Underlust: Papyton - His Prince

16: Healing

Mettaton woke up the next morning feeling very well-rested. Considering how terribly he'd been sleeping the past month, getting a single night's worth of good sleep was practically a miracle. What was it that made a difference?

The robot opened his eye and raised his chin to see Papyrus' face above and directly across from his own. The skeleton was still fast asleep, one arm curled protectively around Mettaton with the robot tucked in his embrace.

Papyrus really was something else. Mettaton had a feeling he'd never be able to fully comprehend how he could have gotten so lucky to have Papyrus in his life.

***

The previous night, after Mettaton had his dissociative episode, Papyrus had offered to call Alphys or even escort Mettaton home himself, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night. For a moment, Mettaton had actually considered it... but after the day's events, as much as he wanted to go home, he couldn't bear to be alone in his room and think about everything that had happened to him. So he decided to stay, assuring Papyrus that he would be okay and that the skeleton hadn't done anything wrong.

It had taken a lot of convincing to get Papyrus to believe that he really wasn't the problem. Papyrus had apologized over and over again for pushing things too far, but Mettaton assured him that it wasn't his fault. Mettaton had been the one to go too far when he knew at some level that he wasn't ready for something like that yet, especially not after what had happened earlier the same day.

Mettaton knew that if something like this had happened just a couple of weeks ago, he would have blamed himself entirely for not listening to his own intuition. But by now, he realized that, while he did make a mistake, he couldn't demonize himself. His actions had come from a place of fear and desperation to separate himself from his trauma.

After a while, Papyrus finally seemed to accept what Mettaton was telling him and relented to still letting Mettaton sleep in the same bed. At first, the two of them had just laid there awkwardly, with Papyrus speaking up every few minutes to say sorry again. Eventually, Mettaton got so tired of hearing these unnecessary apologies that he leaned over and kissed Papyrus in the middle of one of these apologies, wriggling closer to him so the skeleton could wrap his arms around Mettaton under the blankets, with Mettaton resting his head on Papyrus' chest.

This shut Papyrus up for a while, but the inevitable next time he finally opened his mouth to apologize once more, Mettaton realized he had to say something extremely convincing so that Papyrus would have absolutely no reason to even think of apologizing anymore.

"Papy, please stop. If you want to apologize for anything, you should apologize for apologizing when it's completely unnecessary. I know you feel guilty, but it wasn't your fault. None of it was. Honestly, if you hadn't called in to my show to stop those people harassing me, and if you hadn't sent all of those letters, and if you hadn't come to my show to meet me... I'm not sure where I'd be right now. I'm nothing but happy to have met you. You're wonderful."

Papyrus thunked his chin on top of Mettaton's head, chuckling softly. "Well, I'm not so sure about that," he mumbled.

"But you're always calling yourself great. I thought that meant you knew exactly how incredible of a person you are." Mettaton raised his head to meet Papyrus' gaze, his brow knitted in honest confusion. Papyrus seemed taken aback by Mettaton's words.

"Well, Mettaton..." Papyrus sighed. "Why do you think I talk myself up all the time? It's because deep down... I don't really think I'm actually that great at all. I mean, if I'm everything you say I am, why does everyone look over me or laugh at me? Why doesn't Undyne think I have what it takes to be in the Royal Harem?"