Restart Malfunction - HoneyMustard

Chapter 6 - Familiar Faces

Notes:
- Contains swearing
- 2007 words

Setting: Underswap
Trigger Warnings: mention/recalling of a panic attack
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Stretching his arms and legs out, Sans grunted uncomfortably. Clicking his fingers together, Sans frowned. Around his right metacarpals, carpals, and his ulna was a tightly wrapped, clean bandage. Bringing his right hand close to investigate, Sans couldn't remember the last time he saw a clean bandage, let alone used one. 
"Wha-"
"You kept scratching" Snapping his head upwards, Sans' gaze landed on a tall skeleton. Papyrus offered a small smile, turning away momentarily to place a glass of water on the table top. "Breakfast is ready, so good timing. Come eat with me?" Blinking a few times, Sans processed his words before slowly standing up, leaning on the couch for support. Sliding into the closest empty seat, Sans shoved his hands into the warmth of his hoodie pocket. Glancing up to study the other, Sans couldn't help but scoff a little.
"Nice apron," He remarked. Papyrus simply shot him a grin over his shoulder. Around the taller's neck was a black apron with small, light grey and pink hearts neatly aligned on the outfit. Around the hem of the fabric lay a lighter grey frill, matching the light grey neck straps. On the right hip was a light grey pocket with 'KISS THE COOK' written in a light pink cursive printed in the middle. Around the back, the garment was shown to be shorter, the frills connecting at Papyrus' lower back, a neat light grey bow holding it in place. 
"It's a pinny" The other replied, a childish grin still on his face as he childishly spun in a circle, making the pinny's skirt fly out a little. Snorting a little at the reply, Sans covered his mouth with his bandaged hand, quick to avert his gaze to the food in front of him. Chuckling a little, Papyrus slipped the pinny off of his body and hung it up on a hook nailed into the top of the kitchens' opening corner. Pulling his orange hoodie down a little over the hem of his shorts, he sat at the table opposite Sans.

Sitting comfortably, Papyrus looked at the food he managed to make. It wasn't much, but he was still proud of it nonetheless. Three rations of bacon, a large fried egg in the middle of toasted bread, and two sausages. He knew it wasn't much, but he hoped it would be taken as a peace offering. Stabbing his fork into the middle of one of his slightly burnt sausages, Papyrus noticed Sans putting his hands in his lap. Trying to break the settling tension, Papyrus cleared his throat a little.
"Not hungry?" He chuckled.
"Not allowed" Sans corrected. Papyrus frowned.
"What?"
"'M not allowed to eat until you've eaten what you want. I have what's left" He shrugged.
"Not here you don't"
"But Boss says-"
"You're in my universe" Papyrus interrupted a stern look in his sockets. "And in this universe, we all eat together. The Queen eats at the same time as the shopkeep, and the Flowey's eat at the same time as the Guards. Napstabot charges his batteries at the same time as the River person drinks the waters. Sans eats at the same time as me." He concluded. Waving his food-filled fork at the smaller skeleton, Papyrus' eyes softened. "The Queen is eating. The shopkeep, Guards, and the Flowey's are eating, and I am too, so you can as well." Looking down at the plate of food in front of him and considering the words just spoken, Sans slowly nodded, gently picking up his fork and picking up a ration of bacon before looking up at Papyrus. The taller nodded encouragingly, a small smile on his face. Sans seemed to frown, looking away before doing as he was told, and popping the fork into his mouth. Papyrus smiled a little more, happy that he actually listened. If the two were going to make progress with their situation, Sans would have to learn and adapt to the way this universe worked, and Papyrus would have to do the same for his universe.

"You have questions" Sans mumbled, chewing on a corner of the bread. "I can TRY and answer them if you try to answer mine"
"Fair deal" Papyrus nodded. "Question one, what do you remember last? before you came here"
"The human" He quickly responded. "Well, A human. It wasn't mine."
"Your human?"
"She's had a few runs where she couldn't keep outta damned trouble, always testing monsters. Boss had me 'train' her to show my usefulness and kept her on a leash" Tilting his head to the side, Sans flicked his collar. "She had a red one with black spikes. 'Pet' is what she was called by him. She let me call her Frisk." Papyrus seemed to freeze at the name.
"Frisk?"
"That's three questions in a row, 'ts my turn" Sans noted. "When did you last see your brother?"
"There was a snow storm. We were walking next to each other, but the snow blew up and I couldn't see him anymore. When I reached out to find him, I grabbed a human's arm. It...it looked like our 7th human, Chara, but they were different"
"Chara?" Sans asked, his sockets pitch black at the mention. Papyrus nodded.
"Yeah, why?"
"Chara is the name of the first fallen human, at least where I'm from. They're....dangerous now."
"That's what Frisk is for us" Papyrus added, frowning a little. "Chara was the last to fall"
"Frisk was the last to fall for us" Sans repeated, confusion clouding his returning pupils. Shaking his head a little and tabling that issue for another time, Sans shoved one of the sausages in his mouth. "That was my two, your turn for one now"
"What happened to your eye? The crack and all the chips, I mean" Sans stopped chewing, simply swallowing the rest of the food whole, staring blankly at the middle of the table. "S...Sorry, Uh...next question.."
"Ambush"
"Huh?"
"I was ambushed, Chilldrake" Putting his cutlery down on the empty plate, Sans reached up with his bandaged hand, lightly grazing his phalanges over the edges of the crack stretching down his left eye. "It happens often, unspoken rule. You kill the guards' brother, and you're untouchable. Bastard managed to catch me off guard during a snowstorm, sprung an ice shard out of the floor. I was hunched over, so I couldn't see him. Cracked straight through my skull," He shivered, recalling the story. "He caught my leg too. One of the ice shards shot straight through the gap in my bones, ripped my left fibula clean off. The chips are from my panic attacks and prolonged periods of harsh wind. You uh...you saw one earlier" Scratching the back of his neck, Sans seemed to sink into the fluff of his hood. "Since my eye got cracked, I haven't had full control of my magic. I output more than I should, but If anything that tends to work to my advantage with the whole 'kill or be killed' motive. Some monsters think I've clawed the bone, so they think I'm also a tad unhinged too which also works in my favour." He finished. "Now for my question, has this house got a back lab?" Papyrus blinked a few times, trying to digest the story before answering his sudden off-topic question.
"Uh...yeah?"
"Can we use it?"
"Sure, why?"
"If it's anything like mine, there may be something in there that can help us get you your brother back" Sans explained. Papyrus' sockets lit up with hope, he hadn't even thought of that. Running up the stairs, Papyrus used the bulb of the wooden bannister railing to swing around the landing and into his room. Startled by the sudden energy, Sans bolted to his feet, standing on guard next to the chair. Scanning the landing with his eyes, Sans waited for Papyrus to return. Gripping at the sharpened bone in his palm, the smaller didn't move.
"Catch!" A voice called out, catching Sans' attention to snap towards the end of the hallway above the kitchen. Something metal and silver flew over the balcony beams. Sans stepped back a little and let go of the bone, raising both of his hands and catching the object in his palms like a cup. Frowning a little at the keys now in his palm, a bony hand grabbed at his wrist and pulled him outside into the snow.

Managing to slam the door shut behind them, Sans tried not to trip over his laces as Papyrus dragged him behind the house.
"Slow down!" Sans tried, struggling to keep his balance as they turned around the sharp corner. Catching a glance at bright lights, Sans could see a few strangely familiar faces gathered peacefully around a large, decorated tree. The skeleton was so focused on the monsters, that he didn't notice Papyrus stop until he had run straight into him. Steadying the smaller monster, Papyrus grabbed at the keys in his hands and fumbled to open the door, shoving the both of them inside quickly before shutting the door. Brushing the snow off of his shoulders, Sans watched as Papyrus frantically started to slide papers everywhere, searching.
"Help me look! I've researched timelines, I know it. I have to find the documents. I have to help my brother, he won't survive your universe, I've got to-"
"Calm the fuck down, otherwise you won't survive yours either!" Sans hissed. "You're going to give yourself a heart attack. Just....sit the fuck down and have a smoke. Breathe for christ sake" He instructed. Papyrus took a moment to think, noticing his breathing patterns and nodded a little, closing his sockets and breathing in deeply. Leaning back against the wall, he slid down and crossed his legs, pulling out a cigarette. Sans sighed, closing his own eyes and resting a closed fist between his eyes while the other supported his elbow. Most monsters he knew would pinch the bridge of their nose, but Sans didn't exactly have that privilege.

Hearing flint spark, Sans opened his eyes to see Papyrus puffing out a long blow of smoke, his face relaxing. Dropping his arms, Sans walked over to the countertop filled with loose papers and books. Scanning over them briefly, He started to sort them out into two piles; useful, and unnecessary.
"You doin' okay?" He asked, glancing over to Papyrus for a second before returning to the papers. "Just...breathe or whatever." Dragging another breath in, Papyrus smirked a little to himself, recognising the phrasing.
"Doing better" He nodded. "You remembered what I told you"
"We don't do sympathy where I'm from" Sans shrugged. "The most you're going to get from me is whatever you have already said, and even then it'll be rare that I ever say it." Joining the other monster at the counter, Papyrus offered his hand out towards him.
"What-"
"New start," He said. "We should actually try to co-operate and not kill each other. We didn't exactly have the best introduction-"
"Ya' think? You nearly killed me via suffocation-"
"So, let's put yesterday behind us and try to do this right. I'm Papyrus"
Looking at his hand sceptically, Sans failed to hide his entertained side smirk, raising a brow bone and looking up at Papyrus.
"You're aware you're a dork...right beanpole?" Not receiving an answer, Sans chuckled and shook his head while rolling his eyes, putting the papers down and shaking Papyrus' hand. "Sans"
"Nice to meet you, Short-stack," Papyrus retaliated, chuckling at the other huffing. "Now, let's sort this out" Sans nodded
"Let's get you your brother back"