"SANS?" Papyrus called as he came in the house. His hands were full with grocery bags. Sans was always at his station by now, but Papyrus always called out, so he did. He got his usual response of nothing. Good. No more weirdness from Sans.

Papyrus still wasn't sure what he had done to cause the difference. Maybe it was a bad dream? But wouldn't that be constant across the timelines? Maybe not. Papyrus' dreams didn't seem to be, but he could remember the RESETs, so that wasn't a good way to tell if it was true. Then again, some people seemed to remember bits and pieces of the previous timeline whenever it got RESET. Maybe Sans had a dream about his time in the hospital. That sounded reasonable.

The groceries thudded on the counter in the kitchen. Papyrus swiftly set about putting the groceries away. He hummed a little tune to himself. There had been a sale this time, just like the last. There seemed to be a sale 3 out of 5 times, purely at random.

With the groceries put away, Papyrus set out to clean the house. He always cleaned the house today. It was a Wednesday. Every Wednesday he cleaned the house, and it always happened the same way. He would start off by cleaning the kitchen, then the living room, then the stairs, and the hallw-

Papyrus froze, knees shaking, when he saw it. There was a pile of dust just outside of Sans' door. Not only that, but the pile was intermixed with Sans' clothing - the set Sans should have been wearing today.

"SANS?" Papyrus called out, his hands bringing his scarf up to cover the lower half of his face. He sniffed in the magic reflexively. "SANS, THIS ISN'T FUNNY. COME OUT NOW...PLEASE?"

Papyrus' eye lights darted between the different doorways. He was certain that, at any moment, Sans was going to jump out and say, "gotcha!". But seconds turned into minutes turned into an hour, and no one came. Papyrus forced himself to get up and physically check every room in the house. Nothing. He called out loudly. Nothing. He even called Sans' phone. The pile of dust vibrated and resettled, revealing Sans' phone.

He collapsed to his knees and broke down as he finally accepted what had happened to his brother. Tears streamed down his face as he cried.

Papyrus had no idea how long he had been crying, but if his throat was any judge, it was several hours. He wasn't anywhere close to being done, but the matter was taken out of his hands when Flowey called out to him from the window.

"Howdy! I heard you crying from out here. Is there anything I can do to help?"

That was right. He hadn't been introduced to Flowey in this timeline. Still, the thought of having a piece of Azriel close to him right now- having a piece of his brother close to him right now- was a desperate comfort to him.

Papyrus sniffed, taking in the magic embedded in his scarf, and smiled weakly at Flowey. "Could you come in here please? I know I don't know you, but...I just found my brother's dust. I don't know who would have hurt him. Maybe he injured himself on the door. He only has...had 1 HP. Stars, I can't believe he's...I can't…"

Papyrus broke down crying again. He heard the window creak open and the slither of vines on the floor. Then comforting leaves touched his shoulders and he let himself grieve.

Chara lay quietly waiting for all the sounds of their brothers sleeping to die away. It took about an hour, but before long only the sounds of sleeping monsters filled the room. They moved ever so slowly out of their bunk bed and down the ladder, making absolutely sure not to make the bed creak.

When they were finally down they pitter-pattered silently out of the room and down the hallway. The lights were out, but they had excellent night vision. They easily navigated to the living room.

Sitting on Chariel by the fireplace was Toriel. She had her knitting set up on her lap. Next to the chair on the floor was a basket full of red yarn. Chara picked up the basket, set themselves up in front of the fireplace, and sat down.

They pulled the yarn into their lap. It resolved itself into a half-completed scarf. The scarf was very broad, almost cape-like. Chara was working with a soft, bulky yarn to make it warm.

Toriel smiled indulgently at the almost 35 year old human and said, quietly, "You are here to work on your present some more, are you not? I really am not sure why you insist on making it in secret. Children need their rest."

Chara smiled weakly at their mom and answered the unasked question again. "I really want to surprise him. You've said that turning 100 is a big deal for monsters. I want to make sure that Papyrus' birthday is special. I just have to make sure that I get it done with enough time for Azriel to spell it. I think a happy and calming spell would really help him when he has bad days."

Toriel nodded agreeably. "I am not doubting that. I only wish you would spend the time sleeping instead of knitting."

Chara once again ignored their mother's misunderstanding of human growth rates. At this point it was a matter of pride. They'd managed to keep this ignorance intact for nearly 26 years. It wouldn't be right to give up on it just yet. That would be quitting, and Chara never liked to think of themselves as a quitter. And part of them still was afraid of what would happen when their family found out. What if they got kicked out? Human parents did that all the time. By human standards Chara was ancient to still be living with their family, but...they weren't ready to leave. Being able to stay at home was worth pretending to be the child everyone thought they were. Right?