XXX

Sans, still not really believing what was going on, reluctantly followed the other skeletons into their house. He didn't trust them, of course he didn't, but what else was he supposed to do? And if this did turn out to be some huge, out-of-character joke by Boss, well, it was far from the worst he had done to him.

Thus, despite being told he was in an alternate universe, he was caught by surprise when he entered the house. For the most part, everything looked the same as his own house. The same furniture was in the same place, and as far as he could tell from a glance, the house had the same layout. However, the colors were all wrong. A lot of things were opposite in color, and just about everything was brighter, cleaner. Boss had always insisted on having a clean house, but even he couldn't get out the years of dust that tainted everything in the underground. Yet, this house looked like it had never so much as had the wind blow someone's remains in through the door. There was no way that anyone could make a joke this complex, right? Not even Boss would be able to replicate their house with brighter colors like this.

Holy shit.

"I'm guessing it looks different than in your world, huh?" the strange Papyrus asked as he noticed him freeze again.

Papyrus disappeared for a moment before reappearing, this time holding a small bundle of clothing.

"We keep a few extra outfits for situations like this," he explained. "Ya look like ya like red, so."

The clothing was held out to him, but Sans didn't take it. He didn't know why this person who was supposedly his brother in another world was being nice to him. No one in his world kept spare clothing for other people. Hell, most monsters were lucky to have more than one outfit for themselves.

"OH! I JUST HAD AN IDEA!"

The other Sans suddenly shouted, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Since I'm Blue, you can be Red!" he exclaimed excitedly. "That way, we'll know who's who!"

Sans just blinked at him. Was this really an alternate version of himself? He didn't think he'd ever been that cheerful-looking, even when he was a babybones.

"Good idea, bro."

'Blue' grinned at him widely. Yeah, there was no way this was supposed to be him.

"Well, I'm gonna make some breakfast tacos!" Blue shouted. "Paps, you should help him with the first-aid kit!"

And with that, the energetic skeleton dashed away, presumably to the kitchen.

"Ah, my bro's right. Looks like that nasty cut's still bleeding a bit," Papyrus mused. "Come on."

Papyrus grabbed his hand and teleported the both of them into the bathroom. Sans ripped his hand out of the taller skeleton's grip and took a few steps back, though he couldn't get very far in the small room. He mentally cursed himself as he realized he was revealing how weak he was to monsters who were, essentially, strangers. Trying to make his facial expression look more neutral, he watched as Papyrus dug beneath the sink, pulling out the first-aid kit.

"Here we go. You're gonna have to take off your shirt so I can bandage your chest," he said.

At that, Sans's eye sockets widened. No one else ever helped him treat his wounds. And if he had to take off his shirt, this Papyrus would see the chips and scars on his arms.

"... I can do it myself," he said finally.

"Hm, okay then. I'll just leave this stuff here, and you can get all bandaged and changed," Papyrus spoke. "If ya want to take a shower, we keep towels under the sink, too."

Sans stared at him again, confused and suspicious. This monster was definitely being way too nice.

"Me and my bro will be downstairs. I'm guessing ya know where that is since ya technically live here?"

When Sans only responded with silence yet again, Papyrus shrugged and teleported out of the room. He shrugged his hoodie off and set it off to the side, before glancing down at his sweater. He hadn't really had an opportunity to assess the damage to it, being more concerned about the injury beneath. It was likely ruined, with the slash going across practically the entire front and patches of dried and fresh blood soaking it. He sighed as he pulled it over his head. It had been his favorite, after all.

The bandages across his chest had long-since bled through, and where the blood was still dry, they stuck to his bones a bit. Pulling it off certainly wouldn't help the wound stop bleeding, but he figured it didn't matter too much, since he had apparently been healed.

Sans opened up the first-aid kit to see if there was something he could use to clean the dried blood off his ribs. He found some antiseptic wipes and ripped one open. It burned a lot more than the chips on his arm, but it wasn't as bad as when he had treated the wound earlier.

It didn't take long to re-bandage the wound. Sans threw away the old bandage and wipe into a nearby trash bin, finding it in the same spot as it was in his own house. Then, he went to inspect the clothing that was handed to him. It was a simple red t-shirt and a pair of black shorts similar to the ones he was already wearing, though these ones weren't fraying at the bottoms. The skeleton slid off his own shorts and put the borrowed clothing on. The t-shirt had short sleeves, so he put his hoodie back on over it.

Not knowing what else to do with them, Sans scooped up his own clothes, intending to leave the bathroom, but he paused.

"I really can't believe any of this is real," he sighed to himself instead.

Less than two hours ago, he had been prepared to kill himself. He had actually tried to kill himself. And now, he was still alive but in another universe because some broken machine had just so happened to [SAVE] him. He wondered if he should still go through with it. After all, it wouldn't be hard, and when he got back home, Boss was sure to dust him anyway.

Actually, would he be able to get back home? The strange Papyrus and other him seemed to be used to this kind of thing, but there didn't seem to be even more of them running around, so they must have gone home, right? He still didn't know for sure, though. But did he even want to go home at all? Surely, whatever way Boss chose to dust him would hurt a lot more than killing himself. And if Boss chose not to dust him… he didn't want to go back to that. It's not like he could stay in this strange world forever, though, and he doubted anyone, including himself, would want him staying here for too long, anyway.

It sucked, but it would probably be best if he just killed himself. He didn't want to give up like that, but he really didn't think he could keep going like this.

XXX

Papyrus teleported onto the couch, catching his brother's attention.

"Did you help him bandage his wound?" Sans questioned.

"Said he wanted to do it himself."

"You aren't just being lazy, are you?"

"I swear I'm not, bro."

"Well, okay then," Sans accepted. "I wonder what happened to him."

"No idea, bro. Looks like an attack, though."

"Well, I sure hope not!"

While they waited for the other skeleton to come out of the bathroom, Sans continued making breakfast and Papyrus continued to sit on the couch. Just as Papyrus was about to drift off to sleep, however, he heard the bathroom door creak open. Red walked out of the bathroom with his old clothes balled up in his hands, looking like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with them. Blue, zooming out of the kitchen, grabbed the clothes before either of them saw him coming.

"I'm going to throw these in the wash so we can maybe get the stains out!" he explained, already on his way to the laundry room.

Red didn't flinch this time, though he clearly looked shocked. Papyrus inwardly chuckled, knowing that alternate versions of them often had to get used to his brother's over-the-top energy. He raised a hand up in greeting.

"Hey, there."

Red shifted his shocked gaze toward him.

"This really is… an alternate universe?"

"Yep."

"So the blue guy is supposed to be me?"

"Yep."

"And you're…"

"An alternate version of your bro."

"Fuckin' Hell."

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Neat, though."

"How the…"

Papyrus shrugged.

Red just stared at him for a while again before continuing.

"... What do you want from me?" he muttered, clenching his hands at his sides.

"Hm?"

"You're bein' way too nice," Red explained, a slight growl in his tone.

"Well, how else should we act when an injured version of Sans shows up?" Papyrus replied. "Plus, it's kinda my fault that the machine pulled ya out of your universe. Didn't mean to do that, by the way."

Red seemed to be further confused by that answer, but he didn't comment on it.

"... Can your machine send people back?" he asked after a pause.

"Yeah. It looked broken again, though, so I'll have to fix it."

Red's expression shifted again, now looking rather blank, and Papyrus couldn't tell what he was feeling. Relieved, maybe?

"So, what happened, anyway?" Papyrus asked. "That looked like a pretty nasty cut."

This time, when Red's expression shifted, Papyrus could tell exactly what he was feeling: anger, and a little fear.

"That's none of your fuckin' business," Red growled, now glaring.

Papyrus held up his hands.

"Hey, that's cool. Ya don't gotta tell me."

This, again, seemed to catch Red off-guard, as he had clearly been expecting a different response. He didn't really have time to think about it, though, as Blue dashed back into the room and then into the kitchen. They heard Blue clatter a few things around for a second before shouting.

"MWEHEHEHEHEH! THE TACOS ARE DONE!"

Blue hopped into the living room.

"Red, you absolutely must try my tacos! They're my greatest batch yet, if I do say so myself!" he spoke loudly.

"Gah!" Red shouted in response, surprised when Blue grabbed his arm to pull him into the kitchen.

Papyrus slowly got up to follow them, seeing Blue push Red into a seat at the table.

XXX

As he was pushed into a chair, Sans felt his ribs protest again, but he had started getting used to the pain caused by the wound. Within seconds, Blue plopped a plate in front of him with a clink, and he was somewhat surprised the plate didn't break from the force. Blue set the other plates down with similar enthusiasm as Papyrus settled down into one of the other chairs. Once the plates were on the table, Sans found Blue staring at him from his seat giddily.

"Try them!"

Still finding the entire situation strange, Sans hesitated.

"... You didn't poison them, did you?" he asked, suspicious.

There were some monsters who preferred to lull others into a false sense of comfort before killing them, and there were plenty who liked to use poison. It seemed like this world was perhaps pretty different from his own, and maybe monsters didn't just poison people, but how would he know? He hadn't even been outside or seen anyone other than these two in the short time he had been here.

"WHAT?! Of course not!" Blue denied with a chuckle, apparently thinking it was a joke.

Sans sighed and picked up the taco. Whatever. If it was poisoned, he'd just die a little sooner than intended, so who cared?

He bit into it. It honestly wasn't that great, with the meat inside being kind of burned and the strange aftertaste, but it was far from the worst thing he'd eaten. He noticed that the strange Papyrus had poured honey all over his.

"Paps! You're going to drown out all the flavor if you put that much on it!" Blue scolded lightly. "Are you trying to ruin my cooking?"

"Come on, bro, I can't beelieve you'd think I'd do such a thing," Papyrus said with a grin.

Sans was pretty sure that Papyrus just made a pun. Boss hated puns.

"Aaaaw, Papyrus, again with the puns!"

Papyrus chuckled, his brother's reaction seeming to make him even more amused.

Boss would have hit him for a pun like that.

Blue rolled his eyes before redirecting his attention back to Sans.

"So, do you like my tacos?" he asked. "This time, I tried adding some strawberry yogurt since Paps thinks they're too spicy!"

Well, that would probably explain the strange aftertaste. Blue stared at him with bright eyes, and as much as he didn't trust these two, he discovered that he didn't want to make the peppy monster sad.

"Uh… yeah."

"YAY! I'm glad you like it!" Blue celebrated. "I should make a note later so I remember to add it next time!"

Sans heard Papyrus groan quietly, and he got the sense that the skeleton wasn't a big fan of his brother's cooking.

With that, Blue started chattering on, mostly about a bunch of stuff that Sans didn't really understand, so he ended up tuning out the conversation and finishing his taco. He was, however, brought back into it when Blue directed a question at him.

"So, what's it like in your universe?!" he asked excitedly. "Usually, the other Sanses are more like Papyrus, and the other Papyruses are more like me!"

Sans blinked at him, not really sure what to say. He hadn't actually been in this universe that long, so he wasn't sure just how different their worlds were.

"Fuck if I know," he said with a shrug.

Blue's smile faltered for a second.

"You seem to curse a lot. Does everyone in your world do that?"

Sans looked at him, confused about why the blue skeleton would even mention that.

"Uh… Yeah?" he answered. "What, you don't do that here?"

"Well, I certainly don't!" Blue told him. "Paps does sometimes, though, but you seem to do it more than he does."

Sans really didn't get what the big deal was. From his perspective, he didn't curse any more than the average monster.

"Actually, you look like you dress kinda like Paps, since you're wearing a hoodie!" Blue continued. "So I guess that means your brother is probably like me!"

Sans took a long, observant look at Blue. He took in his sparkling eyes, smiling face, and generally cheerful disposition.

"... Yeah, I doubt you're anything like Boss…," he said eventually.

It seemed like the only thing Blue and Boss had in common was how loud they are. Sans had only been in this world for a few hours, not even conscious the whole time, and he could already tell that this version of him wasn't like Boss, even just because he was physically too small to be. Well, when he thought of it, the scolding of his brother was similar, but it didn't appear to be malicious or violent, so it didn't seem to be the same thing at all.

"Really? What's your brother like, then?"

What was Boss like? Sans cringed as he remembered the door lady laughing at him, the people who cheered Boss on when he beat him in public, Boss's own glaring face. After a much-longer-than-needed pause, he shrugged. He wasn't going to tell them just so they could make fun of him for being weak.

Blue looked like he wanted to press the issue, but his brother cut him off.

"Hey, bro, why don't we call in from work today?" Papyrus suggested. "That way, we can show him around or something."

"This isn't just some scheme to get out of work, is it?" Blue asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

At this, Sans realized that the expression was, in fact, similar to the one Boss made when he was accusing him of something. Still, it paled in comparison to the glares Boss directed at him. Maybe this universe was somehow opposite but also less shitty? Or maybe these two really were going to kill him, and they were just really good actors.

"When have I ever done something like that?" Papyrus returned, pretending to be offended.

"Papyrus! You always do that!"

"Haha, yeah, you're right, bro," he laughed. "But I swear I'm not doing that this time."

Blue studied his brother closely, trying to determine if he was lying or not.

"Okay, fine!" Blue agreed finally. "But only because I don't want to leave an injured monster alone all day! We're not making a habit of it!"

"Gotcha."

"I'm serious, Papyrus."

"Yeah, I heard ya."

"Papyrus, you're using the same tone you use as when I tell you to pick up your sock."

Sans didn't know what to make of this exchange. The two brothers appeared to be arguing, but neither one seemed truly mad; if anything, they seemed to be amused by it. Sans could remember the one time he'd accidentally dropped one of his socks in the living room. That had been before Boss was this bad, so he'd only gotten a little slap before he'd been made to pick it up.

This universe really was strange.

"Alright, I'll go call Alphys and tell her we're taking the day off!" said Blue. "Paps, can you find one of my old pairs of shoes for him?"

Right, he forgot he wasn't wearing shoes.

"Ah, didn't even notice ya weren't wearing any," Papyrus spoke lazily. "That a thing in your universe?"

"... I just forgot to put them on," Sans responded gruffly.

"Forgot? So, I'm guessing ya weren't at home when the machine grabbed ya, huh?"

"No."

"Hm. Were there other people around? 'Cuz that might be kinda hard to explain when ya get back."

"No."

"Hm, alright then," Papyrus put his hands in his pockets, pausing briefly before continuing. "How'd ya get hurt, then?"

Sans froze, remembering Boss's face again.

"Cause it happened a few hours before that," he answered with a slight growl.

"It was bleeding, though."

"It reopened."

"And ya were still wearing your ripped-up shirt."'

"So, what?!" Sans snarled, baring his teeth a bit.

He didn't like how nosy this Papyrus was being. Whenever Boss asked him questions like this, it meant that he was trying to get Sans to admit to something, which would inevitably lead to another beating. Who cared whether he changed his damn shirt or not?

Papyrus shrugged.

"Just thought it was a bit weird is all. No need to get torn up about it," he answered nonchalantly.

Sans really didn't understand this Papyrus. He'd already done at least ten things that would've angered Boss, and yet, this Papyrus just seemed to shrug it off. He could sort-of understand that if Blue was supposed to be like Boss, but even with the few shallow similarities, Blue hadn't gotten angry at him either.

"Anyway, be back in a sec."

Once again, Papyrus teleported away and returned a few moments later with a pair of shoes. They were a pair of grey boots similar to the ones he used to wear when he was a babybones, but they were larger.

"Sans outgrew these a while ago, but they're not that much smaller than what he wears now, and ya seem to be a teeny bit smaller than him, so they should work," Papyrus told him, handing him the boots.

Red took the boots, mostly because he didn't want to have this Papyrus staring at him while he waited for him to take them. By the time he had done so, Blue was skipping back into the kitchen.

"Alphys said it was okay!" announced Blue. "She said she wants to meet Red before he leaves, though, since she likes sparring with the other versions of us! I'm not so sure about the sparring part since Red's injured, but we should definitely bring him to meet her!"

XXX

Sans felt a sense of familiarity at the mention of sparring, but from the way Blue talked about it, he made it sound like the sparring was optional. In his world, something like that would have been considered a challenge, and declining it would tell everyone that he was a coward. Regardless, whether they would be sparring or not, Sans wasn't too keen on meeting up with this world's Alphys. His universe's Alphys was a madwoman, and during the short time he worked at the lab, he'd constantly had to avoid being experimented on by her. He shuddered just thinking about the time he woke up from a nap to see her standing over him with a surgical saw. That had been one of many times he was glad he could teleport.