A Good Person

Chapter 31: A Good Person

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Papyrus knelt with one arm tucked against his side, unmoving for the longest time.

"… Hey," Sans managed to drag himself toward his brother, despite feeling as if he could take a hundred year nap. He couldn't walk, but he could drag himself and shuffle, so it would have to do. "Bro. Gotta say… that-that was pretty fuckin' boss."

"Do you think…" Papyrus said softly as the dust and flecks of plant matter drifted through his fingers. "Do you think that… maybe… he could have been good, Sans?"

"Not anymore," he responded darkly, placing a hand on Papyrus's shoulder. "That… thing was about as far from good as he could possibly get ."

God, he'd never be able to tell him. Not anyone, not ever. At least his brother hadn't been forced to see what had… he wouldn't think about it. If he didn't think about it, it wouldn't be a problem, and he wouldn't wind up puking his nonexistent guts out again from the memory. Papyrus only sighed and shook his head slowly. He glanced over to see Frisk peeking from around Sans, their eyes wide as saucers. They hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment, before bolting to him and wrapping their arms around his neck. Papyrus cringed as if in pain, but gently patted the back of their head as they silently sobbed against him.

"It's alright, Frisk," Papyrus said softly. "It's okay. It's okay. "

This only caused them to cry harder, clinging desperately to him. Sans shifted from foot to foot for a moment before Papyrus sighed and nodded him over, letting Sans join in on the hug. Papyrus flinched again and let out a hiss through his teeth, and Sans looked at him with uncertainty.

"It's fine," Papyrus said through his teeth and shook his head. "You should see to the king, Sans."

Sans had almost completely forgotten about him. Was he even still alive? He didn't even see the lump of motionless figure until Papyrus pointed him out, laying amongst the rubble in the dark. Sans forced himself forward with trepidation, feeling almost as if he were still in a dream. Dropping to the ground and never getting back up seemed awfully enticing at this point. If all of this were a dream, he certainly wasn't ready to awaken just yet. He couldn't bear the thought of waking to seeing that, to being - he couldn't wake up to that again. He was fearful, though, that he would be walking over the king's dust and find nothing but his royal garb lying on the ground, but instead, to his immense relief, he found the king lying face down. He groaned quietly when Sans cautiously placed a sweaty hand on his head.

"… Sans?" Asgore rumbled blearily, sitting up slowly as the skeleton helped him. "What… what happened?"

"That depends," Sans answered quietly. "How much do you remember?"

"I… I remember…" Asgore started uncertainly. "Something… grabbed me," he felt for invisible cords around his neck, and Sans saw that there was indeed a terrible gash across his throat from where he had been yanked away. It looked like someone had painted a horrible thick line from one side of his neck to another. "And it was… dark. I think I saw a flash of light…? I am sorry, I… can't quite seem to remember."

Sans let out a quiet breath, still feeling shaky. He felt as if he hadn't slept in years. At least that was some consolation. Asgore, at the very least, wouldn't be haunted by the horrible images of what had occurred.

"ASGORE DREEMURR !"

The king flinched immediately upon hearing the familiar voice, struggling to stand. Sans was helping him to his feet when he heard her, and he almost collapsed upon hearing the voice. That furious but familiar voice. Bright, flickering flames were wrapped around her clenched fists as she stormed through the broken entrance to the room containing the barrier, sending shadows dancing around them.

"T-Tori?"

"Don't you 'Tori' me, Dreemurr!" the caprine woman snapped angrily, stomping straight through rapidly decaying plant matter without even missing a stride. "You aren't to lay a single finger on that child!"

"I know you," Sans balked, almost too afraid to believe it. "I know that voice… !"

"Oh!" Toriel blinked, clearing her throat and adjusting her violet robe after a moment, her face softening when she blinked and glanced down at him. "I recognize yours as well. Would you happen to be my skeleton friend, perchance?"

"Hey, don't let me hold you up," he shrugged and took a step away from the king, who looked very much as if he had just been thrown under the bus. "Looks like you got a bone to pick with the big guy."

Toriel snickered, which made his soul soar. There was already too much to deal with right now, and the fact that the woman he had been telling jokes to for so long was the long missing queen was way, way too much to handle right now. The queen was here. The freaking queen. He turned back towards Papyrus, who was still kneeling at an awkward angle with Frisk and holding them with one arm, but was interrupted before he could even make it to his brother.

"Nobody fight anybody!" Undyne crashed in through the wrecked opening, armor gleaming as she brandished a spear. "Or I'll be forced to-! To… to, uh… Uh."

"Uh?" Sans egged her with a weary grin. "C'mon, man. Finish your sentences."

"What happened in here?" Undyne balked as skittering footsteps sounded down the corridor behind her, lowering her glowing spear as she stared in shock around at the wreckage, the chunks of sliced stone missing from the walls and ceiling. She stepped in a pile of swiftly disintegrating vines, kicking disgustedly at it.

"Oh, not much," Papyrus answered her calmly. "Normal day. Got up, had some coffee, punched a god in the face. Same old, same old."

"U-U-Undyne, w-wait!" Alphys stumbled over her feet awkwardly behind Undyne, bumping right into her. "We h-have to… to… the human… yikes," Alphys let out a whistling breath through her teeth. "W-what happened?"

"Do I have to tell it again?" Papyrus answered tiredly, the lines beneath his eye sockets more pronounced than ever. "Because I'm not sure that I have the energy."

"Are you alright, my child?" Toriel knelt before Frisk. Frisk hugged them immediately, drying their eyes with their sleeve and nodding a couple of times. They still looked so pale. So frail.

But alive.

They were alive .

Like it was all just a bad dream.

Sans slipped away from the chattering monsters and slid down against one of the walls, feeling the coarse stone against his back through his jacket. His eye sockets started to droop almost right away. He was so tired. So exhausted . Everything that he had had been taken from him, he was too drained to fight anymore. Too tired. All he wanted to do was rest. He felt like he hadn't had that opportunity in years. He almost did fall asleep amidst the excitement were it not for Frisk, who gently pulled at his hand. He blinked drowsily a few times as they wordlessly pulled at him, and he nodded once to let them understand that even though he didn't say it, he would follow regardless. He would follow them to the ends of the earth if he had to. They were alive. There wasn't a single chance in hell he was letting them out of his sight now. Not ever, ever again.

"What is it, babybones?" Sans asked quietly. Why weren't they speaking? Frisk only shook their head and drew him closer to the barrier. His footsteps echoed a little as they retreated from the group, and he gazed upon the massive barrier locking them all within their prison.

And then Frisk did the unexpected. They shaped their hands into a little heart over their chest, taking a long, slow, steady breath and let it out, and when they did there was an eruption of color as the souls poured from them, spinning and swirling. Sans stood back in shock, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

Frisk was a human.

Humans can't absorb human souls.

They pointed their forefinger at the barrier with their hand shaped like a gun, and for a very brief moment he could have sworn that he heard them quietly say pew . The souls tore into the barrier and vanished from sight, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then he saw what was like a crack in reality where the barrier had once stood, splitting and rippling like a stone dropped in a pond.

And just like that, the barrier was gone.

Frisk almost dropped and he rushed to their side, propping them up with their arm slung around his shoulder.

"H-holy shitballs," Sans spluttered, unable to believe his eye sockets. If he hadn't seen it for himself he definitely wouldn't have believed it. He could hear birdsong not too far away, rustling wind and chirrups of crickets. This was possibly because he didn't hear the others anymore, and couldn't bring himself to speak as the crowd of curious monsters peered up at the place where the barrier had once been. "What - Frisk, what? How in the flying hell…?"

"… It's gone," Asgore said simply. "The barrier is… gone ."

"Frisk did it," Sans breathed, his legs barely holding him up, let alone the both of them. "Frisk actually did it. We're… we're free ."

"I, er… s-suppose that I should apologize for, um. Trying to kill you," Asgore tapped his fingers together nervously beneath Toriel's withering glare. Frisk just shook their head with a tired little smile, their eyes full of forgiveness. They reached out and patted his hand softly, craning their neck up to see him. "You are… quite merciful. For a human," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"It's gone," Alphys stuttered quietly, standing beside Undyne and readjusting and cleaning her glasses multiple times pointlessly. "It's gone, oh my god it's actually gone, the barrier is gone… !"

"I know man, this is… oh. Dude, is that your ex?" Undyne whispered a little too loudly to Asgore. Asgore swallowed dryly and nodded, looking extremely uncomfortable from the unwavering stare that Toriel was giving him. "Harsh, bro."

Undyne cleared her throat and dissipated her spear, bowing cordially before the queen.

"Nice to meet you, your majesty," Undyne gave her a huge grin. "So, what brings you here?"

"Word travels rather quickly in the Underground," Toriel said simply. "When I heard that Dreemurr here had arrived in Snowdin," she crossed her arms, and Asgore resumed looking at a much more interesting spot between his feet. "I came as quickly as I could manage to stop him from doing something foolhardy and stupid. Which he was apparently just about to do."

"I did say that I was sorry," Asgore shifted nervously, her eyes burning a hole through him.

"Which wouldn't have happened at all," Sans interjected venemously. "If somebody hadn't sold us out."

"… What are you starin' at me like that for?" Undyne balked at him.

"Don't give me that crap! Why did you tell Asgore?"

"I didn't-!" Undyne sputtered, stamping a foot against the ground. Asgore's eyes narrowed at Undyne sharply. "I-I mean, uh, y-your majesty, I, I, uh…"

"Did everybody but me know about the human?" Asgore clapped a large hand to his forehead.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe that was for a good reason?"

Toriel quipped coldly, causing the king to flinch again. He looked like an overgrown schoolchild, twiddling with his thumbs as if he had just been caught passing notes to another student.

"So… then how did you know?" Sans tried and failed to stifle a yawn. God, he was so tired. Frisk was the only thing keeping him on his feet.

"Oh," Asgore blinked. "A nice little flower monster told me."

If Sans weren't already so exhausted and worn out, he could have screamed .

"If everyone is quite finished catching up," Papyrus said pointedly, still holding his arm close to his chest. "Frisk has been trying to get out attention."

Sans blinked and glanced down at the child beside him. They hadn't said a single word, but they were indeed nodding toward the opening where the warm orange glow was flooding in. Sans pocketed his questions and followed numbly, drifting along the floor as he was gently pulled along.

"It's… more beautiful than I remember," Asgore said softly as the collection of monsters stood on the precipice of the cliff, staring out over the horizon.

"It truly is a gorgeous sight," Toriel agreed, standing as far from him as she possibly could.

"What's that big orange thing?" Papyrus squinted in the dusk light. "It's… very pretty."

"We call that the sun, bro," Sans answered quietly. "Nice to finally get you introduced."

"Oh. How quaint! Hello, sun!" Papyrus beamed up at the glowing orb.

Obviously, the sun did not reply.

"… I said, hello. "

The setting sun ignored him.

"… Hmph. Rude. "

"Its'… it's so big out here," Alphys tapped her claws nervously, fiddling with something in her pocket. Very likely her phone, but Sans didn't have the energy to ask. "It just looks like it goes on f-forever…"

"That's because it does, remember?" Sans tucked one hand into his pocket, still holding Frisk's hand in his other. "We've got the whole wide world open to us now. And it's all thanks to this munckin," he ruffled Frisk's hair, and although they looked a little annoyed they smiled back at him wordlessly. Why didn't they speak? Didn't they have anything to say? He would have thought that they would have so much more to tell them, but still, they just said… nothing. Nothing at all. It was making him supremely uneasy.

"So…" Papyrus said after a while of silence. "I hate to be a buzzkill, but would anyone happen to have a spare bandage on them?"

"Why, bro?" Sans blinked and glanced up at the skeleton beside him.

"You get a scratch or Jesus titty fucking Christ!"

Sans felt so supremely stupid that he hadn't even noticed why Papyrus had been holding his arm so close to his chest.

Or what was left of his arm, anyway.

"I, er… can't really look at it," Papyrus said with a frown. "Because I am definitely leaking marrow, and if I see that again I'm absolutely going to faint and it will totally ruin my big hero moment."

"You are injured?" Toriel took him by the shoulder instantly and he hissed in pain, guiding him over to sit by an old oak. "How did this happen? Did Dreemurr do this?!"

"No, it's fine," Papyrus tried to insist, but was forcibly pushed back down as emerald light flooded from her fingertips, and Papyrus pointedly looked away. "I, er, had a little… disagreement with someone that I thought was a friend."

"Disagreement?" Toriel gaped at him. "Your arm's off!"

"It's only a flesh wound," Papyrus said uncomfortably. "Or. Um. Lack thereof."

Toriel snorted as she healed him.

"… Oh god, now I'm making puns," Papyrus sighed and closed his eye sockets, leaning his head back against the tree. "See, Sans? I told you that you were a terrible influence on me."

"You've got me there, bro," Sans said softly.

Papyrus's arm was… difficult to look at, to say the least. For a skeleton, broken bones were possibly one of the most terrifying things to witness, but seeing what punching that demented flower had done to him was… awful . The slick foulness from that thing was still dripping off of him. His arm was completely gone almost up to the elbow, marrow spattering his battle body. Sans felt a little sick just looking at it, but he felt Frisk's firm but gentle grip in his hand draw him away.

"This… changes a great many things," Asgore said quietly as he stared out over the mountains and forests, to the glimmering sea and the city beside it. "This changes so much. Perhaps… perhaps everything."

"Say," Undyne cleared her throat, nodding towards Papyrus. "You remember the guy I was telling you about?" she grinned widely. "That's him. So, whaddya think? Royal guard material, or what?"

Papyrus perked up instantly, eye sockets snapping open.

"I would be delighted to have you in the royal guard," Asgore said intantly.

"This is it," Papyrus wept openly. "This is the greatest day of my entire life."

"However…" Asgore coughed into one large hand. "I believe that it would be… very unwise to wage war with humanity once again. The royal guard no longer has need of capturing humans, and would therefore be disbanded."

"This is it," Papyrus wept openly. "This is the worst day of my entire

life."

They set up camp a short while before the sun began to set.

Papyrus was tended to personally by the queen, and Alphys peppered him with question after question almost the entire time, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he rather appeared to be annoyed by the constant attention rather than basking in it.

Careful what you wish for, I guess.

Papyrus joined them a while later as the others toasted drinks around the campfire. He sidled down on Sans's opposite side after petting Frisk gently on the head with his only remaining hand.

Sans shifted with his back against one of the worn old oaks, never letting go of Frisk's hand. He had to fight to keep from staring at his brother's injury. Papyrus had lost so much just trying to protect them. And what had Sans given? He wasn't a hero like him. He was so far removed from 'hero' that he couldn't begin to imagine being in his brother's position. He was useless. That much had been proven. Violently and repeatedly.

"… So," Papyrus clenched and unclenched his fist over his leg, giving a heavy sigh. "I suppose that the royal guard just sort of… waters flowers now. Call me crazy, but I'm not exactly big on taking care of plants at the moment."

"So does that mean you turned down the king?" Sans blinked in surprise, hardly able to stay awake.

"Of course not, he's the king," Papyrus threw out an arm in exasperation. "So much for being the dashing hero fighting off hordes of humans."

"Bro, are you kidding me right now?" Sans couldn't help but chuckle. "You'll be beating 'em off with a stick, no doubt. Showers of kisses for you every morning, no doubt 'bout it."

"You really think so?" Papyrus hopefully leaned with his elbow on his knees.

"Of course, bro. After everybody hears about what a hero you are-"

"I don't quite consider myself that," he answered softly, looking away. "I… killed my friend. Yes, he did something terrible, but…"

"Don't," Sans started bitterly, placing his free hand on his shoulder. He wanted to be sick. "If you doubt yourself and keep guessing what if, you'll never, ever be able to let it go. Just… just trust me on this one. You're a goddamned hero, Paps. And I am never gonna let you forget it," he added with a wink.

Papyrus started to respond but was stopped when Frisk leaned over

Sans and gently put their tiny hand over his with a smile. He sighed and shook his head, closing his mouth and letting out a sigh through his teeth.

After a moment of not releasing him, he realized that Frisk was prodding Sans as well, and they both looked up and felt like their whole world was reeling once again.

Stars.

There were so many stars .

"… Whoa," Sans let out a shaky breath.

"Understatement of the century, brother," Papyrus whispered, looking ready to start crying again. "It's… stars and stones. It's so… beautiful

."

"Told you," Sans heard Chara's familiar tone, their voice almost soft enough to be confused for Frisk's if he didn't know the difference. He didn't want to glance away from the sight of infinity before him to know that their eyes had changed again. They pointed up and held out their hand, like they were trying to cup the sky. "The sun, and the moon, and all the stars in the night sky."

"What you've given us really is an irreplaceable gift, little one," Papyrus wiped his eye sockets with his arm, beaming down at them. "I'm… I don't know if I told you, but… I'm happy that I met you."

"Papyrus…" Chara started slowly, looking directly at him. "I think it's time that I-I told you the truth about me."

"You mean that you're not Frisk."

"No, that I'm-I'm, uh. What."

"What?" Papyrus didn't even register Chara's or Sans's outright shock. "You thought I wouldn't figure it out? Why does everyone assume that I'm dumb ?"

"I - you're - how ?" Chara spluttered.

"The inflection in your tone, for one," he pointed out. "Plus Frisk uses their other hand. What? Did you think it was just a coincidence that I never once called you Frisk while your eyes were red? I know you aren't Frisk. But you're still family," he said warmly, placing a hand over their head gently with a kind smile. "And I'm glad that you are."

Sans couldn't even bring himself to speak for the longest time.

"… Whelp," Papyrus stood after a while. "Alphys is going to roast marshmallows for everyone, and I promised that I would help make smores. Come join us when you're ready, alright?"

Sans could only nod silently. There was simply no way that his body could take any more shock today. He just wouldn't make it. He could only watch as Papyrus happily rejoined the others, chatting amicably amongst them like he had never left.

And then Sans started laughing .

He just couldn't hold it in anymore. He wans't certain of why he was laughing, and he only shook his head when he felt Frisk's grip on his hand tighten a little. Frisk, Chara, he didn't know. Didn't care. Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe it never did.

But so long as he had Papyrus, so long as he had his little babybones, then somehow or another they could make things work. And he wanted it to work, he wanted it so badly that it burned inside his chest. But for that, he had to try. More than that, he had to want to try, and keep doing it. Frisk hugged him around the belly and he held them closer, closing his eyes as his wild chuckles died down. Maybe things would be okay. And maybe, if he tried harder than he had ever tried in his entire life, then maybe, just maybe, someday he could be a good person, too.

End of Book One.

I'm working on getting the second book rewritten and uploaded as quickly as I can between juggling a bunch of other stuff. Prepare for bad times for everyone because I'm awful. T_T