Secrets Are Ba(n)d

Chapter 6: Comfortable your own Skin

And, just as soon as it started, the show had ended.

It was far more spectacular to see the monsters in person, all of them incredibly passionate despite their levels of talent, it made Papyrus think about if he really did as well as he thought. 

Now that it was over, however, he had bigger problems.

Like, how he was going to get home unnoticed.

The thought wrestled in his mind as he slowly made his past out the doors, so distracted he hardly realized someone was calling for him.

"Hey! Co-Cool Dude!"

He recognized the voice from somewhere, though it surprised him when the small lizard woman came barreling towards him.

"Oh th-thank Asgore, I'm so glad I found you!" She caught her breath slightly while she spoke, though suddenly more timid than the seconds before.

"I-I wanted to congratulate you!"

"On.. what?" Papyrus' voice lowered again, though his excitement peeked through even the mask.

"Yo-you don't know? You got the ne-next show!" At this point the small woman was giddy, almost more excited than he was.

"You just need to show up in two weeks to compete against the others, sor-sorry I forgot to tell you," She fiddled with her long claws, face turning bright pink in the process.

"No worries, thank you for telling me," Papyrus metaphorically screamed within his skull, the urge to jump up and down like the lizard had done being very tempting. Still, he realized he had an image to keep up, scrambling to keep his act together.

"Oh right, pardon my manners, what is your name?" He asked, feigning ignorance. He didn't sound like his singing voice, but she didn't seem to notice, her eyes sparkling at the question.

"O-Oh! You can ca-call me Alphys!" She replied, exchanging more information before hesitantly leaving for the venue once more.

Suddenly, the walk home felt lighter, the snow feeling more like clouds as he walked down the familiar pathway.

It was a lot easier to ignore the looks he got when he had a mask on. Of course, mostly due to the lack of vision, and the dark cloak had become slightly more tolerable the more he wore it.

For a moment, Papyrus was truly happy, even if it wasn't in his own skin.

And, like all those other happy moments, this one eventually ended.

His house was in sight, and judging by the freshly dragged footprints and lights, Sans was home.

The cloak felt a lot more itchy as Papyrus thought about a plan of action, having forgot a change of clothes, his phone, and practically anything helpful, the last idea that popped into his skull was his window. It wouldn't be the first time, as much as he hoped it would be the last.

Papyrus stood behind his house, staring up at his window, and the many feet between him and it.

He now knew from experience he wasn't the best climber, perhaps not even a good one, but it was a much better option than showing up in a scary disguise.

The lanky monster found the nearest tree and started climbing. Every branch higher filling his soul with more anxiety, and his shoulder with more of that numb pain, and yet he persisted. The Great Papyrus wouldn't let this stop him.

Finally, the walls of his room were eye-socket-level, and with a big breath he stretched his good arm as far as he could until his fingers tapped against the glass and he could open the window.

Diving in with very little grace, both him and his shoulder winced, groaning at the clattering of his joints together.

As much as he wanted to, he could not stay laying on his soft carpet, and so he sprung up to get changed. The commotion was definitely not unnoticed, and he had very little time before Sans took a shortcut to the stairs and found him half cloaked, so the best he could do was strip and grab whatever was closest.

And, unfortunately for him, that was yesterday's top and an old pair of shorts thrown to the floor while he was digging through the closet earlier.

Soon, that familiar ping sounded from outside his door, and thinking on his feet, Papyrus bolted for his bed.

"knock knock."

"..Who's there?" Papyrus responded hesitantly, half trying to sound sick and half trying to sound like he'd just woken up. It wasn't too hard, he'd pushed it with the singing, even pretending hurt just a little.

"woah, you never go with my jokes, you ok?" His brother opened the door, the light illuminating the many clothes and other things tossed around the room, much to the smaller ones not-so-hidden surprise. He was only teasing at first, but entering the room his demeanour shifted to something more concerned than he usually portrayed.

"Perfectly fine, Sans. I just fell out of bed and was too tired to defend myself against your terrible humor!" The tease almost came naturally, and much to Papyrus' dismay, so did the lie.

"alright.. how's yer shoulder doin'?"

His words were more lazy than usual, which made sense, seeing as he'd obviously been to Grillbys all day again.

"I told you, I'm fine Brother! now please allow me to get some rest, it's much too late for this."

And, though he was only acting, the thought of sleep felt ever so pleasant on his forming scrapes and bruises. Curse being such an amazing actor he could fool himself into sleepiness.

"it's like, noon paps. but, hey, like i'm one t' talk, get some rest bud," he smiled towards the sleepy skeleton, taking one last sneaky glance at the place before leaving. Not to say Sans was relieved, his brother was probably just recovering, in his own worrisome way.

1018 words
(The aftermath! This was super fun to write, and I hope it's just as fun to read. I love reading your comments too, so don't be shy to tell me what you think about it! Happy reading and commenting, folks!)