Aftertale; Papyrus Edition (On Hold)

Part Six

Papyrus woke up early. He sat up in bed and looked around his room. It was barely dawn; the morning lights outside hadn't been turned on yet. Something about last night's dream made him uneasy, but he just couldn't remember what happened. He looked down to see his faded baby blue blanket unwittingly clutched in his bony arms. Another wave of that strange dread washed over him, causing him to hug it tightly to his ribs. He stayed sitting in bed for a while like that before giving the blanket one last squeeze and getting out of bed. The Daylights had come on at this point, making it too late to reorganize his room.

Papyrus looked around at his desk and bed with a critical eye. The clock only showed 7:00, so maybe he could squeeze in a little cleanup this morning. Shaking his head for focus, Papyrus got to work fixing his bed before getting ready for the day's sentry duties.

...............

Papyrus came down the stairs at precisely 7:30. Perfect timing as always, and while cleaning he had all but forgotten the dream. Sans was still asleep on the ratty green couch as his brother swept through to the kitchen. Papyrus stopped halfway through the living room. He was staring at Sans' sleeping form. He didn't know why, but he had to make sure his big brother was really there. He knelt to reach for his brother's blue shoulder.

He stopped just before touching his shoulder. Sans' rib cage was moving; he was breathing. Papyrus was so close he could hear a soft whistling of air between his brother's teeth. He sighed in relief and lowered his hand, getting back to his feet and went into the kitchen.

He couldn't decide between pizza or pie for breakfast, so with a slam of his fist into his palm, he chose to make pasta. Not the healthiest decision, but he felt he needed a pick-me-up today.

A large pot rattled as water splashed into it. The two "Grown-In-Can"-ed tomatoes squelched as Papyrus spooned them into a skillet. The stove lit with a click of protest. With a mighty "NEYH!" Papyrus lugged the stock pot onto the stove and dumped a whole box of long, thin noodles into it. 

While those things were being heated, Papyrus went to fetch his potato of a brother from the couch. 

"Lazybones, Time To Get Up," he said quietly. He paused, that same uneasiness came back as his hand hovered his brother' shoulder. No response. Papyrus' skeletal hand began to shake with his voice. "Sans? Sans, get up, please?" he said louder now. When his brother still didn't move, Papyrus began to panic and shook his brother harder than he meant to.

"mpphh, five mor minutss, bro." Sans mumbled out. Papyrus gave a sigh of relief. 

Pulling himself together (and steadying his voice best he could), he got up and said, "It's Time To Get Up Now. I'm Making Spaghetti, And If you Want Any, You Need To Get Up And Change Your Clothes," before turning around and walking into the kitchen. Sans mumbled something out from the back of the couch, put Papyrus was too far away to hear what exactly is was he said. "HMM?" He called in his high voice. 

"i ssaid, 'check the box.'"

"...What?" Papyrus said. He looked up from the sauce and walked to the doorway separating the kitchen from the living room and poked his head out. Sans was still on the couch, but he was sitting up at least. "Why?"

"because it could be an "im-pasta." Sans replied with an audibly cheeky grin.

Papyrus echoed his brother, "An impasta?" He knew this was some sort of pun or joke, but missed the set up somehow. His mind raced to put the proverbial puzzle pieces together. "Impasta, pasta box-oh."

Instantly his face changed from confused to comically angry. -WAIT, NO! IT'S TOO EARLY FOR THIS! DON'T YOU START YOUR VERBAL TOMFOOLERY UNTIL WE ARE OUT OF THE HOUSE!!" But just as he finished shouting, his face changed back to confused. Eyes darting away from Sans, he looked inside himself to see if he'd done this thing before. 

...................

After rangeling his brother to the kitchen table and being reminded that they were indeed out of potatoes, the brothers finally started having their breakfast. partway through, Papyrus asked a question that he felt had been on his mind for a few days.

"...SANS?" Papyrus began.

"uh, yah, bro? what is it?"

"ARE, ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE SLEEPING WELL? THE COUCH DOESN'T SEEM TERRIBLY COMFY TO SLEEP ON FOR MORE THAN ONE NIGHT." Even as he said it, Papyrus couldn't help but feel that Sans had been doing this for a long while even when his memory told him that this was the first time in a month he'd found him on the couch like that.

 Sans closed his eyes and shrugged. "oh, heh. i don't sleep on it for long, no need to worry." Papyrus looked up from his thoughts to his brother. Despite saying nothing, Sans sounded like he tried cutting off Papyrus and said, "really, you don't need to worry about me for this. i'll sleep in my room tonight, i promise."

Papyrus glanced away to his right arm. "You Skelebrother Promised...," he muttered, moving his arm as if to shake on it. Had they done this yesterday? This was all so familiar, but try as he might, Papyrus still was unable to puzzle out these 'ghost memories.'

 "heh! yah, skelebro promise." Sans said cheerily, rolling up his sleeve to take his arm off, pinky out. This startled Papyrus, making him drop his fork with a clatter. He looked at Sans and for the first time he saw his eyelights sharpen. He hadn't noticed just how blurry and glazed they'd been all morning. "..huh?" Sans mumbled. He looked so surprised at such a small action. Sans stayed frozen in that position for a second starting at Papyrus. Suddenly, he shook his head and looked away saying, "uh, um-oh! well would you look at the time?" 

Papyrus glanced up and sure enough, they had to get out to their posts very soon. He looked back down at his brother one more time, trying to solve the puzzled look on his round face before giving up and standing up with a loud squeak of his chair. "YES, I SUPPOSE WE SHOULD LEAVE NOW, OR ELSE UNDINE MIGHT HAVE OUT HEADS."  He said as he grabbed the leftover spaghetti and tossed it into containers to bring with them. While packing up he caught a sideways glance at Sans, still sitting at the table. His expression was unreadable.

They left their house in silence, each contemplating the other.