"Sans! Come look what I found outside!" Papyrus screamed, slamming the front door of the apartment open.
"Pap, I'm trying to do something right now." Sans said, a joke dancing in his voice.
"What're you trying to do that's so important?" Papyrus sprinted over to his brother with great urgency.
"Nothing." Sans lied, covering up the bill with the fruit bowl on the table.
"Well, nothing is cooler than what I found, Brother!" Papyrus shouted, putting a hand on Sans' shoulder and trying to coax him outside.
"You're right. Nothing is cooler." The skeleton inwardly smiled at his own joke.
"Sans!" Papyrus hollered, running to the doorway without his brother before turning around and charging dangerously at the other, tackling his brother to the floor with a battle cry.
Sans chuckled, trying to pry his brother off of him. "Okay, okay, I'm coming. You're such a big babybones."
Papyrus let out a triumphant 'nyeh' and tried to stand, but his hand was stuck in his brother's left ulna.
Half an hour later, Undyne arrived and helped remove Papyrus' hand, whom was still wincing in pain as they made their way outside. Undyne left after helping to spare them the shame that she would bestow upon them later, and because she already had plans to play video games with Alphys.
Sans' eyesockets widened at the sight of Papyrus' surprise. Eggs. There was a basket of eggs on the ground. Abandoned eggs.
"Sans! We have to take them home! Please!" Papyrus whined, pushing one of the white orbs to his calcium-filled cheekbones.
"Papyrus, we don't even know what they are or if they're fertilized. They might not have animals in them at all." Sans said, trying his best to explain it gently without making his brother upset.
"No, Sans! Look!" Papyrus exclaimed, picking up a paper from inside of the basket. He pointed at it with enthusiasm.
Sans would roll his eyes if he had them. The paper read "ducks to good home," and he knew now that he did not have a choice in taking them. "They need their mother." He tried to reason, carefully watching every move his brother made.
"No! We need to take them! Their mother obviously wrote this letter." The tall skeleton insisted, still thrusting the paper into his brother's face.
Sans didn't have the heart to tell his brother that ducks on this strange new world did not write. "You know this will be a lot of responsibility, don't you, Papyrus?"
A large smile spread across the skeleton's face. "Since I am the coolest brother, I'd easily make the coolest mother, as well!" To prove his point, the skeleton removed his beloved red scarf and kneeled down, wrapping the basket with the cloth and lifting it up with care. "Are you going to support me or not? After all, I am a single mother of," he stopped to count the eggs, whispering the numbers to himself as he counted before exclaiming the last number he muttered. "Nine! Since I have nine children. I might need a little help!"
Sans sighed. "Fine, but don't get too attached to them, okay, Paps? We can't keep nine ducks in our apartment. The manager would have a fit." He looked down at his brother, who was still knelt down on the ground, cuddling the eggs and cooing to them.
Papyrus mumbled something and picked the eggs up. "Don't listen to him, my babies, he's just jealous he didn't mother all of you." Sans couldn't help but chuckle at his brother's words, but he pat his brother's spine anyway, smiling at him.
"I sure am, Paps." He muttered, watching his younger brother closely as they made their way inside with the eggs, making sure his brother didn't drop any, knowing he'd be devastated if he did.
"I knew it." Papyrus said, proud of his accusation, before getting to work on setting the eggs in a comfortable position on the couch. The noodle-shaped skeleton slouched onto the couch and pulled out his phone, clumsily texting his fish friend about what he had found.
Less than thirty minutes later, the fish woman burst through the door, holding a strange machine in her arms. "Losers! Look what my awesome girlfriend made!" She sat it on the coffeetable, knocking a vase and a few newspapers to the floor in the process, but she didn't pay any mind to the objects.
"You mean your gillfriend?" Sans chipped in, watching in delight as Undyne smacked her hands to the sides of her face and screamed. She rushed forward and was ready to powerdrive him when her small dinosaur girlfriend entered the room and hurried over, trying to pull her away from him.
"U-Undyne, what are you doing? S-stop that!" Alphys whined, pulling on her much larger and much stronger girlfriend with all of her might, even though it was useless, seeing as she couldn't make the other female even budge from her spot. Luckily, she stopped just to pay attention to the other woman in the room.
"Alphys! Tell them about your fetus machine!" The fish proclaimed loudly, gesturing to the machine on the table that Papyrus was now probing at curiously.
"I-it's not a fetus machine!" Alphys exclaimed, turning red at the thought before turning to face the metal object. "I-it's called an incubator. A-and I did not make it. I found it at the dump." She said, pushing her glasses up onto her snout. "I-it's a machine made by humans, according to my research. When a child i-is not able to be taken care of by their birth mother, they put the human inside of it, and I believe it keeps them warm until they are ready to breath oxygen."
"Hmm.. Do you think it will work for my duck babies?" Papyrus piped up, staring at his egg children lovingly.
"I d-don't see why not!" Alphys cheered, nodding.
"How does it work?" Sans asked, knowing it was the important question.
"I-I'll have to set it up before Ii an ex-explain it!" Alphys said, sheepishly tugging on Undyne's arm. "C-can you help me get i-it up to Papyrus's room? I'm afraid I c-can't carry i-it."
Undyne smirked and flexed. "Of course I can! I am the strongest fish in the sea, after all!" She proclaimed, lifting the machine with ease and moving it up to desired room, all occupants in the house following her, including the basket of eggs, which Papyrus had carried tenderly up the stairs.
Within a few moments, the incubator was ready for the eggs and humming. Alphys mentioned something about a book she left outside and practically fell down the stairs hurrying to retrieve it. When she returned, she was huffing and out of breath as she handed the book to Papyrus.
"I-if you have any questions," she huffed out, her tiny chest heaving rapidly, "you should be able to find the answers in here." She straightened herself up and a stern expression formed on her face. "Now, you have to be there when they hatch! If you wanna be their Mama, they have to hear your voice when they're hatching! You can also try talking to them before they hatch, but I don't know if it does anything or not."
The tall skeleton nodded excitedly, staring at the eggs. "Of course! I found them, after all!" He said the last sentence softly, brushing one of the eggs with his bony finger. "Aren't they all so cute?"
The dinosaur couldn't help but scrunch her face up in amusement, but she refused to laugh, knowing that it would hurt the noodle skeleton's feelings. "They are pretty cute."
"Of course they are! I am their mother after all." Papyrus said proudly, puffing his ribcage out.
Sans chuckled a bit, but stopped when he saw the hurt look on Papyrus' face. Sans smoothly nodded. "You're a great mother, Paps."
"I know. Now, shoo! All of you!" Papyrus ordered, and they all stared at him in confusion before he elaborated. "It's their beddy bye time!"
Undyne and Alphys left, talking quietly to eachother about which anime they were going to marathon that night, and Sans made his way to the doorway after them, but Papyrus threw a pillow at him.
"Not you!" Papyrus whined, turning around and arranging the incubator so that it lay in his bed, still plugged up and warming the eggs. "You have to read to us."
The shorter skeleton chuckled. "Alright, but you know if you're their mom, you should be the one reading to them."
Papyrus scrunched up his face. "I will! But not when I have to sleep, too."
Nodding, Sans accepted the answer as he scourged the book shelf. "Which one today, Paps?"
Scoffing, Papyrus crawled into his racecar bed. "Obviously Quincy the Snowbunny."
"Obviously." Sans said in a faux-shocked tone. "I should have known."
Shaking his skull north and south in approval, Papyrus squirmed so that he was under his blanket before gently pulling the machine under the blanket with him. One by one, he pulled the eggs out and kissed them, setting them back in their place afterwards.
Pretending to be still searching for the desired book, Sans felt his blue heart warm up at the spitting image. He shook his head and pulled the book out, hurrying over to Papyrus' bedside, crawling through each of the pages, listening closely to every reaction Papyrus had to the book and treasuring the moments.
Now, as he stood in the doorway, Sans felt so at peace watching the scene of his brother, cuddling the incubator, sleeping like an infant. Shaking his skull, Sans flipped the light off and left the room, making sure to leave the door open so that light from the hallway still illuminated Papyrus' door, knowing that Papyrus would randomly become afraid of the dark some nights.
A few days later, Sans was relaxing on his bed and flipping mindlessly through a joke book when he heard the unmistakable bone-curdling scream of Papyrus from the other room. "Papyrus?" Sans called, jumping to his feet.
Terrified, Sans sprinted out of his room and to Papyrus' room, but the room was empty. Hurriedly, Sans practically fell down the stairs and found that his brother wasn't in the house at all. "Papyrus?" He hollered again, his voice growing desperately loud as he flung the door open at the speed of a hurricane and saw his brother kneeling down in the front yard, hiding something.
"Papyrus?" Sans said rather quietly as he now stood by his brother's side breathlessly, scanning over his brother for marks.
"Sans? Why did you run out here?" Papyrus asked, clearly fine and oblivious to his brother's fears.
"I.. I just.." Sans struggled to catch his breath, and when he did, he thought he could feel the need to yell at Papyrus for scaring him so badly, but he knew that Papyrus had no clue about the other timelines, so he shut his mouth and grinned, shaking his head. "I thought Undyne started another fire, or something."
Laughing, Papyrus let down his guard and accidentally dropped the object he was trying to keep hidden out of his arms. "Nyeh!" He let out, embarrassed and trying his best to collect the item.
"What is that you're trying to hide, Papy?" Sans interrogated, struggling to get a good look at the object.
Papyrus sighed and let the item fall. It was a pink dollhouse, with scratches and marks all over it, and it was the spa version, with some weird human title on the front of it. A tiny little plastic pool was on one side of it, but the pool that led from the balcony of the house was snapped in half, with electric tape sticking off one side of the slide. "It was a duck spa."
Trying not to laugh, Sans gently put a hand on his brother's back. "Bro, why were you trying to build one yourself?"
An offended look on his face, Papyrus tried again to tape the broken bits of the slide back together. "Well, I wanted to make it special!"
Offering a comforting skeleton grin, Sans reassured his brother. "It will be just as special if we buy one."
An upset look aligned the taller skeleton, and his gaze dropped to the ground. "But Sans, we're already struggling with money. I don't have a job, and we need to pay the billman." His voice was fragile and shaking as he spoke, but he trudged through anyways.
Sans knew that Papyrus was right, but he also knew that his brother deserved the best things that money could buy. "We're doing fine, Paps."
Papyrus snapped his head up to glare at Sans. "No, we're not! You're working two jobs, and I've never seen you work so hard!" A sad look returning to his face, Papyrus looked back down. "And no one will give me a job."
Reaching forward, Sans pulled his brother into a hug. "We're going to be alright, Bro, I promise. This new human world is kind of weird, and all the monsters are going to struggle a little, but we're not struggling more than any other monster."Patting his brother's back, he lightened his tone a little. "And we'll find you a job. Don't worry about that too much. None of us monsters have been to human college, so we just have to keep looking for jobs that don't require it."
Shaking his head, Papyrus buried his skull in Sans' shoulder and started to sniffle. "I just wish I didn't cost you so much money, and that humans wouldn't stare at me so weirdly whenever I go anywhere."
Rubbing his brother's back, Sans couldn't help but pity him. "You don't cost me lots, Paps, okay? And people are just adjusting to us, that's all." He tightened his grip on his brother.
Papyrus slowed his cries and nodded into the shoulder. "I don't know what do about my duck slide." He muttered, and Sans pulled away and stood in front of the other.
"We'll go to a discount store. They'll have some up here. And hey," he tugged at his brother's hand, encouraging him to stand up. "where'd you find this first one?"
Standing up, Papyrus stated matter-of-factly, "At the garbage park."
Chuckling, Sans nodded. "Of course."
The two made their way to Goodwill, and before long, they had a faded pink Barbie resort with water running through it.
A week later and Papyrus moved the invention to the restroom, which was there because it was a human apartment complex. There were also multicolored rubber ducks of all sizes occupying the bathroom that Papyrus found at the dump. Even a rubber adult duck that squeaked when squeezed sat on the side of the bathtub.
Whenever asked about why there were so many aquatic squeaky birds occupying the room, Papyrus would say that it was to help teach them to swim.
Half a week more passed and a large container of cream was put in the restroom with a sloppy label saying 'duck soap.' According to Papyrus, it was completely homemade, even though the garbage can was overflowing with containers of kitten shampoo.
There were also varieties of nontoxic paint scattered across the coffeetable, but Papyrus was sad to inform Sans that Alphys told him he was absolutely not allowed to paint the eggs because it could harm the ducks inside of them. Instead, Sans and Papyrus spent that day painting the words "proud duck mommy" on a shirt for Papyrus.
One a different night, Sans woke up to find Papyrus reading to the duck eggs. Making sure not to be noticed, he creaked the door open and saw the lovely scene. The eggs were still in the incubator, but they were all littered with stickers of different objects that were associated with babies, except one, which was decked out with different pasta stickers. Sans watched the scene until Papyrus slinked down to sleep beside the eggs, and he wished he could've taken a picture of the scene. Instead, the tired skeleton sauntered to his own bedroom and collapsed into bed.
Excitedly, Papyrus hopped on top of Sans one day to wake him up. "It's today, it's today! The ca lender says today is the day they hatch!"
Laughing, Sans propped himself up on his elbow bones, but was unable to sit up completely because Papyrus was sitting on his abdomen. "Paps, I know you're excited," the shorter skeleton winced, "but could you stop crushing me?"
Still vibrating like a racecar, Papyrus unmounted the other skeleton and practically flew off the bed and downstairs. "I'm making breakfast!"
Knowing his brother couldn't cook, Sans made his way out of his room and downstairs in his pajamas, smiling at the other. "How about we go out for breakfast? Ya know, to celebrate the event?"
Thrusting his hand to his face, Papyrus crunched his face up in thought before nodding reluctantly. "I guess that will do. But, you have to change! And I'm inviting all of our friends!"
Chuckling, Sans made his way back up the stairs. "Make sure to wear your shirt we made. Half of our group hasn't seen it."
Gasping, Papyrus sprinted to the stairs and took large leaps up the staircase. "You're absolutely right! What was I thinking, wearing this silly old shirt?"
Sans simply shook his head and changed into a white t shirt that said "memes are dreams" in green letters and some black shorts, slipping his jacket over it all. When he walked into the hallway, he couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Papyrus carrying the entire incubator with him.
"Papy, you can't take them with us. They need to stay plugged up." He told his brother, who he could swear was on the verge of crying at that comment.
"B-but what if they hatch while I'm gone? I can't be a good mother if I don't show up for the birth of my children!" The taller skeleton whined, gazing lovingly at his eggs.
Smiling, Sans wobbled over to Papyrus and grabbed the incubator out of his grip. "They're not going to hatch this early. Relax, Pap."
Nodding sadly,Papyrus snatched the incubator back and returned it to his room. "'Alright, I'm ready, then. I called everyone while I was changing, and everyone will be there except Asgore. He had to work today. I can't remember what his job is, but he told me it was very important."
"Ah, that's okay. But we better hurry up so Undyne doesn't start throwing spears at us for being late." Sans joked, but he knew it held some truth, as did Papyrus, who winced at the thought.
Speeding down the stairs, Papyrus practically flew out the front door.
Everyone had a nice breakfast.
Alphys and Undyne were both very tired, having been up all night watching anime, but aside from that, everyone was fully awake and ready for the day. The exqueen had small bags under her eyes, but she was smiling at everyone nonetheless, and no one could blame her. Being a school teacher had its drawbacks.
Apparently, she had been up all night grading papers, and she would have been able to do them earlier in the day, but Chara had detention for beating up a little boy in the school who was bullying Frisk, and Toriel had to wait until their detention shift was over.
The feisty child didn't say anything as their mother explained the story, but grimaced throughout it. Frisk sat next to Papyrus, excitedly signing to him every few minutes, asking questions about the eggs and continuously congratulating his motherhood. Flowey spent the majority of the time hissing at any contact from others, but he stopped and went silent when Frisk held him and spoon fed him their home fries, which they didn't like.
Mettaton across from Papyrus, and everyone knew that he was flirting with the tall skeleton in some way, with consciously or subconsciously, seeing as how nearly every smile he had that morning was directed at Papyrus. At one point, the skeleton and robot were holding hands above the table, but it made it difficult to eat, so they had to stop and focus on their meal.
At one point, a passing woman and her children pointed at the odd family and made rude comments, and one of the children was making them specifically at Papyrus, going on and on about how males couldn't be mothers and how ugly his shirt was, but once Papyrus turned on the waterworks, the small group of humans left the building.
It took a while to calm him down, but with all of the hugs from Frisk, the threaten to murder the humans who left from Flowey and Chara, the silly stories from Undyne and Alphys(that were totally not the plots to fanfictions they read), the outrageously horrible jokes from Sans and Toriel, and the feather kisses from Mettaton, he finally was able to dry his tears up.
They all ate and had small talk until Alphys, whom was still exhausted, lifted her gaze up to everyone at the table and turned to Undyne, and before long, they were having a heated debate over which character deserved the love of another character from an anime, and that's when everyone decided it was probably time to head home.
Alphys and Undyne left first, still discussing the characters' archetypes as they left the facility. Next was Toriel and her children, whom all agreed, either jubilantly or reluctantly, to come over later after the ducks had hatched. Mettaton took his leave, making sure to kiss Papyrus a few times on his cheek, leaving behind black and pink lip marks on the white surface. Giddily, Papyrus exited the building with Sans in tow.
When they arrived home, Papyrus was surprised to find a banner that said 'duck mother' in bubble letters in the living room, and his friends all waiting with duck-themed gifts. Swiftly, Papyrus sprinted up the stairs, tripping twice on his way up, and thrusted his door open to find that the eggs had still not hatched. "Phew! They're still not born." He sighed, making his way back downstairs.
Everyone had brought a gift for Papyrus and his ducks, and the proud skeleton couldn't help but cry a little. Alphys brought him a dvd about caring for ducks, Undyne brought him a cookbook full of recipes that ducks could eat, Mettaton brought him a shirt with a duck on it and a multitude of outfits for the ducks themselves, Asgore, who set up the party, brought a mug that said 'spaghetti mom' and had a horribly painted duck on front, and the remaining Dreemurrs brought a large toy duck holding a toy shotgun for him. Toriel explained that Chara and Flowey insisted the duck had a way to protect himself, so he had a gun. Papyrus agreed on the notion.
Even Sans brought a few new books for Papyrus to read to the ducks down from his room. The tall skeleton hugged everyone and cried for a second time that day.
The group sat together in the living room and talked for a long time when Papyrus remembered that he forgot to pick up any duck food. He picked a recipe from the cookbook Undyne brought and rushed out to fetch the ingredients from the store.
While he was gone, the family continued their bantering and laughing. Sans decided to carry all Papyrus' gifts upstairs, and when he was carrying the stuffed duck and books up, he heard it.
Cracking. His eyesockets boggled and he stared at the incubator. Surely, one egg with a rattle sticker on it was starting to crack. Panicking, Sans opened the incubator and tried shushing the eggs. But, of course, they didn't listen.
Downstairs, the front door finally opened and Papyrus greeted everyone again before making his way upstairs to put the duck treats he found at the store in his room. Once he opened the door, he let out a scream.
Hurriedly, everyone ran up the stairs to see what was wrong. Gasps erupted from their mouths at the sight of eight baby ducks quaking at Sans. The poor small skeleton was being bombarded with chirps from them, and Papyrus was devastated. Immediately, Mettaton put a soft hand on his boyfriend's shoulder and gave him a pitiful look. Everyone gave him a pitiful look.
Papyrus started to cry. He cautiously walked over to the creatures and held his hand out for one, attempting to pet it, but the bird cowered in fear and squeaked loudly at him. Crying in despair, Papyrus dropped to his knees so that he was at the eyelevel of the ducks. He sniffled and stared at them for nearly twenty minutes, coming to the realization that one hadn't hatched. Sans picked up the pasta-sticker covered egg and gently handed it to Papyrus.
Glancing up and around, Papyrus was confused at the situation. "Why isn't it hatching?"
"I think it needs a little help." Sans said, glimpsing at Alphys who nodded, silently telling him that he was correct.
"Well, you're their mother," Papyrus whimpered, staring sadly at the egg. "you help them."
"No, no, it needs your help. C'mon, Papy." Sans said, patting Papyrus shoulder softly.
Nodding solemnly, Papyrus softly poked a hole in the egg and watched in delight as the tiny bird poked her beak through the hole. Cooing tenderly to the creature, Papyrus expanded the hole until it was large enough for the bird to crawl through. Almost immediately, the bird let out a chirp.
Looking at Alphys, Papyrus whisper-shouted. "What is she saying?"
Alphys glanced between the two bone brothers, not really sure how to respond, before shaking her head with a smile and forming a small lie. "She's calling you her Mama."
Papyrus gasped and smiled peacefully, holding the small bird to his cheekbone. "Yes, yes, I'm your Mama, little baby."
No one could stop themselves from smiling. Undyne stepped forward. "These birds still got their egg juices on 'em. Shouldn't we clean them off?"
Papyrus nodded. "Yeah, that's what the book said to do." Carefully, the tall skeleton stood up with the bird still stretching in his hand and against his chest.
Slowly, everyone migrated to the restroom and helped clean the bird.
The next few weeks went by rather swiftly.
While Sans was drowning in feathers and waking up in the middle of the night to feed eight birds, Papyrus peacefully cuddled Papyrus Jr. and was lucky enough to have a quiet duck.
Even though Papyrus still went out of his way to spend time with all of the ducks, only Papyrus Jr. fully trusted him and bonded to him completely. Every night, Papyrus went out of his way to cook rice and grains for the birds, and soon they were all gaining weight and growing into respectful young ducks.
Papyrus Jr. was seen modeling fashionable clothes rather often, and her little baby blue bonnet became quite the talk of the town. Children of both human and monster descent would line up outside in the mornings before the school busses arrived to see the birds, but while the other eight remained clinging to Sans and too afraid to interact with humans or other species of monsters, Papyrus Jr. lived up to her name and loved being cuddled by everyone.
Oneday, Papyrus came home only to find that the house was emptied of aquatic birds. Searching frantically, he threw himself into Sans room. "B-Brother, where are the ducks?"
Sans sighed and stood up. This day had been coming, and he hated to see Papyrus upset, but there was no way around it. Patting Papyrus' arm, he stared directly at the other skeleton. "I'm sorry, Papyrus, but the birds are at an animal sanctuary."
A gasp escaped Papyrus' mouth. "What? Why would you take Papyrus Jr. away from me?"
Sans tried to avoid the gaze Papyrus was giving him at the moment, knowing that it was full of confusion and sadness. "They need help learning to fly and swim."
"I was teaching them!" Papyrus shouted, hurt aligning his voice like a picture frame.
Pulling his brother into a hug, Sans continued. "I know, but they need help from other birds, Papy."
"Okay." Papyrus mumbled sadly, crying softly into his brother's embrace.
"It's what is best for them, okay? They're not dogs or cats, Papy. They need more room to fly."Sans explained in a soft voice.
Sadly, Papyrus nodded, pulling away from his brother and sniffling his tears back into his eyesockets. "Will I ever see them again?"
"Yeah. We can drive up and visit them anytime. In fact, the workers recommended that." Sans executed, watching light return to his brother's expression.
"Oh, that's good, then!" Papyrus said, leaving the room and stopping in the door way. "Can we go see them now?"
An hour later and they were at the sanctuary and Papyrus was attempting to swim in the pond with the ducks, even though the workers asked him specifically not to. He snuck in anyways and swam around with his duck daughter before they left. When the workers asked about his wet clothes, he claimed that she had gotten wet and shook her water onto him, and they seemed to believe it.
Another week passed of Papyrus visiting the birds when he came home with an unreadable look on his face and his 'duck mother' t shirt, which now has the words 'pig grandmama' beneath it. Sans sat on the couch, cruising through the channels when he saw him.
"Um, Sans?" Papyrus hollered, bouncing nervously from foot to foot. "I know you tell the jokes most of the time, but I've got a good one. I think it'll make you squeal."
With that line, Papyrus opened the door and a large female pig wobbled into the room, wearing a bow on her head.
Sans shook his head, but couldn't help but laugh at Papyrus' joke. "Wow, Papy. Ya know, I could be mad. But, honestly? I'm feelin' swine."