A Tale of Consequences
Reset?
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Chapter 4
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"Papyrus..."
Ngh. Papyrus rolled over, snuggling deeper into his blankets.
"Bro. C'mon."
Nyeeeeeeh…go away.
"Pap...I need your help."
Ngh?
"Geez, don't make me beg for it. Please."
Sans...needed his help?
Papyrus fought the siren's call of sleep. With every ounce of sleepy willpower he could muster. He was the GREAT Papyrus. He would never turn down a plea. Especially not from his brother.
Sans never asked for help.
"S-" Papyrus rolled over, a yawn interrupting him, "-ANS?"
"Yea bro. It's me." Papyrus struggled to open his eyes. Sans was a short dark lump on the edge of his bed. Except...
"S-SANS."Papyrus suddenly shot up, staring at the glowing red...something clinging to the side of his brother's skull, sending the curves of his skull into eerie shadow. "YOU'RE LEAKING."
"H-heh. Y-yeah." His brother's laugh was strangled, "Weird isn't it?"
Papyrus sprung to his feet, throwing the heavy covers to the side and firmly pushing Sans to sit down on onto the bed. The smaller skeleton didn't protest. It was dark in here-why hadn't Sans flipped the light? He created a small bone attack and tossed it at the switch, the brief impact before it fizzled was enough to trigger.
What he saw in the light was even worse.
"How bad is it, bro?"
It...the red stuff was seeping out of a series of shallow cracks in his brother's skull, another source pooling at the corner of his dark eye-socket. His brother's left eye was sparking cyan, one of the few signs that he was near panic.
"IT'S...NOTHING THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN'T FIX. DO NOT WORRY BROTHER!" The false bravado felt...wrong. Papyrus hated lying. But he hated seeing his brother like this even more. He was supposed to be great and strong so he could protect. Sure popularity was awesome, but Papyrus wanted people to feel safe around him. That he could protect them from anything. He wanted people to speak of him the way his brother always had. The way they talked about Undyne.
Nyeh. It wouldn't be a lie if it were true. Papyrus drew himself up. He could do this. He WOULD do this. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
It sparked around his bare hands, a cool, pleasant feeling. He had to concentrate for this. He willed the healing magic he could muster into the broken bone. This here was wrong. Miss Bunny's words came back to him, You need to convince it to be whole again. But...gently.
So you just ask nicely. Papyrus was good with that. Papyrus would be so nice that it couldn't help but heal! Nyeh heh!
There was...one problem with his plan. Keeping the panic away was very different when it was his brother's skull between his hands and not one of the children's scraped knees.
The red stuff was on his hands now. Not...liquid like he'd thought. It looked thick, but it felt...lighter. Hot, only the cool of the green keeping it from burning his fingerbones. It sparked to the touch, setting his bones tingling if it lingered too long.
Slowly-too slowly-the weeping red slowed. The cracks growing smaller as the green magic and Papyrus' will worked to remind the bone of what it should be.
Smaller...but not perfect. It had scarred where Papyrus hadn't quite been able to coax the edges back together. Which was unacceptable for the great papyrus, even as he had to admit the small web of ridges would make a cool battle scar. Sans was too lazy to need a battle scar. He resolved to spend twice as much time learning from Miss Bunny this week. It wasn't good enough.
Papyrus lowered his hands. He looked down at the fading magic, green and red dissolving and drifting away. "WHAT...HAPPENED SANS?"
His brother stiffened, turning to look at him. The blue was fading from his left eye, but the right remained dark. His entire skull on the right side was stained slightly red, with a small amount still pooling in the corner of that darkened socket. He hadn't been able to do anything for that. The bone had been broken. Papyrus had asked it to be fixed. But there was...nothing to fix in the eye.
It was...normal.
Even the Great Papyrus knew when to admit there were things he didn't understand, and magic was one of them. It just was. And it just worked. Papyrus hesitated, and then sat down next to Sans on the bed.
"I CAN'T HELP IF YOU DON'T TELL ME, SANS."
"I'm not a babybones, pap." Sans shifted, pulling away. Papyrus grabbed him by the sleeve, stopping him from standing. "It was...just a fall. That's all. I just...freaked."
"THAT'S OKAY. EVEN I WOULD BE 'FREAKED' IF MY HEAD WAS LEAKING. HM. MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK MISS BUNNY. SHE MIGHT KNOW. SHE TOLD ME SOME MONSTERS LEAK WHEN THEY ARE INJURED, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW IT HAPPENED TO SKELETONS."
"H-heh. It's called bleeding, Pap. Not leaking. It's a bit different." Sans chuckled at something Papyrus didn't understand, but he was okay with that. It was always better for his brother to be laughing. His smile hardly changed, so laughter was a much better indicator of his overall mood.
"BLEEDING THEN. IT SEEMS SUCH AN INCONVENIENT AND MESSY THING." Papyrus dismissed it in disgust, "IF I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER I'D ACCUSE YOU OF SNEAKING OUT AND EATING SO MUCH OF THAT INFERNAL KETCHUP THAT YOUR BRAIN HAS TURNED INTO IT. WHAT'S THE SAYING? YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT?"
"What would you be then, Pap?" Sans' grin seemed a little more relaxed, "Im-pasta-ble?"
"NYEH HEH HEH. YOU JEST, BUT PASTA IS THE MEAL OF HEROES! SURELY A GOOD HEARTY MEAL WILL SPEED YOU WELL ON YOUR WAY TO RECOVERY!" Papyrus grinned and clapped his hand on Sans' shoulder, "YOU SHOULD TAKE THE DAY OFF. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL COVER BOTH OF OUR STATIONS AS LONG AS YOU PROMISE ME YOU'LL GET YOUR HEAD LOOKED AT BY MISS BUNNY."
"Aw...but it's fine now, isn't it? Eye thought scars added character."
Papyrus huffed. "I WILL ADMIT, BATTLE SCARS ARE AN ACCESSORY WHEN CALCULATING YOUR COOLNESS FACTOR, BUT THE SCAR ISN'T THE PROBLEM."
"THE PROBLEM IS YOU HAD RED MAGIC SEEPING FROM YOUR SKULL."
"YOU DON'T HAVE RED MAGIC."
Silence. Sans' good eyelight flickered and went dark, his hands folded on his lap. Papyrus deliberately ignored the chill that ran down his spine. He didn't like seeing Sans this way.
"I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE IF YOU WISH TO TALK, BROTHER." Papyrus offered after the longest moment he could stand. He wasn't very good with poignant silences. One of his very few flaws. "BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO COME TO ME-AND I DON'T BLAME YOU FOR THIS, I MAY BE VERY GREAT, BUT MAGIC IS NOT MY UH STRONGEST SKILL YET-AT LEAST TALK TO SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP. DON'T SHOULDER EVERYTHING ALONE."
"Pap…"
The taller skeleton paused in the doorway, "YES BROTHER?"
"...don't say things like that ok? You're helping just by being here."
The great Papyrus was Cool. And Manly. And Tough. He did not have tears gathering in his eyes sockets. Nope. Not at all. Especially because a lazy good-for-nothing like his brother complimented him.
"THAT'S...JUST WHAT A GOOD BROTHER SHOULD DO! NYEH HEH HEH." Papyrus managed without squeaking, thank you very much, "THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NATURALLY THE BEST OF ALL SIBLINGS."
Papyrus puffed out his chest, buffing his imaginary fingernails against the shell of his battle body, "JUST AS I WILL CREATE THE BEST, MOST DELICIOUS MEAL JUST FOR YOU, BROTHER! NYEH HEH HEH! JUST TRY BEING SAD AFTER THAT!"
Papyrus dashed out of his room, brimming with energy. He was helping. He needed to help more. Maybe he needed to make something special this time. Perhaps even a specialty sauce made with his brother's favorite food!
He could even make an exception, this time.
He was so focused on imagining his brother's appropriately delighted partaking of his culinary masterpiece, that he didn't notice Sans' eyelight slowly flicker on, and his ever frozen smile shift, becoming just a little more sad.
But at the same time, a little more real.
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Sans regarded the off-white bone in the mirror, tilting his head to get a better look at the web of sealed cracks. Papyrus hadn't been kidding. It must have been a nasty fall. He still couldn't remember at all.
Not as if he could ever forget the result. The pulsing throb in his head wouldn't let him.
At least the residue washed off. Sans was willing to be grateful for small miracles.
"YOU DON'T HAVE RED MAGIC."
...trust me Pap. I know. Sans closed his eyes to the image in the mirror, splashing the running water against his face. The water felt like a cool balm against his skull, which still felt oddly numb where the magic had covered it.
A scrap of purple, covered in grey monster dust. A spear of green bursting from his chest, weeping red magic, hot and burning.
Sans hung his head over the sink, the pressure behind his eye building into a dull roar.
Why even try.
A smile slowly faded out of the darkness, knife cut and bleeding.
Glass shattered.
"SANS!" Papyrus called from downstairs, the din of him cooking up a storm in the kitchen pausing as his voice echoed through the house.
"I'm ok Pap." He called back, opening his eyes. He wasn't surprised to see the utterly destroyed mirror, the bones used to shatter it just now fading away. Sans took a deep, calming breath, reaching out to turn off the faucet. Not necessary, but it helped. A little.
A little.
Cyan flared, ringing each of the shards of glass that now lay scattered across the bathroom floor. He directed them together, sweeping them into a pile in the corner. He'd...deal with it later.
Or it would reset, in which case he'd just need to hope he didn't break it again. Either way, not his problem.
The headache pulsed, the world dimming as the magic drained. His right eyelight flickered, before fading and staying dead.
Goddamn it. At least last time it had sometimes worked.
Last time...
You died
Again.
So much for trying to get a jump on the punk.
Sorry kid. I tried.
What now? Do it again?
And again?
And again?
Sans slouched, going to put his hands in his pockets before he remembered he didn't have them. Papyrus had swiftly devested him of his jacket, leaving him to deal with a thin undershirt, declaring there was no way he was letting Sans wear it until all the magical residue had been laundered away. They had to have some anti-magic detergent somewhere, his brother had insisted.
Sans hadn't cared enough to object.
Hot and burning and red. It dripped through his fingers, threatening to tear him apart.
Sans pushed open the bathroom door instead, walking out into the chill air of the house. As skeletons they were fairly resistant to the temperature extremes. That didn't mean Sans liked being cold.
At least once he got it back it'd be warm and fluffy from the dryer. Eventually.
He stopped in the doorway to his room, finding it unlocked. Had he...left it that way?
Whatever. He just wanted to bury his head in his ratty pillow and not think before Papyrus came back pounding on the door. He paused.
"I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE BROTHER!"
He didn't think Pap would really break down the door...but it wouldn't hurt to leave it alone. Papyrus could be a mother hen. Easier to just let him. Sans didn't bother to lock it as he pulled it shut behind him, cutting off the faint light from the hallway. At least in the dark he didn't noticed the impaired vision quite as much.
He flopped onto the laundry covered mattress, curling up against the pain of the headache. Only there was an extra lump on his pillow. Paper crinkled under his searching fingers, slightly sticky on the underside that barely clung to the fuzzy material. A post it note. A note Sans could barely read even if he had enough light.
At least he didn't really need to. He could nearly imagine his brother saying the words.
SANS.
STOP SULKING AND WEAR THIS. THE LAUNDRY MACHINE WON'T EAT YOUR JACKET.
YOUR COOL BROTHER,
PAPYRUS
The resulting chuckle sent his head pounding again. Sans buried it under the pillow and fell into an exhausted sleep.
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Flowers again. At least the dream was peaceful. He'd take it over a nightmare any day.
Sans knew they should be golden, but this time everything was tinted red.
His right eye burned, and Sans didn't have to touch it to find the stream of red liquid trailing from empty socket to cheek.
The quiet hiccups echoed in his skull, although there was no sign of the fuzzy figure from before.
...I'm so sorry…
"...yeah…" Sans sat down on the edge of the field, tilting his face up toward the distant light. It looked faintly orange, despite the red tinge. He wondered if that was what a sunset would look like. "So am I, kiddo."
Crack.
The wound in his soul widened.
A weight around his neck. Arms squeezing in a desperate hug. Sans closed his eyes.
...don't leave…
"...don't worry. I'm too lazy to go anywhere."
Red seeped between crumbling white shards, trying to hold them together.
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A/N: I'm not quite done with chapter 5, but here's 4 anyway. Enjoy!
Also I'm curious what you guys think is going on. Please drop me a review if ya wanna speculate or comment (I love talking world / story building if anyone is interested.)
