Who Says You're the One in Control?

Last One of These I'll be Writing

"What was home like, brother?" Papyrus asked as Sans closed Fluffy Bunny. Sans was surprised Papyrus was still awake, but it seemed like he wasn't sleeping so well recently.

It wouldn't have been concerning if Papyrus got more that three solid hours of sleep on normal. Now he was getting closer to one hour. Maybe he was getting sick.

Sans' smile faltered slightly. "uh.. it was okay." He put the book on the desk. "we had friends, and stuff, but things were really stressful on the surface."

He hadn't told Papyrus about Gaster, or the war. He had only told the kid that they had moved from the surface. The poor kid couldn't remember anything from his childhood.

"But what was it like?" Papyrus asked again.

Sans hummed a note of contemplation. "it was like down here, but all the areas mixed. during some months, there was snow. others, there was lots of rain and mud. then it got really hot. but there were lots of nice days, too."

Papyrus smiled. "Was there spaghetti?"

"yep." Sans laughed. "there was a place called Italy, and it was famous for its pasta of all kinds."

"Really?!? Wowie!! Sans, can we go there someday?"

Sans shrugged. "maybe when i get us home we can."

"Are we really going to go home?"

"of course. i promised, right?" Papyrus nodded. "you know how much i hate breaking promises."

"Can you tell me more about the surface?"

Sans sat back in the chair. "there's tons to do. if you wanna learn, you can study the stars, the plants, the different languages and types of people, the animals, or hundreds of other subjects. if you would rather explore, you can go to a dessert, or a forest, or a mountain, or the sea, or any of the seven continents. if you like food, you can try Italian, Mexican, American, Chinese, Indian..."

He talked about it till Papyrus fell asleep. He looked at his brother for a while. The seventeen year old looked ready to jump awake and run a marathon. That was how Papyrus slept. It was very strange to Sans, who slept more like a sack of popatoes.

Sans turned off the light and closed the door. Skipping the noisy step, he tiptoed down stairs and out to his lab. He had been trying to remake dad's machine for two years, now.

He grabbed his coffee, and looked over the partial blueprints he had found. They weren't even of the same machine he had stupidly fiddled with on the surface. They were for a failed attempt dad had tested.

Making a working time machine out of someone's failure was hard. It was time consuming. Sans looked at the clock. He would probably end up pulling another all-nighter.

~

"Sans! You're going to be late for work!" Papyrus banged on Sans' bedroom door. There was a groan from Sans as he slid to the floor. "I have made you a delicious breakfast, but once again, you will have to eat it once you get there!"

Sans mumbled a thanks and lay on the floor for a good five minutes before finally standing up. He threw on his sneakers and headed downstairs. No need to change clothes, he had done that yesterday.

Papyrus looked him up and down. "Sans, did you even take a shower?"

"nah." Sans replied through a yawn. "i gotta get to work, remember?"

Papyrus handed him the spaghetti, and touched his shoulder lovingly. "I hope you get out of this slump soon, brother. It isn't like you."

Sans was shocked. It was like Papyrus had physically hit him. Had it really been that noticeable? Did Papyrus really know he was depressed?

It had been so long since the timelines had started repeating. Sans had used the time to work long hours on the machine, but he had only ever hit dead ends. Papyrus only saw three years of research, but Sans had gone through four, maybe five, years if you included all the timelines.

He had finally given up. He had no more leads, and nothing had worked. He wanted so badly for it to have worked.  Maybe he could have escaped the repetition of days, but he wasn't good enough. He had broken his promise.

Slowly, he had stopped caring about what happened. Nothing really mattered in the end. Each time he reset, he would end up just sleeping it all away. Maybe if he waited long enough, the timelines would correct themselves. Sleeping was the quickest way to pass time.

He also worked on his jokes. He thought up puns for as many things as he could. It was really the only way to amuse himself, and the reactions he got were interesting for a while. Besides, being known as a jokester was better than being known for being depressed.

He grabbed the lunch and nodded. "I guess it's pasta time for me to be at work." He pointed at the sack and watched as Papyrus's face contorted in annoyance.

"Sans! Get out!" Papyrus yelled, pointing at the door.

Sans laughed. That was a very new reaction. He waved goodbye, and headed for snowdin forest. He chucked the sack lunch into the forest, knowing if he ate it, he would be sick for days. He enjoyed hot dogs much more, anyways.

He sat at his station for a while. It was quiet and lonely. He meandered about, looking for anything to waste time on.

"Sans!" Papyrus ran into the room with his hands behind his back. It was around noon by then. "Guess what I found at the dumps!!"

"is it a porosimeter?" Sans asked. He was sure it wasn't, but he had as much a chance with that guess as with any other.

"I don't even know what that means!" Papyrus yelled.

Sans shrugged. "i was just talking to Alphys about how she should look at a soul's physical form more closely. maybe a porosimeter could help."

"Well, I am not interested in your sciencey stuff!" Papyrus stomped. He had emphasized several words, timing them each to match up with his stomping.

"yeah... ya know, i don't even know if a soul has pores to begin with." Sans winked. "it was worth a guess, though."

Papyrus stared at Sans for a few minutes in utter disbelief at his idiocy. "It's a lamp!" He yelled in annoyance. "Just a plain, old lamp!"

He took out the ugliest lamp Sans had ever seen, and put it on the ground. The thing was just weirdly shaped. The base was lopsided, and the lampshade looked like it had been sat on and then stretched out to try and fit the lamp again.

"wow. hey i kinda like that lamp." Sans chuckled. It was the shitiest lamp in existence. It reminded him of himself.

"Do you want to know what I am going to use it for?" Papyrus was so excited over this pathetic little lamp. That was what Sans loved about his brother. Papyrus was able to love even the shitiest of things.

"illuminate me." Sans winked, trying to push his depression down as much as he could.

Papyrus stared at Sans for a long time. "I'm disowning you right now!" He yelled.

"i was just trying to lighten the mood." His brother threw up his hands and stormed off. Sans called after him, "wait, bro! you forgot your lamp!"

"Forget it!" Was all Papyrus said in return as he marched away.

Sans sighed and looked the lamp over. It was frozen to the ground. "welp. so much for that."

He walked past the new monument and went off to explore the woods. He had started a few timelines ago. It was well known there was nothing new in the woods, but he had enough free time, he had decided to make sure.

He walked for quite a while, and eventually he came to a door. It was big and old looking. He scanned it with his magic. Unopenable from this side.

He banged on the door. "knock knock."

Obviously there was no answer, so he answered for himself. "who's there?"

"interrupting cow."

"interrupting cow wh-moo!" Sans hadn't thought about how awkward it would be to do both sides of that joke. "it's better on someone else." He said as he knocked again. He could stand to do this for a while. It was good practice. He could see himself spending a lot of time here the next few weeks.