Chapter four:

Papyrus is getting ready for work. He turns to look to his brother who is standing by him by the door. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll keep myself busy." Sans tells Papyrus and helps adjust his scarf. "I'll do some chores, and if I have nothing to do I'll work in my lab. I do have a few projects that I put on hold for awhile." He has changed his clothes in order to not be reminded of the attack. He is now wearing a purple t-shirt, a blue pull over hoodie that lets part of the T-shirts collar be seen, black pants, and blue runners.

"Well, alright." Papyrus hugs Sans close. He knows that he does need to get them money, especially since Sans isn't working right now. "I'll be back before you know it. And call me if anything comes up. Even if you are having a flashback or not feeling well. Anything at all. Call me."

Sans hugs his brother back and looks up at him with a smile. "I know you will. And I promise I'll call you if something comes up."

Papyrus smiles back at his brother. He leans down nuzzling his forehead. "Have fun." He reluctantly pulls away as Sans lets him go. He heads out the door closing it behind himself. He starts his walk through Snowdin in order to get to his sentry post. He is about to pass by the bunny who runs the shop by the inn, when she speaks to him.

"Good morning Papyrus!" The white bunny monster greets with a friendly smile. She has on a beanie which causes her ears to droop down, a pink dress that goes to her knees with long sleeves, the sleeves cover her hand up to the base of her thumbs, her large breasts are obvious though only because of their size, and black boots that reach half way to her knees with a thick heel.

"Good morning!" Papyrus greets her back with a smile.

"You're looking well. How is Sans?" The bunny frowns when she sees a worried look cross Papyruss face.

"He's as alright as he can be. He's doing his best to remain in high spirits." Papyrus tells her and feels her soft paw like hand on his shoulder. "He's made great progress."

"Well it is good that he is making progress." The bunny nods to this and offers a smile. "If you need anything let me know."

"Thank you." Papyrus gives her a smile in response to this. "Though I must be on my way."

"Of course." The bunny moves away. "Have a good day!"

"You too!" Papyrus heads off knowing that he might run into a few more curious monsters. He will just stick with the same responses. He doesn't need to go into detail, especially since he doubts that they really need to know such details.

In the meantime Sans has decided to start with cleaning the kitchen. He does his best to keep his mind focused on the task. He lets his thoughts think about how to get some stains out he might come across, what he needs to do next, and other such things. He does his best to shut off his mind when it tries to stray off on its own. He doesn't trust it to bring up something that it shouldn't. He finishes the kitchen and heads to the living room. He glances around and finds it's pretty clean. He knows that before the attack Papyrus did a lot of the cleaning. So he's not really surprised. He decides that maybe he'll have a little break and go to his lab. He could work on some of his projects there.

They always keep his mind distracted as he figures out each part so they'll work.

Sans heads towards the door only to pause standing in front of it. His soul slightly pounds in his rib cage. He feels a little nervous about going out. He brings his hood up over his skull. He pulls it down on the side of where he is scarred up. He takes a breath then heads out quickly going to his lab around back. He did close the front door behind himself. He makes it to his lab shutting the door behind himself. He leans against the door with a heavy sigh. His hand still holding his hood down over the scarred part of his face. His uninjured eye glances around at his lab trying to calm himself.

There's a table in little built in desk against the left wall with drawers on the bottom, blueprints messily placed on the desk, a big machine in the right corner covered by a dusty grey sheet, a few spare parts as well as unfinished projects scattered on the floor, and his boxes of various tools against the right wall.

Sans stops holding his hood down. He glances to the large machine remembering it. He had started in trying to build a machine to prove the existence of other worlds. He had a little trouble with it so he had left it unfinished for quite a long while. He contemplates trying to work on it again. His eye is drawn to the projects and parts on the floor. He really does have quite a few projects left to finish.

That's when one in particular catches his interest. A small machine Sans had started, it is to try to amplify a monsters magical abilities. A project that Sans had started after a human had come through killing several monsters.

Sans had thought that maybe they could stop it sooner if another human like that came. He turns away from it as he remembers hearing about how Undyne lost an eye to a human. His mind putting the scene in his head that seems to fade into a charging dog. His mind races trying to replay his attack. His knees tremble and feel as though he is going to collapse. He can hear the dog monsters sounds in his head. He looks around frantically in fear before his legs give out under him. His body is trembling badly and his eyes stare in front with a blank from terror, as if the whole attack is happening again. His mind unable to tear itself away from the horrible memory.

Suddenly another sound breaks out into the room.

Sans yelps as his cellphone begins ringing. He falls backwards into his back from the shock. He lays there for a small moment to let himself recover a little, before scrambling to answer the call. "H-Hello?"

"Sans! Is everything okay? You don't sound so good. Do you need me to come back?"

Hearing Papyruss voice calms Sans a bit more and he sits up.

"No. It's okay Paps. I'm feeling better now. I'm sorry. I just thought about the human that attacked monsters... It got a bit carried away... Though I'm assuring you Paps I'm okay now."

"Well... Alright..." Papyrus agrees to this trusting his brother. "Have you been keeping yourself busy other than that?"

"Yeah. I cleaned up a bit then went down to my lab."

"Have you started any lab projects?" Papyrus questions curiously with a small smile.

"Haven't had the chance yet."

"I see. That's okay. What one do you think you'll want to do it?"

Sans makes a small hum of thought as he glances around. "Maybe I could do some work on the one to other worlds. It wasn't something that reminded me."

"Maybe you'll get it to work this time." Papyrus agrees to this. "I should get back to work before Undyne asks for a report."

"Good luck out there bro."

"Good luck on your project!"

With that the brothers hang up.

Sans removes the sheet and turns away as there is some dust that falls from it. He turns back to the machine once that has settled. "Well might as well get to work." He takes off the metal panel to look to some of the electronic parts. He grabs the light green motherboard checking it over. He wonders if he should change out the motherboard. He lets it go and heads to where the drawers are. He looks through them finding the biggest motherboard he has. He takes it to the machine and carefully swaps out the motherboards. He checks some of the wiring making sure none of it has frayed or burnt out. He puts the panel back and moves to check where the portal should appear. He looks for loose or possibly cracked parts.

One of the parts to project the portal appears to have cracked from the last test.

Sans unscrews that one and sets it on the table. He grabs a similar looking metal ball. He heads to where his tools are. He looks for a saw and he grabs a handheld electric saw. He takes it to the table and carefully makes cuts to make the metal look like the piece. He gets out a drill and does a little drilling to get it all set in looking the part. He takes it back to the machine and screws it on. "There we go." He checks for anything else that might need replacing. He also finishes up putting a few pieces to protect the insides. He steps back once this is done. "This is it." He breathes out. "Will it work? I hope so." He moves closer to it and starts it up. He moves back again as it roars to life. He sees a light shine through where the portal is be made. He sees the swirling as the portal starts to form. He gasps in excitement as it seems to be working. He pauses as it suddenly starts to rattle. He hurries away from it then crouches with his back to it holding his skull. He swears that he sees white for a moment then he blinks as it ends. He finds everything is now silent. He turns around and gasps slightly.

Laying there on a second dusty sheet is what appears to be a skeleton. Looking like a Papyrus with a red scarf, a white top with yellow around the end of the sleeve, as well as the bottom, a little bit of spine showing, a pair of blue short shorts with yellow on the top, red boots with brown bottoms, and red gloves that end with a yellow stripe just past the wrist.

Carefully Sans moves closer then stands above the other by said others head. He looks down at him in concern, wondering if he accidentally pulled this Papyrus from his world when the machine malfunctioned.

The Papyrus groans and shifts to his hands and knees only to look up. He makes a startled sound and falls back onto his butt.

Sans blinks his eye in even more worry. He slightly leans back fearing the reason the other had that reaction. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

The Papyrus seems to gain his composer then gets to his feet. "No. It's fine." He tells Sans who has to look up at him now. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to you?" He moves a little closer and Sans almost wants to move away.

Sans looks away and pulls his hood over his head pulling it over his scarred eye area. "Um... It's a little personal isn't it?" He blinks his good eye as gentle hands get him to let go of his hood then moves the hood off.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me. If you don't want to I mean." The Papyrus gently encourages Sans to look at him. "I don't mind your scars. They actually make you look really cool."

"I never thought about it like that before." Sans admits his eye glancing away. Slightly embarrassed and a little surprised.

"Well you should. They show that you survived something. Whatever that may be. You are strong." The Papyrus tells him as Sans looks back to him. His gaze and serious smile confirm that he's confident in what he's saying.

Sans ponders if perhaps fate has brought the two together. He figures that this is another version of his brother. He doesn't see the harm in letting him help. Though he doesn't want to talk about it. He sighs a little heavily, as quietly as he can, slightly glancing away. He worries about showing the fear and anxiety the story causes him. "It was a dog monster. Now I just can't look at the others the same anymore." If he's going to let this Papyrus help the other might as well know.

"You'll be okay. You're healing." The Papyrus tells him with gentleness filling his tone. "I can tell." He lets the other look back to him. "One day you'll feel better around them. You just gotta find your own way to do so. You could do exposers to them for certain periods of time. Or give yourself enough time to cope with what happened. Then maybe move more towards getting things back to normal with them."

"You know, you almost seem to have an answer for everything." Sans smiles a little, which seems to make the other Papyrus pretty happy. His smile turns to a frown causing a worried shift in the others facial features. He turns away not wanting to see the half open eyes with the frown of deep concern. He can truly imagine his own brother in this world with that same look. He finds at the reminder of his brother the words spill out to this other world Papyrus. "But it all feels pointless. I can't help with the work anymore. I would just be in fear if I returned to the job that almost killed me." He doesn't even turn when a reassuring hand comes to rest upon his shoulder. He takes a deep breath trying to keep it quiet in not wanting the Papyrus to really hear. He feels like this Papyrus is getting so involved in this, despite that they'd probably never see each other again. So on that line of thinking he supposes that even if he says something, the Papyrus will just take it to his home world. His train of thought is brought to a halt as a voice manages to break through. He also feels a hug being wrapped around him from behind. He finds the voice helps to soothe him a little alongside the hug.

"Itll be okay." The Papyrus tells Sans who stands there staring down and listening. "You don't have to go back to sentry work if it's not good for your mental health. You know, I got thinking." His words make Sans rather curious about what the other could have thought of. "You seem to enjoy doing things here. Building machines, doing science, all that stuff. Just like my brother. So why don't you work in the lab?"

At this Sans blinks his eye in shock then glances to the Papyrus. His mouth slightly open in surprise from the suggestion.

"Plus it'd probably give you reassurance. I don't think you'd encounter dog monsters there." The Papyrus continues smiling at seeing he caught Sanss attention. "Cameras also are probably there, so you can see who is there or coming. Plus you get to do all the science stuff that you want."

Sans is in utter disbelief. How had he not thought of that himself!? He closes his mouth with a gulp of air. "Wow. Thats pretty clever." He admits making the Papyruss smile grow. "I think I might look into it." He shifts to move away and is easily let go. "Though first we should get you home. I bet your brother is looking for you by now." He moves away from this other Papyrus who lets him go easily.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" The Papyrus hovers behind Sans who starts working on getting the machine working again. "I can explain to my brother if you need me to stay. I'm sure he'd understand."

"I'll be okay. And even if I end up not being okay, I have my brother. Who I'm sure will help me just as well as you can. I don't mean it in a mean way. I'm just trying to say that I'll have my own brother. Also that you're probably needed just as much in your home world. Especially to your brother who wouldn't have anyone to turn to if needed, if you stayed here. It is a nice offer though. Thank you." Sans reminds him and hears the Papyrus give an assurance, that it's okay that he turned down the offer. He manages to get the log of where it connected after a little work. "Huh. So your world is called Undertale. And my world is called Sturdytale. Well interesting information there."

Undertale Papyrus nods to this. "I didn't know worlds had names." He tries to get a closer look at the log, wondering if there were any other worlds on it. He doesn't see any and tries to respect Sturdytale Sanss space now.

"I guess it's to help figure out what world someone is talking about. Or even what kind of world it is? I can only speculate about it." Sans pauses for a moment then shakes his head, eye closed that he opens after the shake of his head, to bring back his focus. He works on figuring out anything that needs replacing. He should be able to turn things back, and hopefully send UT Papyrus back to the right world.

UT Papyrus goes quiet and lets Sans work. He takes some time to glance around a little. He turns as Sans jumps when his phone goes off.

"Sorry. My brothers probably checking up on me." Sans quickly answers the call. "Hey." He pauses for a few moments to let his brother speak.

ST Papyrus has a warm tone as he speaks to his brother. "How are you? And how are things going?"

"They're going fine." Sans tells his brother over the phone and glances to UT Papyrus. He is unsure if he should reveal the idea yet, in which the other gives him a silent two thumbs up. He glances away after that. "You know an idea came up. So well maybe I'll find work at the lab with Alphys." He moves his free hand to rub the back of his skull a little shy about the new idea.

"That's a great idea!" ST Papyruss response makes Sans relax. "I think you should try it out. I know how much you love playing around in your own lab there."

"Well it'll be something worth looking into. Then I can help with the bills."

"If that's what will make you happy then okay." ST Papyrus agrees to it truly just wanting his brother to be happy. "I gotta go. I got to check for humans by the ruins. Before they can try to sneak past me. Undyne would not be happy about that."

"Good luck."

"Thanks. And you stay safe."

After that the two hung up.

UT Papyrus can't stop smiling happy about helping another version of his brother. His own brother being his most precious treasure after all.