Sans woke up this morning and immediately checked the date on his phone. He doubted he'd lose this habit any time soon no matter how unlikely the possibility of a reset was. Frisk wasn't even sure they could still do that. They could have said that just to reassure him, though. Who even knew, at this point.
He sat up in bed and yawned loudly despite not having lungs. Actually, it didn't even matter whether the kid could still reset or not : they had accomplished so much as an ambassador and had so much yet do in this timeline, there was no way they'd willingly erase all of this now. Their previous time loops had lasted a few days at best, right? Doing a few days' worth of work all over again didn't seem to have bothered them much, but two years' worth? That sounded a bit excessive.
The skeleton looked through the window. It was a beautiful day outside. Time was still marching forward, the Monsters Rights movement was already having legal effects, and day after day his permanent smile got closer and closer to actually become sincere. Maybe one day it will be.
He put his slippers on and went to the kitchen, where his brother was preparing breakfast.
"mornin', bro."
"GOOD MORNING, BROTHER! GLAD YOU'RE ALREADY UP FROM YOUR NAP!"
Sans sat at the kitchen table without bothering to tell Papyrus that "nap" was the wrong word.
"BEFORE WE BOTH HEAD TO WORK, I SHALL- WAIT. YOU LOOK DIFFERENT."
The short skeleton let out a confused noise then quickly examined himself and found nothing wrong. Every bone was in place, he had still had one attack, one defence, and-
Wait.
"i… have two HP?" he realised, his voice barely above a whisper.
His mind went blank for a second. When was the last time he had actually been above one HP? Sure, he had been able to get a few more from sleeping in the right places, but the extra HP gained this way weren't really his. But this…
"I THINK I CAUGHT SOMETHING IN MY EYE", Papyrus told him as tears of joy were starting to appear in his eye sockets.
He picked his brother up and caught him in a tight hug.
"SANS! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!"
Sans hugged his brother back but didn't reply. He still couldn't quite wrap his skull around the fact that he had gained a second HP.
"hey…" he said after the hug had lasted for a moment, "not so tight bro, your bone-crushing hugs might make me lose my second HP."
Saying out loud felt so strange. Papyrus gently put him back on his chair.
"I AM SO PROUD OF YOU, BROTHER! AND NO AMOUNT OF BAD PUNS CAN CHANGE THIS RIGHT NOW!"
"two's still lower than everyone else's though…"
"AND NO AMOUNT OF NEGATIVITY EITHER! THIS NEEDS CELEBRATION!"
"we could celebrate at grillby's", Sans said.
"WELL… IF THAT'S WHAT YOU REALLY WANT, I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO EVEN THOUGH I H-"
"just kiddin', bro. i'd rather keep it private for now."
"OH."
"how 'bout we decide what to do after work?"
Papyrus agreed and served breakfast, which was eaten quickly before both brothers went back to their rooms to get ready for work. This time Papyrus wasn't even mad at Sans for not cleaning up. The short skeleton looked for his shoes to find them swirling in the trash tornado. Well, looked like today was going to be a slippers day.
As he headed out of the house, his brother gave him one last hug.