ShelterTale

ShelterTale Part 18

It was late at night and the first prince was making a quick run from his lab to his room to grab some instant coffee packs he'd forgotten. Yes, his lab. By now he had officially commandeered the basement section of Gerson's lab for his own uses. He had the keys to it and everything.

"Wahaha. I would retire and leave the duties of royal scientist to you, but you're already the crown prince, and you can't exactly employ yourself. Still though, you deserve a workspace of your own. The basement's cleared out now that Skylight's ceiling is finished, so I'll let you have it."

It was nice to have a personal space to work in, but he would still clear everything from his computer whenever he left the room. Being the only monster in the underground who could teleport wouldn't ease his sense of caution at all.

When Sans stepped out of his room, he decided to take a short stroll to Papy's room; make sure his bro hadn't tossed his sheets off again, and possibly read him a bedtime story if he was having trouble sleeping.

There was no shame in a fifty-year-old skeleton falling asleep to his brother's bedtime stories—not when he trained so hard each day that he would dream of sparring and wake up thinking he was about to be hit. Sleep troubles seemed to run in the family, as each of the Gasters had their own little difficulties in the area.

As Sans had half expected, the door to Papyrus's room had a sliver of light shining under it. The first prince gave a little knock and identified himself, then entered once he had permission. To his surprise, Papyrus wasn't lying tensely in bed or swinging his sword in the middle of the room to burn off some extra energy; he was sitting at his desk, reading a textbook while fiddling with some metal scraps.

"you're up late, paps. whatcha doin'?"

"HELLO SANS! I WAS THINKING ABOUT THE WONDERFUL SKY YOU ALL MADE AND HOW THE SUN AND CLOUDS MOVED ACROSS THE SKY, AND I WAS CURIOUS. I MANAGED TO FIND THIS BOOK ON PUZZLE CONSTRUCTION AND STARTERS KIT, AND I'M RATHER ENJOYING PUTTING IT TOGETHER!"

"really, paps? you like puzzles?"

"POSSIBLY. I THINK I MIGHT. I SUPPOSE I ALSO THOUGHT I COULD CONNECT MORE WITH YOU AND DAD IF I DID SOMETHING WITH MY HEAD FOR ONCE. STARS KNOW NEITHER OF YOU ARE GOING TO PICK UP EXERCISING ANYTIME SOON." The lanky skeleton prince fiddled with two parts and then squinted down at the textbook's explanation. "BUT, MY WORD, THIS FONT IS HARD TO READ."

Sans managed to wipe the surprised look of his face and settle into an easy grin, strolling around Papyrus and opening his top desk drawer. Inside was a glasses case with a pair of glasses that still had bits of tape stuck to them. He slid them onto his brother's face and pressed the tape to his skull so they stayed, and Papyrus blinked his eye sockets in surprise.

"OH! THAT'S MUCH BETTER! I FORGOT I HAD THESE! I SUPPOSE IT'S BEEN LONGER SINCE I DID ANYTHING LIKE THIS THAN I THOUGHT."

"no sweat, bro. so are those instructions clear enough for ya?"

"ACTUALLY, THEY'RE NOT AS DIFFICULT AS I EXPECTED THEM TO BE." The second prince missed the pun; he was too focused on what he was doing to notice it. "I'VE ALREADY GOTTEN THAT SIMPLER ONE TO WORK. IT'S MUCH EASIER THAN COOKING MAGIC."

Sans picked up a little puzzle cube off his brother's desk and spun in around in his hands a few times, deftly solving it. It opened to reveal a hollow compartment, but there was nothing inside yet. "heh. not bad, bro. you already know plenty of combat strategy. if you throw puzzles in there too we wouldn't even need the barrier to keep humans out of the underground."

"OH, BROTHER, YOU JEST. BUT I DO APPRECIATE THE COMPLIMENT. DO YOU THINK EVENTUALLY I COULD MAKE A PUZZLE EVEN YOU COULDN'T SOLVE?"

"i'm sure you could, paps."

"SHALL WE BET SOMETHING ON IT?"

Sans looked at his straight-laced brother in surprise. "do you have something in mind?"

"IF I CAN BEST YOU WITH A PUZZLE OF MY OWN MAKING, YOU WILL MAKE A MAGICAL CONSTRUCT WEAPON FOR ME TO USE. HOW DOES THAT SOUND?"

Papyrus was a talented fighter: skilled with bullet magic, blue magic, some orange magic, and even the sword, but he had great trouble controlling magical constructs. The one time Sans had let him use one of the blasters, a wall in the palace had been completely taken out. In other words, making a magical construct weapon Papyrus could use meant making one that was practically independent once summoned. It was something Sans had been putting off due to the complexity of the task and the fact that Papyrus seemed fine without one.

A soft grin stretched across the first prince's face. "you don't need to win a bet for that, paps. if you want one, i'll make it for you."

"I WANT TO EARN IT, SANS. I KNOW IT WILL BE HARD WORK FOR YOU. I WOULD EARN IT BY DEMONSTRATING MY PROWESS, BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY OR I WOULDN'T NEED TO TAKE THIS ROUNDABOUT METHOD. BUT ANYWAY, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR YOUR END OF THE BET?"

Sans chuckled. What he wanted didn't matter. Literally. The only way he could win this bet was if Paps gave up and admitted defeat, but the second prince was no quitter.

"if i win, i'll tell you then."

"HM. THAT'S A LITTLE UNORTHODOX, BUT I WILL ALLOW IT."

"great. i'm going to the lab for a while. i'll see you in the morning, paps."

"I REALLY WISH YOU WOULDN'T STAY UP ALL NIGHT, BROTHER. I CAN'T SPEND TIME WITH YOU WHEN YOU NAP ALL DAY."

"heh. bro. i can't nap all day if i'm not spending time with you."

"SHOULD I FEEL INSULTED OR THE OPPOSITE? YOU DON'T FIND ME BORING, DO YOU, SANS?"

"impossible, pap. you're the coolest guy i know."

"NYEH HEH. THAT'S RIGHT! AND I'LL BE EVEN COOLER WHEN I'VE MASTERED THE ART OF PUZZLES."

Sans grinned and shut the door to his brother's room, teleporting directly into his lab the moment after. The lights were off and there were bits of machinery scattered across every available surface. The sky project had been finished, but Sans thought he could drag enough energy to the neighboring area they'd dug out in the process to make a simple night sky, so he was tinkering with that when he had time.

Aside from the bits and bobbles made for that, there were half-finished surveillance robots and magical armament prototypes lying around as well. Several of them had a good chance of misfiring if they were touched the wrong way, so it was good others weren't allowed in here anymore.

Naturally, the first thing the first prince did when he arrived was boot up his main computer and enter several long passwords to access the latest data from his one functioning surveillance robot on the surface. As usual, not much had changed since the previous night. However...

that tribe's at war again, huh?

After the monster kingdom fled beneath the earth, the human kingdoms that had threatened them fought over the newly available land. Now, fifty years later, they had all broken apart into dozens of small tribes that seemed to be constantly fighting. Each tribe had their own unique customs, and Sans had been able to figure out which one Chara was likely from. Her appearance and an assumption that her tribe mustn't be far from where she'd fallen after dying had been enough for him to go on.

poor fuckin' kid, he thought not for the first time.

He hadn't breathed a word of it to anybody; Chara didn't want to bring up her past and he wasn't an asshole. And neither was the kid, even if she could be a little abrasive.

Sans wiped the data after memorizing it and turned his attention to some of his other projects. He worked until the lights in the city were on and he was out of coffee, teleported to where he knew he could find Papyrus doing some early training, and fell asleep on a bench watching him. Pap would wake him up again later for breakfast, then they would hang out with the kids for a bit and Sans would nap through most of that. So on and so forth throughout the day. It was business as usual in the underground.