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AUs: Underfell and Underswap
Main Characters: Fell Sans, Fell Papyrus, Swap Sans, Swap Papyrus
Ships: None
Trigger warnings: Suicide attempt, self harm, abuse, depression, panic attacks, violence
Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've written an Undertale fic, and this is another Underfell one. I just really like Underfell. This one is going to be different than my last one, though. Instead of Underfell being a glitched version of the original Undertale, it's just an alternate universe this time.
Also, this fic is meant to take place before Frisk falls into the Underground in either AU.
I hope you like it!
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"SANS, YOU MISERABLE LAZYBONES, WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
Papyrus's irate screaming shocked Sans out of the light sleep he had barely managed to fall into, leaving him with gasping breaths and a quickened heartbeat. He glanced quickly at the clock next to his bed and groaned. 5 am.
"IF YOU'RE NOT OUT OF BED IN THE NEXT TEN SECONDS-"
"I'm up, Boss," Sans responded before Papyrus could launch into a rant of threats.
It wasn't like it mattered, anyway. Papyrus would fulfill his threats whether Sans got up or not. Hell, Sans could do everything his brother told him, and he'd still find some problem with it. Sans was used to that by now.
He forced himself out of bed and went over to one of the laundry piles on his floor. The skeleton selected his favorite turtleneck and a pair of shorts from the pile, looking them over and deciding that they seemed clean enough. They didn't have any mustard stains, at least. Then, Sans removed the even rattier shirt and shirts he had worn to bed and replaced them with the selected clothing. Finally, he slid on his old sneakers and the collar that Papyrus had started insisting he wear a few years ago. His brother said it told everyone that Sans belonged to him, which would keep weaker monsters from trying to attack the Terrible Papyrus's brother, but Sans was pretty sure that it was really just to embarrass him. Either way, though Sans hated it at first, he now secretly liked it. He thought it looked cool. That was pretty weird, however, so even though he complied with wearing it, he pretended that he hated it every time attention was brought to it. He may be pathetic and useless, but he wasn't going to just accept his brother's ownership of him so easily.
"SANS, YOU BETTER NOT HAVE GONE BACK TO SLEEP."
The shorter skeleton sighed.
"I'm just gettin' dressed, Boss," Sans called back.
He steeled himself and pushed open his bedroom door. As he stepped out, he could see Papyrus tapping his foot impatiently on the first floor, the sharp click of the metal toe sounding out like a metronome in the space between them. Sans immediately started down the stairs and tried to gauge what kind of mood his brother was in that day. The yelling wasn't much of a clue, seeing as Papyrus yelled at him every morning, so he tried to examine the taller skeleton's body language. Papyrus was glaring especially hard, and his shoulders were tense. The foot tapping only got faster as Sans came down the steps, and as Sans stepped onto the ground floor, he saw Papyrus clench a gloved fist at his side. Alright, his mood was pretty bad, but it could be a lot worse.
"STOP DRAGGING YOUR FEET AND GET TO YOUR POST. AND I BETTER NOT FIND YOU SLACKING OFF!" Papyrus shouted before slamming their front door open.
By the time Sans walked the short way to the open door, Papyrus's long legs had carried him halfway to Grillby's. With an irritated grumble, Sans left the house himself and locked the door behind him. Then, he slowly trudged his way to his sentry station. It was the station by the door to the ruins, and Sans still questioned why Papyrus would station him there. Sure, generally, there was very little that happened around there since it was so far from Snowdin, but it was also the first station a fallen human would come across after exiting the ruins. Sans knew that Papyrus didn't think he'd actually be any help in capturing/killing a human. Maybe he didn't think another human would actually fall. Maybe he thought Sans would keep any fallen human occupied long enough for him to show up, kill it, and claim the glory. Or maybe he hoped the human would kill him first, and then he could claim the glory. It didn't really matter.
Sans was glad for his shortcuts because they made the long walk to his station much shorter. He just had to get out of sight of the town and make sure no one else was around, and then he could just teleport right next to it. He got a secret pleasure from confusing Papyrus in how fast he got places despite being so slow, too.
In a moment, Sans stood next to the station and went to sit down on the stool behind it. He reached into the shelf beneath it and pulled out a hidden bottle of his emergency mustard, since he hadn't wanted to risk trying to eat breakfast before leaving the house. To his annoyance, the cold air of Snowdin had frozen the condiment solid.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Sans growled along with his stomach.
With an annoyed huff, the skeleton pried the lid off of the bottle and dug out his hidden emergency spoon from the shelf as well. This was far from the first time this had happened, after all, so he was prepared.
"Geez, I like my mustard cold, but this is ridiculice," he joked to himself. "I'd definitely relish it more if it wasn't frozen solid. Sure hope eatin' this stuff doesn't ketchup with me one day."
Sans let out a low, raspy laugh that was swept away by the wind.
"Wow, those were bad. Pretty sure Boss would dust me for those, ha."
He jammed the spoon into the bottle to break up the contents a bit and scooped a few spoonfuls into his mouth. The tangy and spicy flavors made him smile lightly. He really did love mustard.
After eating about half the bottle, he twisted the cap back on and hid the rest away for later. Then, he did a quick scan of the surrounding area with his eyes, tapping the spoon against the edge of the sentry station. As he had expected, absolutely nothing was going on. Nothing ever really did out here. The last human to fall into the underground had been killed a few years before he was even born, so he hardly paid the door to the ruins any mind. Sans knew that some lady was sometimes behind the door, seeing as he had spoken with her a few times, but he knew she wouldn't come through the door. She never did. He wondered if maybe, just maybe, some monster would come by and cause some kind of problem. That would be interesting, at least. But of course, nobody came. They never did.
Soon, Sans found himself drifting off as the boredom encouraged his sleep-deprived mind to close his eyes. He shook himself awake a few times, but sleep inevitably overtook him and plunged him into darkness.
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"PAPYRUS!"
The tall skeleton looked up from what he was working on as he heard his younger brother's typically loud voice.
"What is it, bro?" he asked.
"Dinner is done! I called you, like, five times!" Sans huffed, hands on his hips.
"Sorry, bro. I didn't hear ya," Papyrus replied, standing up and wiping his hands off on a cloth.
"What are you doing in here, anyway?" Sans questioned, peeking behind his brother. "Oh! Is that the timeline-machine-thing?"
"Yep. Figured I'd actually get around to fixing it after it broke the last time," responded the taller skeleton.
"I wonder if any other versions of us will come to meet us again!" Sans chirped.
"Well, maybe. If I can get it working again."
Papyrus went to follow behind his brother to exit the lab and go back into their house, inevitably facing whatever abomination the smaller skeleton had decided to call 'tacos' that day.
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There's chapter 1!
I've actually already finished writing this fic, but I haven't proofread the last few chapters yet. So, updates shouldn't take too long. Don't expect me to update immediately though, lol.
Thanks for reading! :3