Who Says You're the One in Control?

Not My Best Chapter, but Eh

"don't climb so high you fall!" Sans yelled at his brother as the eight year old reached for a higher branch.

"Don't worry, brother!" Papyrus called down. "I'm an expert at climbing trees!"

As if karma were striking him down, his foot slipped. Sans watched in horror as the skeleton fell. There was a snap, followed by an ear splitting scream.

Sans ran to Papyrus's side to see the smaller bone of his arm broken cleanly in half. He held back the urge to vomit, and picked his brother up. Using what little blue magic he knew, he made Papyrus as light as he could, hoping he could get home before he became too tired.

Papyrus screamed the entire way. Tears streaking down his face as he looked in horror at his own arm. Sans had a feeling if it had been him, he would have passed out by now. He often found himself amazed at the durability of his brother.

He ran into the house and made a beeline for dad's lab. When he found it was empty, he groaned.

"What happened?" Sans turned to see his father standing in the door. Annoyance turned to worry when he saw the cause of Papyrus's screams.

Immediately, he took the child from Sans and ran to the other side of his lab. Scattered across his counter were countless papers. Dad swiped them onto the floor with one quick motion, and replaced them with the sobbing skeleton.

"we were c-climbing a tree, and he fell." Sans explained as his father soothed his brother with his healing magic. Sans opted to picking the papers off the floor. It was all he could do to be even remotely helpful.

"How far do you think he fell?" Dad asked, not looking at Sans.

"twenty-one feet and four inches. from the top of the branch his foot was on to the ground." Sans replied without much thought.

Dad glanced at him for only a second, but Sans noticed the confusion his expression betrayed. "That's a very precise estimate." He commented.

"that's how tall it was." Sans replied in annoyance. "you want me to go measure it or something?"

Dad sighed. "No, Sans. I'll take your word for it."

Papyrus had stopped crying by now. He lay sniffling on the table, watching dad with the biggest eyes. Sans could feel a sort of pressure on his chest. Like a subtle ache at seeing his brother in pain.

He seemed to feel that every time Papyrus cried. He cried a lot. The little skeleton had turned the whole household upside down. Over the past four years, Sans had come to love the kid.

Dad seemed to be trying harder to be involved, too. While Sans was an easy child who didn't need much attention, Papyrus was constantly getting into trouble or asking for something. It forced Sans and his father to act more like a family, with Papyrus at it's center.

Sans had found it interesting to watch dad learn how to be a dad rather than a housemate. Once Sans had learned to read, dad went back to work and left the child mainly to himself. Sans hadn't minded much. He was an 'easy child'. Papyrus minded.

"I'm sorry, brother." Papyrus said through tears.

"what? why are you apologizing?" Sans felt the pressing pain get stronger.

"You told me not to fall and I did." Papyrus was still holding his arm.

Sans could see a hairling fracture where the break had been. Dad wasn't the best healer, but Sans was surprised he had managed to close it up this much.

"i'm not gonna blame you for an accident." Sans was amazed at how Papyrus's mind worked. Here the kid had just gone through something traumatic, and he was worried about disobeying Sans accidentally.

"Papyrus, I'm going to give you something to help you sleep, okay? I want you to go straight to bed." Dad ordered as he took a bottle of pills off the shelf. He carefully cut one in half and handed it to Papyrus.

The child obeyed. Sans could guess crying so much had helped tire him out. Sans found when he cried, it was very exhausting.

"Sans, show me what tree you were climbing."Grabbing a tape measure and his coat, dad headed for the door.

Sans wasn't so eager. "you're seriously gonna measure it?"

Dad looked at his son in annoyance. "Humor me." He didn't wait for a response. Sans growled before following.

When dad got to the tree, he measured the branch. Sans stayed on the ground. The scientist muttered like he normally did as he worked.

Pointing to a higher branch, dad asked Sans to tell him the height. "i don't really get the point of the game." Sans replied.

"I'm not playing games here. Just tell me how high the branch is!" Sans had called down to him.

The branch was a little over two feet above the branch Papyrus had fallen from. "twenty-three and a half. i don't know."

Dad frowned. "You have no idea how tall it is?"

"do i look like the kind of person who measures trees in my spare time?" Sans snarked.

His father climbed down to stand in front of him. "You were less than a quarter of an inch off on that first branch. Yet even having a reference, and being able to look at the tree, you couldn't make the same accuracy with the second?"

"Dad, this isn't one of your dumb experiments!" Sans hated when his father looked further into things than was necessary.

"How did you know the height of the branch." The scientist wasn't planning on giving up any time soon.

Sans gave a loud groan in protest. His father would have none of it. "fine. it was just there, okay?"

"What was?"

"the height. it was on the tree."

Dad looked back at the tree. He walked all the way around it then gave Sans a distrustful look. "I don't see it."

Sans sighed. "me either. it happened so fast, im not sure how i saw it." Dad stared at him in contemplation. "can i go home now?"

Father looked back at the tree. "Yes. Go back. I'm going to have another look."

~

"I believe it was some form of magic that let you get the height of the tree." Dad said as he sat at the table for dinner.

"great." Sans shoved a fork full of spaghetti into his mouth with as much angst as he could. This was Papyrus's treat for being such a trooper. Pasta take-out from the nearest Italian restaurant.

"I'm going to be working with you to develop the power even more." Dad had no apparent interest in the plate of food set before him.

"great." Sans replied again. He hated when his father pretended he was another science experiment.

"Sans, it might help you in the future to have a good understanding of your magic. Especially if the humans go to war."

Sans knew he was right, but even the idea of fighting the humans made Sans sick. He pushed his plate away. "welp. it's not like you're gonna give me a choice, now is there?"

He stood up to leave the room. As soon as he closed the door, he heard Papyrus pipe up, "Don't worry, Dadster! I will protect Sans with all my strength!"

Sans smiled to himself. All annoyance gone. He knew Papyrus would do anything to keep the people he loved safe. Sans decided he wanted to be that same way. He would keep Papyrus and Gaster safe no matter what. They would always be a family.