No More (Undertale)

7

And after a long, long moment, he slowly disentangled himself from his brother's arms and sat up on his own.

Sans still kept a grip on Papyrus's hand, though. He offered Papyrus a small smile. "alright. feelin' better, now?"

Papyrus just nodded a little.

"that's good." Then, "...wanna talk about it?"

Papyrus opened his mouth, then hesitated. He wanted to, yes, he did. But...

But how could he tell Sans that this was more than just a simple nightmare? That this was something bigger, that this cycle of wake up, die, wake up had been going on for... for so long?

How could Papyrus tell Sans that he had seen him die? For real, not a nightmare, before dying himself and... and all of it being brought back again. How could he say all that to Sans, who already had so much on his mind, who already had terrifying nightmares, who was already was falling apart under stress? How could he add that to Sans' load, too?

The short answer was, he couldn't. He just couldn't.

So even though he did want to talk about it...

He shut his mouth and shook his head.

Sans looked a little surprised, and Papyrus didn't blame him. Normally, Papyrus always told Sans when he had nightmares. And also, Papyrus was always trying to get Sans to talk about his nightmares.

He fully expected Sans to comment on the hypocrisy of his refusal.

Sans just laughed, though, a quiet, resigned chuckle. "fair enough. you don't force me to talk 'bout my nightmares, least i could do is offer you the same." Sans paused a moment, then let out a sigh. "how'bout this, i'll go make some hot chocolate, n'then i can read ya another bedtime story, and you can go back to sleep." Sans smiled a little more, and reached out to pat Papyrus's knee. "after all, you gotta get up bright and early to make sure i'm at my station in time!"

Papyrus hesitated a moment. With the new knowledge of this endless cycle of dying, Sans' easygoing care was a much-needed comfort to Papyrus. "...Yeah, okay."

Sans started to get up. "alright, i'll be back in a minute-"

Papyrus suddenly saw Sans going downstairs, stepping outside, in Snowdin, the human in front of him—

He reached out with surprising speed and snatched up the hem of Sans' jacket.

"papyrus?"

"Don't-... don't go. Just-... don't go."

Sans blew out a heavy breath. "okay. i won't. alright." He flopped down on the mattress beside Papyrus, and Papyrus was immediately snuggled up against him. Sans glanced over. "...that bad, huh?"

Papyrus just nodded.

"...okay. it's okay, pap. just try to get some sleep. everything's gonna be okay."

But Papyrus didn't have the Soul to tell his brother it wasn't.

~o0o~

"Nnnnnghh... wha...?" Papyrus slowly woke up, yawning and stretching. Then he glanced at his clock.

11:45 AM.

"Wh-what?! Sans!" Papyrus shook his brother awake. "Sans, it's almost noon! Why didn't you wake me up?! I- I have to get to my station—"

"nah," Sans gestured placatingly. "don't worry about it. i called ya in sick."

"Sans! You can't just—"