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, (almost) all of them incredibly talented, though it did make Papyrus think on if he really did as good as he thought. But for now, he had bigger problems.

Like how he was going to get home unnoticed.

The thought wrestled in his mind as he slowly made his way out the doors, he was so distracted he hardly realized someone was calling for him. "HE-HEY! 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, s-sorry I forgot to tell you,," She fiddled with her long claws. "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. "Oh right, pardon my manners, what is your name?" "O-Oh! You can ca-call me Alphys!"

Suddenly the walk home felt lighter, the snow transforming into 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, (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 ended. His house was in sight, and judging by the freshly dragged footprints and lights, Sans was home. His 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.

Papyrus stood behind his house, staring up at his window, and the many feet between him and it. He 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 filled 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 untill his fingers tapped against the glass and he could open the window, diving in with very little grace.
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 (somehow) 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. "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 hidden surprise. "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. "aight.. how's yur 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 going with his act, the thought of sleep felt ever so pleasant on his forming scrapes and bruises. "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 look at the place before leaving.

847 words

(Phew that's over, hope you all enjoyed! I'm trying to write longer chapters to make up for all the time it takes to make them, so tell me what you think!)