Flurries of snow attacked his face, as he wrapped his scarf over his mouth. He knew it was going to be cold today, and he walked outside anyway. ...What was he supposed to think about? He wanted to distract himself from what he was outside for.

The skeleton wasn't sure why he was trying to distract himself. He was going to do it soon, so he barely had any time to let his mind wander. ...The snow was nice. It was cold and unpleasant, but didn't care what anybody thought of it.

Many people liked the snow, despite how cold it was. And many people liked him. But they also hated him. And unlike the snow, the victim paid attention to other people's thoughts.

And today. Today he would stop. Everything would stop. He'd escape from Mt. Ebbot. He'd escape from everybody who was trapped with him. And he'd be free.

His red boots gravitated him towards the trees. Tall and slender, they'd probably break if he tried to climb on them. He remembered many years ago, when he was small and short, he could very well climb the trees. He was very good at smiling, and thought he was great.

But now...? Sure, he called himself great everyday, but that was just a lie, something to make him feel better about himself. Well, today. Today everything was going to be fixed. He reached under his scarf, pulling out a rope, as long and slender as the trees.

He had hid it well. Sans saw him when he exited the house, and thought he was just going for a walk. Although he was never one for taking walks, his brother didn't seem to think anything was wrong.

He was ready, so he tied the rope to a branch of the tree. He stepped off the ground onto the rough bark, and the tree started tipping. He put the loop around his neck, like it was a second scarf. He realized he wouldn't even have to jump. He already felt as if he was choking. This plan was perfect.

He went left with the tree, until everything went black and...

Papyrus woke up.

Chapter 2 Dream

It was a dream.

It was a dream!

He was happy. He was finally doing it.

And then he realized

It was just a dream.

And he was mad.

The Surface, 2020

Papyrus tore off the blankets and jumped out of bed. He opened his dresser, grumbling to himself. He had slept in his battle body. He had only worn his battle body in the last week, the week monsters were set free. When asked why he wore the same outfit all the time, he said it made him happy.

Of course it didn't. It never did. It was useless, just like him. Why did Papyrus wear such a thing, if it didn't help? Maybe to make everyone else think he was okay. That the costume made him happy, and since he wore his battle body all the time, he was happy.

They needed to know. Papyrus wasn't going to tell them just yet, but maybe they could see his change of appearance and figure something out themselves. Hopefully they would, and hopefully they wouldn't.

Whatever the case, Papyrus was now in a basic, white T-shirt with jeans. It sounded like something Sans would wear, but who cared? He wasn't going to spend time finding actual clothes to wear, so this would have to do.

What if someone called him lazy, though?

...Well, so be it. They'd say that because they didn't understand. They'd never understand, unless he explained.

Downstairs he went. As expected, Sans commented on his clothes.

"Woah, trying something new I see."

"Yep." Papyrus didn't make eye contact. He didn't even emote- he just continued down the stairs. Passing by his brother, who was laying on the couch as always, he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge.

Nice. Sandwiches. He took one out of the bag and put it in the microwave, setting the timer for a minute.

1 minute. 59 seconds. 58. 57. 56.

Sans started making microwave sounds from the living room. It was pretty funny, but didn't make Papyrus react at all.

51. 50. 49. 48. Counting was getting pretty boring, but what else would he do in a minute?

47. 46. 45. 44. 43.

"Hey, bro, watcha doing?" Sans called out happily.

"I'm waiting for the food to be done.

"Oh, yeah, okay," Sans paused before adding, "What is it?"

"A sandwich."

"Sweet."

37. 36. 35. 34. 33.

...Why was he even doing this? Instead of looking at the numbers, he could be arranging something on the fridge or whatever.

30. 29. 28. 27. 26. 25.

"Doesn't that get boring?" his brother asked curiously.

"Yes," Papyrus confirmed.

20. 19. 18.

"...Then why are you doing it?"

Papyrus almost managed to crack a smile. "Good question," he answered.

13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2.

1.

Beep, beep, beep.

Wait. Now it needed to cool.

Papyrus didn't have time for that, so he walked over to the table and starting eating, his mouth almost burning.

"Oh yeah, Undyne wanted to come over so I told her she could. She should be over in a couple minutes," his brother said.

"Ok," said Papyrus. Good. She was coming over. She too, would see him, and wonder why he wasn't wearing his battle body, and his friends would find out.

The door was pushed open, and slammed against the wall. "Hello, guys!" the visitor yelled, smiling.

Sans smiled a little less. He wasn't the biggest fan of Papyrus' friend. "Woah, don't break the door," he told her calmly.

"Oh come on!" She rolled her one good eye. "Why would I do something like that?" Once again, she slammed the door, this time to close it, causing Sans to wince. "Where's your brother?"

"In the kitchen," Sans replied.

"Is he cooking something?" Undyne asked excitedly.

"Nope. He's just in there."

Before Undyne could speak, Sans was talking again. "I'm confused too. I thought he would be done eating by now."

Undyne was confused. And concerned. And next to Sans. Great. "He's not done eating?"

Sans hummed in thought. "Well, I didn't actually check on him, so maybe he is.

"Why didn't you check on him?" Undyne raised her voice a little.

"Chill," Sans ordered. He didn't want to start an argument. "He's been doing this for a while now. Like, 5 months or something. I used to check on him all the time, but he assured me he was fine, and I knew he wouldn't lie to me. ..." Sans' smile shrunk a little more. "Actually, maybe he would. I hope he wouldn't, though. Yeah, since you're standing, maybe you should go in there."

Undyne did. "Hey, Papyrus- oh, you're trying out a new look, aren't ya?"

Papyrus was still looking at his empty plate. "Yep," he said.

"Great!" She sat down with him. "So, what are you doing in the kitchen? From the looks of it you already ate."

"Yeah, I did.," Then, Papyrus gave the stupidest response to a question ever. "Plates are cool."

Undyne raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah, so what are you doing in the kitchen?"

Great job, Papyrus. Perfect answer. Plates are cool. Oh yeah, that isn't weird at all.

"Papyrus?"

Papyrus' head snapped up towards Undyne. "Huh, what?"

"I was asking why you're in the kitchen, since you're not eating anything."

"Oh." What was he supposed to say? He didn't want to answer that. Finally, he decided. "It doesn't matter, why do you care?"

A perfect decision, really. When Undyne got mad at him all he had to do was go to his room and think about what just happened. Sounded fun. Not upsetting at all.