The hand that holds the chain(swapfell)part 2

chapter 2

Alphys had been onto something with the whole 'training' thing, Sans though later. He had already trained Papyrus to only respond to his trigger word when HE said it, had Papyrus obeying his verbal commands, and almost had him functioning like a normal Monster when stress levels were down.

But training him to respond in combat? Whole different story.

Despite Sans's best efforts, Papyrus still had violent responses to certain stimuli when stress levels were high, and if Sans wasn't paying attention, Papyrus would lash out and seriously hurt someone for what could have likely been an unfortunate mistake.

Simply commanding Papyrus to not attack at ALL would be a mistake. Papyrus needed an outlet to express his rage, and like HELL Sans was going to risk Papyrus being alone and encountering enemies without permission to fight back. Sans was not a fan of repeating mistakes, and he'd be damned if he'd repeat his worst.

As it stood, Papyrus's reasoning for what constituted a proper threat was nonexistent. Sans would need to work on that first and foremost. Secondly would be figuring out how to let Papyrus fight, and what level of deadliness would be allowed. Thirdly, cooperation.

The life he now had with Papyrus constituted a certain routine with rules that were put in place for Papyrus's safety, as well as everyone else's. There couldn't be a lot of alterations between 'home' rules and 'battle' rules, or who knew what would happen?

What was more, Sans wanted to hold onto hope that one day, his brother would be able to have some modicum of self-control and self-awareness without him having to spell everything out for him. While he loved the idea of Papyrus being his beloved pet, obedient slave, he didn't want Papyrus's mind to be trapped in such a state. His little brother needed guidance and protection, but Sans wanted Papyrus to LIVE.

Sans was the one who started this entire thing between them. He was the one who upped the ante, took a gamble, and lost spectacularly, almost losing his brother entirely. And by the gods that still had mercy, he was going to do what he could to fix it.

And the first step to that was giving Papyrus his fangs back.

Come to find, it was quite literally.

Alphys made mention that having such an open gap in Papyrus's skull would keep getting worse if there wasn't a dam to fix it. She gave Sans the name of someone who could probably fill most of the gap up, and maybe throw in a false tooth to go with it. Missing teeth were apparently common in the Guard, and the new trend was gold replacements.

It seemed a bit frivolous to Sans; why waste some G by melting them down into TEETH? He warmed up to the idea, however, when he was keeping a stern eye on the medic who was filling in Papyrus's maxilla gap, thinking that it would be something of showmanship for Papyrus. He certainly thought every bit of Papyrus was worth more than its weight in gold, so why not a small bit?

Papyrus woke up from his anesthesia-induced nap, a shiny gold fang the same size as the other that was sharpened on the right, and his eyelights shone just as bright as he touched at it in fascination. Only his Lord would have permitted such a frivolous accessory, and it was so wonderful to have something fill that gap.

It quickly grew on Sans, who was just happy to see his brother mostly whole again, the large maxilla crack scar excluded of course. But he made it clear that Papyrus was to not allow harm to come to himself, if at all possible. Not only was that fang expensive, but it was now a part of him, and Sans made sure that Papyrus KNEW that allowing harm to come to himself from someone who MEANT him harm was forbidden.

Despite their new life, Sans didn't have very many rules, but the few he DID have were to be followed no matter what. The first rule was one that Sans put in place the day Papyrus had been shattered.