HAZE

The Past Isn't Just the Past

They had no idea how long they sat in that room; staring at the ceiling, out the window, at the clutter of papers on the floor and desk. Just that they'd been for too long. They'd spent so long, waiting for Alphys to return, worrying themselves almost sick over what results she might bring back. If she even got any worth noting to begin with.

The time ticked on, but Alphys wasn't anywhere to be found. Waiting for everything to finalize, they assumed.

"This is ridiculous," Wingdings said, breaking through the thick curtain of silence that'd fallen over the room not long after the doctor had left. He leaned back on the bed, glaring at the ceiling. "If we were the ones handling the readings, we'd have been done ages ago."

"You know Alphys is slower than us, Dings," Aster sighed, nudging the window sill with his foot idly, lying on the floor. "Y'know, child prodigies and all--nobody from our age group could match."

"The generations after ours were worse."

"Dings!"

The older of the two just shrugged. "It's true, isn't it?"

"No! ...Well, maybe--okay, you're right. But you're doing that thing where you offend people who are dumber than you--you're not supposed to do that!"

"What? You said it yourself--nobody else could compare to us. Childhood prodigies." Dings said the last sentence with a particular bite to his words, frowning to himself.

"Yeah, and like I said--they couldn't match even if they wanted to." Aster huffed, crossing his arms. "Seriously, sometimes I wonder if you're just--I dunno--egotistical."

"...You did not."

"Well, I'm just saying!"

Dings sprung over to the other side of the bed, staring down at his brother, who shrugged. "I am not egotistical."

"Are you sure about that, bro? Are you?"

A shadow crossed across Wingdings' face, raising a fist—

--Just as Alphys walked through the door.

"O-Okay, I have th-the charts--o-oh my God, no."

The twins froze--Dings with his fist raised, Aster with his arms raised above his head. They both stared wide eyed at the royal scientist, trying to find words, but none came to mind.

One beat of silence, two, and Alphys snapped into action. In one swift movement, she dropped the charts and papers from her machines down on her desk and pulled Dings away from the younger brother, yelling, "Why can't you two just. Behave yourselves? For ten minutes?"

Had it really only been that long? No--couldn't have been.

"Sorry," they apologized in unison, glancing at the stack of papers.

Alphys sighed, following their gazes. "...A-Ah. Right..." She picked up the top chart, looking it over, before turning to them. "I-I, uh, compared your readings to Sans and P-Papyrus, and, ah..."

"...And?" Aster echoed, frowning.

"A-And...well..." Alphys' hands shook as she read the data. "Y-You're magic levels aren't exact, but...there's definitely traces. At most, you could be considered related to them."

"Related to the experiments?" Dings sounded faint at the very idea.

"That's kinda cool, when you say it out loud like that." Aster jumped up, grinning at his brother. "Think about it--us, related to skeletons? I mean, who woulda thunk it!"