No More (Undertale)

7

"pap, you were awake all night last night. i don't think you really fell asleep until six or seven this morning."

Papyrus paused, blinking. He had thought Sans was asleep by 3:00... evidently, his brother was better at feigning unconsciousness than he had known.

"and i figured, you've never used a single one of your vacation days. so i thought, just for this once, since you had such an awful night, we could just have a sort of lazy day."

Papyrus hesitated.

"c'mon, papyrus. for me?"

For Sans...

Papyrus had already failed Sans so many times. He had let Sans' sacrifice go to waste.

And this? This one day, to make up for that, to placate Sans-... and to comfort himself, really...

That, he could do.

Besides. Things had apparently been repeating themselves for a long time. What difference would one day make? One time, where he didn't show up to that deathmatch. It would all go back, anyway, right? So why couldn't he take one time to spend with his brother?

He sighed and let his shoulders slump. "Okay. Okay, we can have a lazy day." Then Papyrus realized he should still be trying to keep up appearance; he couldn't let Sans know about this horrible, awful, repeating dying! So he looked at his brother. "But just one day, Sans. Tomorrow we go back to work!"

Sans smiled, a genuine smile. "you got it, bro."

~o0o~

For a while, they watched tv. But it was all reruns of Mettaton's shows, and after an hour, Sans abruptly turned it off as a news bulletin came up (Papyrus didn't have time to see it, but he was willing to bet it was something about how news-breakingly fabulous Mettaton's was), saying it was getting repetitive.

So they headed into the kitchen, then. Sans even tried to help make spaghetti, but he clearly didn't know how to do it the right way, so Papyrus spent the next few hours trying to repeat Undyne's lessons with him for Sans. (Unfortunately, he couldn't get the same passionately intense results. Sans said that was okay.)

And then, after they made enough spaghetti to last a month, there was a knock at the door.

Sans frowned. "...who...?" Then that look smoothed out into a surprisingly calm look.

Papyrus got a sudden image of a human standing on the porch, knife in hand. He grabbed Sans' shoulder. "Don't answer it!" He shouted in an urgent whisper.

"papyrus-"

"Sans, please! Pretend we're not here!"

"pap-"

"They'll— they'll ruin our lazy day! And then we'd have to do it again, to make it right, and that would mean another day off work, and-"

The knocking turned into pounding.

Sans gave the door another look. "...yeah, whoever that is, they're clearly not looking to join our lazy day. they can sit out there and cool their heels for a bit before we let 'em in."

Papyrus tried to look nonchalant, tried to not let the raw relief show on his face. "Let's just. Stay here. In the kitchen. So they don't see us through the window or something."

"that's... probably a good idea." Sans sat down on the floor.

Papyrus did too, after a second, casting a nervous glance towards the door. "So... what now?"

Sans shrugged. "i'm up for a nap."

"Sans, you're always up for a nap." Papyrus fidgeted a little. How Sans could remain so calm right now was a mystery to him.

The pounding on the door quieted down.

"exactly! which means i'm still up for a nap right now."

Papyrus thought he heard footsteps trailing away, but he wasn't sure.

"Well... we don't have a whole lot else to do.. and I suppose I didn't get a lot of sleep last night..."

Sans yawned, apparently already half asleep, and flopped over to sprawl across Papyrus's lap. "...knew you'd know it was a good idea..."

Papyrus shifted a little, trying to get comfortable leaning against the cabinet doors. Eventually, he found a reasonably comfortable position, and then turned his attention to Sans.

Sans was already passed out, snoring softly. At least, Papyrus thought he was, but he had now learned he apparently could never be sure whether Sans was actually asleep or not.

Nonetheless, he gathered up his smaller older brother in his arms and hugged him tight.

This time, this time I won't let you die. Not this time.

And slowly, slowly, hugging Sans, Papyrus dozed off.

And then-...

...

. . .

.  .  .

Papyrus sat up in bed, instantly awake.

§

A/N

Yay for lazy, peaceful, calm days in which nobody dies! I mean, sure, Papyrushasfiguredoutthewholeresetgoingbackstuffandcanacuratelyrememberstuffnowbuthe'snottellingSansaboutitbecausehedoesntwanttoworrySans but! No one immediately in the story right now died this time!

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things and biggest motivators, and every notification I get makes my day!