Person of Interest

Chapter 8: Middle Child Blues

Sans' POV:

I went home at the same time she finished her shift, intending to take a little nap to stock up my HP before she made her way to her second job. Yeah, I knew her schedule, I'm a friggin' creep. Sue me.

Actually, don't; you'd win that suit.

Despite how tired I was from not sleeping a wink the night before, I just couldn't make myself drift off. I couldn't stop thinking about her, wishing I could be holding her close to me, safe in my arms and in my bed. God, the distance was painful; I didn't know how much more of it I could take.

...

I was only about five minutes into my moping session when the door to my room suddenly swung open with a bang so loud that it literally shook the walls. I jumped so hard that I fell off the bed, whacking my skull on the nightstand on my way down.

I didn't have to look to know who it was; There was only one person on the planet who could barge into my room like that without losing a limb...

"SANS!!"

...And that person was my kid brother, Papyrus.

I let out a garbled sound that was somewhere between a groan and a curse before answering.

"oof... yeah boss?"

"I WANT YOU TO- WHY ARE YOU ON THE FLOOR?"

"heh. guess i was jus' feelin' a little... down," I joked as I pushed myself to my feet. Hey, whaddaya know, that pun worked two ways... Paps didn't need to know that though.

The eight foot ball of narcissism and anger issues standing in my doorway stomped its foot, shaking the room again. "IT IS FAR TOO EARLY FOR YOUR TASTELESS HUMOR, BROTHER!!" he screeched.

"uh, isn't it four o' clock...?"

"IT IS ALWAYS TOO EARLY!!"

I was already getting a headache from the shouting, but I was too lazy to deal with the consequences of telling him to cool it. Besides, he couldn't really help it, not without a fuck ton of effort on his part; As a monster with a very, very, v e r y capital font, Paps was just naturally loud as shit. And with an equally explosive personality to match his voice, even Undyne couldn't hold a candle to my bro's pipes. If you were within a two block radius of Papyrus Gaster, you'd fuckin' know it.

"sorry boss."

"NO YOU'RE NOT."

"heh. guilty... wait."

I looked him over a second time, my eye sockets narrowing, then widening in alarm as I finally noticed the little dents and cracks scattered liberally over his bony body. The wounds looked over two weeks old, likely due to some recent healing magic, but... stars, he looked like he'd lost a fight with a sentient mutant cheese grater.
I breathed out a sympathetic hiss.

"fuck, bro... the hell happened to you?" I asked.

Papyrus looked down at himself before his eyes darkened into an even deeper scowl than usual.

"...NOTHING," he scoffed as he pointedly avoided my gaze. Was that a blush on his cheek bones? The fuck?

"are ya sure? cause ya look kinda-"

"THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, BROTHER!" He snapped defensively.

Knowing I probably wouldn't get anything out of him anyway, I decided to cut my losses and stop digging; Maybe I'd ask him. Later when he was less pissy.