh my fuck! i told you this before and i'm saying it again: i'm glad you were born! you saved my life just by existing. if i didn't have to be responsible for you when he yeeted himself out of existence i'd have done something stupid like starve to death or poison myself eating garbage or got caught by the guards again. and i loved you from the very beginning, for the first time in my whole life i was happy, really happy. i'm glad you were born and if i had to do it all over again i'd do whatever i had to to make sure you were born again, okay? i don't know what i'd do without you. and the other sanses feel the same way, so if the universe needed a papyrus in our timeline so badly it's only because every sans needs his papyrus. i need my papyrus."
Papyrus sucked in a deep breath, fighting off the burn at the corners of his eye sockets. Frisk would be home soon, he didn't want them to see him crying and worry.
"ya good? we done freakin' out over could'ves and should'ves and other shit we can't change 'cause it's over and done with?"
"YES, I'M OKAY." And he was, for the most part. He could work through any lingering insecurities later. "SO LAY DOWN ALREADY, YOU'LL WANT TO BE WELL RESTED BEFORE GOING TO PICK UP FRISK FROM THEIR ALTERNATE PARTY."
"ya sure? not got any other issues yer freakin' out about?"
"YES, I'M SURE. I PROMISE NOT TO HAVE ANY MORE EXISTENTIAL CRISES UNTIL AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR NAP."
"i'll hold ya to that." Sans winked as he slouched, chin pressed to his clavicles as he slumped down. His eyes quickly drifted shut.
Papyrus picked up first one foot, pulled off Sans's untied shoe, then did the same for the other. He settled Sans's feet in his lap, causing the other to lay out across the couch or attempt to sleep torqued at a horrible angle. Papyrus may not be "freaking out" any more, but he still had a lot to think about, watching over Sans's rest as he did so was as good a place as any for it. The house grew still, only the sound of Sans's breathing and a light breeze blowing flurries against the window broke the quiet.
"YOU KNOW," Papyrus said contemplatively, "IF WE ACT LIKE IT'S COMMON KNOWLEDGE YOU'RE MY MOTHER ALL THE OTHER ALTERNATE SNOWDIN RESIDENTS WON'T KNOW ANY BETTER, AND WILL WONDER IF THE OTHER PAPYRUSES ARE THE OTHER SANSES' SONS TOO."
Sans's eye sockets flew open as he laughed harshly, "oh my god! yer right!"
Hoo Nelly, are there ever a lot of notes! First of all, for those who may have been confused about the nicknames I chose, the various skeletons in the order their Barriers broke:
UT: Comic and Sunny
US: Blue and Stretch
OT: Cosmic and Astro
SF: Black and Slim
UF: Red and Edge
I will admit I added in the OT boys a little last minute because I was inspired by Kamari33's flower shop AU. Their height was definitely stolen from Kamari, and only the fact that they can manipulate gravity kept them from suffering similar physical weakness. Both brothers are slowly working down how much they ignore gravity, but I don't blame Cosmic for completely ignoring it while sleeping. So far as I know it's my own HC to have their barrier instead be a portal to a comet (and also my own HC for it to be a comet and not a moon. A moon implies a convenient planet for them to be orbiting around).
I've also never written for the Swell boys before (the Swaps either, but I've at least planned out my own HCs for that AU) so I was kind of floundering a bit. They kinda grew as I went (even if Red was the only Sans with dialogue). There are so many of my own HCs that went into this, could you feel all the world building I kept putting in?
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll do anything else with this multiversal AU, I think there's a lot of potential for interesting concepts and fun stories. We'll see.