Believe in Me

Brother

"Because I don't fucking want to talk to you, you little shit!" Red cried, attempting to close the door in Blue's face.

"Yes you do! Everyone wants to talk to the Sansational Blue! You don't have to be embarrassed by your love of my greatness!" Blue yelled back, pushing on the door relentlessly.

Fell was sitting calmly on the couch, completely ignoring the entire exchange in favor of the book he currently held in his hands.

"Are you fucking serious?" Red yelled back, trying unsuccessfully to push Blue out of the way.

"No, of course not, but you still need a friend and I'm here for you!" Blue gave an extra hard slam, knocking Red onto the floor and calmly letting himself into the house, closing the door behind him.

Red jumped to his feet, swearing loudly, about to forcibly pick the other up and throw him through the nearest window, when Fell stood up and set his book aside, glaring at the two of them.

"Can you two please keep it down? Some of us would like a little bit of peace and quiet!"

Red grumbled under his breath about where he could stick his peace and quiet, but Blue shifted back and forth for a moment in silence. "You have a beautiful home, Fell!" he finally chirped nervously, but Fell just shook his head and walked into the kitchen.

They both watched him go, but Red turned back to Blue as soon as he was out of sight and hissed, "I will kill you if you do not leave right this minute."

"No you won't!"

Red was spluttering, and Blue grinned at him happily until he said, "Oh yeah? Fuckin' check me, then!"

Blue cocked an eyebrow at him, but obeyed without another word. Red had almost the same stats as his brother, except...

"See? I have LV. I really will kill you. So leave. Now."

Blue regarded him carefully, rethinking some things. Then he nodded decisively and said, "No, you still won't kill me. I've heard about your world, and I can understand something about your situation. You must not have thought you had any other choice."

Red had frozen completely, staring at him like he'd never seen him before.

Blue took a step forward and grabbed the other's hands, smiling kindly. "Besides, I know you can be better. Anyone can!"

Red seemed to be fighting an internal battle, but finally, he sighed and pulled his hands away. "Fine, ya fucking blueberry. What do you want to do?"

Blue's squeal of delight was enough to make even Fell smile from the next room.

Red had just finished drying the dishes when he heard the door slam open, his brother's shouting filling the house. "SANS! YOU LEFT YOUR POST EARLY, YOU--"
Red practically ran to the doorway, swinging halfway around it and throwing a weak bone construct at his brother to get his attention. "Fuckin' shhhhhhh!" he hissed at the other, who seemed confounded by the fact that Red was daring to attack and then shush him. "Blue's trying to sleep upstairs," he added quietly, and Fell's mouth dropped open.

"Blue is back?" he asked, and Red nodded silently. "So you found him, then? He's okay?"
Red moved back into the kitchen so that his brother couldn't see the look on his face as he said, "Yeah, kind of."
He went back to washing the container, rinsing the soap off and drying it quickly as he heard his brother come into the kitchen.

"Kind of?"

"I found him while I was out patrolling...he was laying in the snow and he...he..."
"Is he okay?"
Red grasped onto the edge of the counter, breathing deeply. He opened his mouth, and a choked-off kind of sob came out before he could stop it. He set the container down very carefully, studiously avoiding looking at his brother as he said, "No. No, not really."
There was a long moment of silence as Red tried to steady his breathing. He didn't want to show this kind of weakness in front of his brother. Crying because you were scared was just something you didn't do in this world, no matter how much you might want to. No, he needed to suck it up, to pretend he didn't care if Blue lived or died or forgot all about him--
Another dry sob racked through his chest, and he found himself sitting on the floor very suddenly, with his brother holding him close to his chest and rubbing his back. He couldn't even appreciate the rare show of affection through the haze of fear and sadness that seemed to be pulling apart his soul from the inside.
"What's wrong with him?" Papyrus asked quietly, still rubbing Red's back as he cried.
"He-he had the-the.." Red couldn't find the words to say it, so he just made a slashing motion across his chest, and Papyrus nodded in understanding. "And h-he doesn't know m-me, he d-didn't r-recognize me at all, and h-he had S-stretch's sweatshirt, and th-that m-means--"
"Stretch is dead?" Papyrus asked, surprised. "Why was he even in Swapverse? And isn't Blue supposed to go before Stretch?"
Red nodded, still crying. He didn't know what this meant, that things had changed so drastically. He didn't know how to even begin to respond to the news that Stretch was dead. Not that the world held any permanence. He'd be back at some point.
They sat there in silence for a long time, Red sobbing while his brother held him close. It was a role reversal for something they hadn't done since they were both children, starving on the streets of the Capitol, but Red couldn't appreciate it because he was so entirely stuck in the room upstairs next to the small skeleton sleeping in his worn-out bed.