The door squeaked and in came my dad. "Grillby?" He noticed the tense skeleton who spared a heartbeat to glance his way. "And this must be Sans. Morning, chi-"

"Yer not lookin' at it." The fear he'd been holding onto earlier was now anger. Blue light glowed especially strong in his eye. Every now and then a tiny speck of yellow appeared in his other eye, the gap in the ring now taking up half of it.

"Oh… Son, you're in-"

"SHUT IT!" There was a ZOOM and the skull appeared. The aura it emitted gave the room a horrid feeling. It was electric almost. "I'm. Fine." Lights danced within the skull, lashing out and around it. They did no harm to the room, but contact with the light gave an intense reaction that burst the bulb sending the room into a dim darkness only lit by the window and the mixed fires of my father and me.

"Sans… just calm do-"

"NO!" He cut me off. Another light built up inside of the blaster, solid and white. "I'M FINE!"

"Sans?"

We both jumped, looking to the door and spotting Papyrus. My dad moved to the side. "Kid? P-Papyrus? You should wait downstairs."

"Oh! It's the puppy!" Papyrus rushed into the room shocking Sans. "You're practicing without me? And I thought we said outside! That bad dog is going to mess up the room more than you already do, Sans!" He paused, looking down at the broken glass from the lightbulb. "Look at what he did already! Bad dog!" The tiny skele pointed at the still terrifying skull.

"Uh… Pap…" The blue glow in Sans's eye faded, remaining but less intense. "Y-Yeah… Uh… Bad… Bad Blaster. You don't play inside." And with another fading flash, the blaster was gone.

No one spoke, other than Papyrus laughing. Finally I decided to ask, "Are you alright now, Sans?"

He didn't answer immediately. "...Yeah." The skeleton smiled up at me, weak and sorry. "I'm fine."

With Papyrus still in the room, I knew he wouldn't be comfortable with my dad looking at his soul. "Well, if that's the case, then I think Pap and I should go play in the snow. You wanted to show my dad something, right?" My eyes were pleading.

Another moment of quiet… and finally he nodded. "Yeah."

I gave his shoulder a squeeze and got up. "Thank you, buddy." Taking Papyrus's hand we left the room and started downstairs. I tried my best to keep my mind on the hyper child. Any attention not on him would only make him question things. I knew Papyrus was young, but I also knew he was very smart. Not as intellectually smart like his brother, but emotionally smart.

Papyrus somehow got me involved in building a new fort with him and we used the now snow-filled crater in the yard to make it. I was surprised Gaster hadn't asked anything about the hole in his yard. Perhaps he cared more for his work than the state of his home. And so long as his boys were okay, he didn't mind? I didn't know. I was just thinking.

I had to put on some gloves to keep the snow from touching my flames and I was happy to have brought a mask as well since Papyrus wanted to have a snowball fight. Of course his first throw nailed me in the mask and I pretended it 'got me'. I slumped into the snow and dramatically 'got got' as the other triumphantly put a boot on my chest and yelled victory.

"Plot twist!" I said, grabbing his leg. "I'm a zombie!"

"NYEEEEH!" Pap flailed his arms and fell into the snow trying to run. "Backup! I've been captured!"

"Zombies don't capture?" I ventured. "They eat you up!"

"But I am not spaghetti! I am a skele!"

We continued the silly game until Papyrus cured me of being undead and we made a truce between the zombies and monsters. The writing in the snow was just a bunch of symbols Pap wrote and I used the heat still radiating from my glove to melt a handprint for a signature. "That was fun," I smiled at him.

"Oh oh! We should play human hunt!"

I thought for a moment. "Don't we need at least three monsters to play?"

"Yeah! We can get Sans and Fire dad!"

My fire sparked from under my mask. "No! Wait, Pap!" I stopped him from running inside. "Your brother is doing something important with my dad, okay? We don't want to bug them."

"Important? I want to help!"

"No- You can't! Because… Uh…" I couldn't think of anything.

His eyes were so big then. "Is it something for me?"

I blinked. "Yes! You don't want to ruin your own surprise? Oh no! I've given away too much!" I'd have to come up with something now just so he isn't sad about there being no surprise.

"No! No I will not! Because that would be rude." He plopped back down beside me on the steps. "I will let them plan! And then I will act surprised!" Papyrus put his hands on his cheekbones and opened his mouth. "Do I look surprised enough?"

I couldn't keep the laugh from coming out. "Perfect."

Jumping up he ran back into the snow. "You must be surprised too!"

"Why? It's for you, not me."

"Because! If you do not, then they will know you told me!"

Anything to keep him from interrupting my dad. "You're right." I took off my mask and copied Papyrus's earlier expression. "How's this?"

"NYEH! So surprised!" He quickly gathered up some snow and threw it at my leg.

"Shots fired!" I put my mask back on and returned my own snowball. "There's snow way you can beat me!"

"Lies! The Great Papyrus can never lose!" And once again our game took off.