His "shortcut" landed him right in front of the house; better not give his brother a heart attack by suddenly appearing in the middle of the living room. Now that the "lost human baby" case was none of his business anymore, he felt a little more relaxed, as if someone had taken a weight away from his shoulders. He trusted Toriel to punish the culprit, be it Flowey or someone else, and planned to drown the remaining worries in a good night of sleep (if he managed) and two or three bottles of ketchup at Grillby's for breakfast.
He pushed the front door and came in, leaving a few snowflakes that had had the time to fall on his slippers on the carpet. Upon hearing the door shut, Papyrus ran at him, holding a wooden spoon covered with tomato sauce, an apron tied around his waist. Sans stared back at his brother's glare with the most innocent smile in the world, his hands casually slipped into his pockets, not even trying to get to his room so he could avoid the lecture he was being banged on the head with – something about his brother being worried when he left without a word. He was so used to it he didn't even hear it anymore. Besides, he had to admit he deserved it, this time, nothing would have happened had he not fallen asleep while taking care of Frisk.
He was expecting the smell of something burning, or the sound of water falling on the stove, or even the bark of that weird dog which only purpose seemed to be annoying his brother, to put an end to the lecture. He was wrong. Both him and Papyrus froze upon hearing a small frustrated cry in the kitchen.
Sans didn't dare to believe the hunch his mind came up with immediately. All the weight of the afternoon's troubles suddenly fell right back on him, as if some troublesome ghost had been holding them there, waiting for him to let his guard down. Papyrus's face, however, suddenly lit up as if he had just remembered something. "OH, YES! I CAUGHT the MOUSE you told me about!"
"The mouse…" Sans felt like he wasn't going to like what was coming.
"YES! Do you remember? The BIG MOUSE? WELL, YOUR BROTHER, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAUGHT IT!"
"That's… That's good, bro."
"BUT! It seems YOU had MADE A MISTAKE!"
"No kidding?"
"YES! COME AND SEE!" Madly excited, the younger of the two skeletons took his brother who was still stiff like a board, by the arm and pulled him into the kitchen. And Sans let out a resigned breath when his hunch proved to be right.
Frisk sat in a baby chair before the counter, face covered with sauce, and was letting out pitiful cries as she reached out eagerly towards the bowl of vegetable sauce that was tempting her, right out of her reach. Papyrus ran to her with a bright smile and went back to what he was clearly doing before his brother came home, which was feeding the famished little human who giggled with contentment when she spotted the spoon. "SEE?" He told Sans who was still standing in the kitchen's doorway, astounded. "It's NOT a MOUSE!" he stated proudly.
"Ah, yeah, you're right, it's…" Sans hesitated, unsure whether or not Papyrus knew himself what he was happily stuffing with boiled vegetables.
"It's a BABY MONSTER, obviously, Sans!" Frisk made a little noise to which Papyrus answered with a funny face before giving her another spoonful of food. "They are MOST PROBABLY LOST and found shelter IN OUR KITCHEN! So, OF COURSE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS had to come to their rescue!"
"Where'd you found them?"
"Under the SINK! They couldn't find the door, NYEHEHE!" Sans swore silently. With Papyrus in the doorway, he hadn't had the possibility to search so thoroughly earlier.
Well, at least, the good news was that Frisk wasn't gone anymore. And the second good news was that his brother didn't find out she was a little human. After all, he had only seen adults. Not to mention theyr were only drawings. It was impossible for him to link them to that tiny crawling thing that didn't speak. Sans breathed with relief as he walked to the counter and leaned against it, next to Frisk who kept gladly eating whatever Papyrus was feeding her.
The third good news was that Papyrus had obviously taken very good care of the child, which meant Toriel shouldn't get mad about it. Sans raised an eyebrow he didn't have when he noticed Papyrus, on top of having cooked her something to eat, had found the old blue onesie with white bone patterns that had been laying around somewhere upstairs – Sans remembered it, it was the one his brother wore himself when he was just a baby bone himself – to dress the human in. The baby chair too must have been in a closet, or maybe in the attic. It was quite unexpected, Sans didn't know Papyrus was so good with children. Well, it was the first time he'd see him take care of a baby but still! Papyrus still needed a bedtime story, it was like seeing a child take care of a younger child.
Frisk had the time to finish her bowl of boiled vegetables before Sans suddenly remembered why she was in Snowdin in the first place: wasn't she supposed to be sick? Or poisoned, or something? According to her content look, at least, she was eating again, and wasn't hurt anymore. Sans didn't know if this was a good or bad sign, human biology was none of his business.
"Bro, when you found them, was everything fine about the baby bones?" he said, as nonchalant as he could. Papyrus hummed thoughtfully as he dropped his cooking tools in the sink.
"Well, they seemed HUNGRY and COLD, but I took care of this!"
"Nah, I mean… They didn't look sick or anything?"
Papyrus gave him a doubtful look. "Why would they be sick? Do they look sick to you?"
"No, no, they…" Sans suddenly had an idea as he looked at the little human, following their conversation with large curious eyes. "Actually yes."
"Why?"
"Aren't baby monsters always covered with fur in Snowdin? Others wouldn't come here, it's too cold."
Papyrus attentively looked at the human, and Sans prayed for him to buy it.
The results were almost instant. "YOU'RE RIGHT!" Exclaimed Papyrus with huge eyes. "They only have FUR on the top of their head!" He turned to his brother, suddenly worried. "Does this means…"
"They are shedding? Maybe…"
"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus started gesturing wildly about, which made Frisk giggle, and Sans as well, a little. "THEY ARE SHEDDING? THEY MUST BE SICK! MAYBE EVEN DYING! THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST DO SOMETHING!" He paused. "But what?"
"Oh, you know, there aren't that many solutions," Sans breathed, shrugging. "I would go see the doctor Alphys, she would know what to do."
"Of COURSE! The royal scientist must know how to heal baby monsters!"
Papyrus's gaze lit up and Sans couldn't help but add. "In this case we should probably… furry over there!"
Papyrus glared at him but refused to even acknowledge his pun. Instead, he grabbed Frisk under the armpits and sat her on his arm, much to the little girl's glee as she was higher than she had ever been. "VERY WELL! Let's GO!"
"Wow, hold on, bro!" Sans stopped him. "Don't you want me to take care of that?"
Papyrus gave him a funny look. "No thank you! I started taking care of this little monster and the GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS finishes what he STARTED!"
Sans sighed. Of course it couldn't be that easy. "Ok, fine, whatever. Tell Al' I said hi."
Papyrus nodded as he passed the front door and closed it, a very enthusiastic Frisk in his arms. Sans ran a hand on his face. And he hoped the troubles were over…
"Here we go again…" he sighed.
And after another shortcut, he was at Alphys's.