It happened again, I felt the far to familiar pain of that knife slash across my chest as I wandered out of the hall, the pain and the knowledge of my death didn't bother me that much since that scar grew and grew every time, I felt myself turn to dust once again. The kid pressed the reset button recreating the same world yet again, another repeat of the same hellish prison of time I was stuck in. I had tried everything, killing myself, telling everyone, killing that demon kid, even killing everyone in the town myself but it never worked. That... Thing would always reset and sometimes they would be nice, sometimes they would be neutral but mostly they were just evil little bastards and to top it all off no one remembered but me and that god damn demon child dragging me right down to hell along with them and the innocence of Snowdin.
"SANS, GET UP YOU LAZY BONES WE MUST GET TO OUR POSTS! AND NO FALLING ASLEEP AT YOUR POST THIS TIME!"
My brother said, waking me up from my slumber. I sighed and got up, I wonder if the child was going to murder him this time, I sighed and cast the thought aside in favor of not reliving those absolutely terrible moments.
"Alright bro, I'm commin'." I sighed and got up from the couch, I didn't bother to wash my clothes much given it would all just reset soon enough, thats kinda why I enjoyed sleeping so much, because for a few hours I wasn't looking in the eyes of someone who could die oh so easily, and because I would be training myself at around midnight to fight the kid.
"YOU HAVE NOT YET MADE A PUN THIS MORNING, ARE YOU ALRIGHT BROTHER?" He asked, I sighed and did what I had learned to do best, I lied completely blankly, to my own brothers face and I didn't feel bad about it, I used jokes to cover up how scared and sad I was about my time loop of a life where my brother died, heh, I guess he wouldn't understand even if I told him. Maybe thats why I kept my powers hidden or maybe its because I was scared to show him the truth, I didn't even know myself anymore it had been to long since I had told anyone anything. My brother knew that I had very low HP, but he didn't know anything about my powers. He thought he had to protect his older brother, the weakest link but really I destroyed our home town and everyone in it so many times I had lost count.
"Yeah, sorry bro. I guess I'm not feeling very... Humerus." I said, causing an annoyed groan from my brother but a grin was etched onto his face and I smiled a little, he always made me smile, his reckless optimism was so charming anyone he met would just start rooting for him and no matter what, he was the best brother I could ask for, even if I couldn't tell him the truth.
"SANS..." He groaned, I smirked and we walked the rest of the way in silence, I looked at my brother and sighed. I could just teleport to my post but then Paps would wonder how I did it and I was not in the mood to explain the multi universe theory let alone the anomaly theory or even how the resets worked in detail, and I found something oddly comforting in walking with my brother before I would have to battle the kid.
"But really brother, I am here for you." Papyrus said, I smiled at him but he still continued, trying to get me to tell him but I couldn't, Oh how I wish I had told him sooner.
"I'm serious Sans, we used to be so close and now I feel like you're hiding something from me, Please tell me? I promise you can trust me with anything, I promise." He said, I felt that awful feeling in my gut, the one that only happened when I lied to Papyrus.
"I'm fine Paps, Don't worry about me." I lied, in honesty I could be so much better when it came to this. Papyrus sighed and looked me in the eye with slight sadness as I faked a smile. We got to his post and I continued walking past it to get to my own, when I was out of his sight I decided to snap my fingers and teleport to it, It would take less and less power the more I did it so those were my famed short cuts...
"Three days... Three more days 'til that demon kid gets out'a there and comes to see and maybe kill us." I murmured to myself, looking at the timer that I had invented to let me know when it would happen. Another lie when everyone thought I wasn't that smart when really I was trying to build something to stop the repeats, to give myself control over the resets so that if paps did die I could go back and save him. Just another wall I put up to protect my soul but Papyrus always seemed to get past my walls, no one else. In fact I didn't really care about anyone else, some of our other friends maybe but not all the time like my brother. The day went by quite quickly, I kept thinking like this the entire day.
"SANS, THERE YOU ARE, DID YOU FALL ASLEEP?" I heard the familiar booming and optimistic voice of my brother say, I sighed and got up from my seat.
"Nah, just resting." I replied, it wasn't exactly a lie. Teleporting did take it out of me a little but he still led with a small glare then a warm smile and a chuckle, he could never be mad at me for all that long really.
"I'm going home, I'll meet you there bro." I said, Papyrus seemed a little unsettled and as I got up he asked me something a little unexpected but all the more startling.
"BROTHER, WOULD YOU SHOW ME YOUR SHORT CUTS?" He exclaimed enthusiastically, I sighed and looked at him. Undyne asked me once and so did a few of our other friends but Paps... He doesn't let go quite as easily as they do.
"Sorry bro, I can walk home with ya if you'd like." I said, redirecting the conversation. Paps was being stubborn as expected and continued to press on, I really didn't need this. I was going to be working on my machine tonight, I couldn't let anything get past that.
"PLEASE BROTHER, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW." He pleaded, I started on the normal path home knowing if I tried to teleport he would see and I didn't want to use my speed. I didn't know if he even knew about how my eye can glow even though thats basic magic let alone do something that has barley even been tested by the most powerful of the royal guardsmen themselves. Though my low HP gave me the incredible strength I needed so that I could perform this kind of magic along with my blasters and my other attacks, though they require a lot of emotion to work and sadly I have that much from watching my brother and friends die over and over again. So I guess this loop was good for something after all, even if that thing caused me to wonder why I should even be alive anymore.
"Come on bro, lets go home." I said, avoiding the subject until I heard the door open. My now electric blue but not yet flaming eye flared open and I checked my watch, three days still, it was probably just Toriel but I had to make sure, I couldn't do it now because of my brother but I have until the next day to do it so secretly I set a timer on my invention for this night, it would make sure I checked it in time.
"BROTHER, YOUR EYE!" Paps exclaimed, I knew it. I closed my left eye, and smiled at him before forcing it to return to its normal white and congregate my magic in my hand, shoving them in my pockets to keep from showing the magic as I allowed it to burn off.
"What's wrong bro?" I asked innocently, he sputtered for a few moments before sighing and starting to walk back with me in a deep, dark silence.
"SANS, WHY WILL YOU NOT SHOW ME YOUR SHORT CUTS?" Papyrus asked, I gulped but didn't let myself get to riled up about it all so I just sighed.
"Paps, I said no." I replied simply, he was my brother and because of that I couldn't, I wouldn't do that to him. I felt my magic rush to my eye once again so I kept both my eyes only half lidded to hide it from the taller skeleton at least a little bit.
"BUT WHY BROTHE-" I cut him off by walking into the woods beside the trail where most people don't venture to go because of the range or monsters that deemed it their territory, luckily most of them were afraid of me. I knew he would follow so I hid behind a large tree and teleported to my room, allowing my eye to burn off all the excess magic and lying down on the not to terribly messy bed as I thought about everything, I was just trying to protect him so why did he keep prying?
"SANS!" I heard the door open and close and a familiar voice chimed my name a few moments later, I sighed and I heard his voice sputter out of breath, thankful for the few moments I got alone but eventually I walked down the stairs and faced my younger but much taller brother.
"Yeah Paps?" I asked, casually coming down the stairs and sitting down on the old and tattered couch.
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" He said, slightly out of breath given he probably ran all the way here.
"I took a short cut." I said, it wasn't a lie so it didn't hurt to bad but this answer only made him... Sadder?
"WHY WILL YOU NOT SHOW ME THE SHORT CUT, IS IT SOMETHING I DID? ARE YOU MAD AT ME?" He said, his voice cracking every once in a while and as I looked up I noticed orange tears from my brother's eyes.
"No... I'm sorry bro. It's not your fault." I replied, it was my fault but once again he broke down my walls and left me vulnerable, I guess thats why I felt so mad when the kid would kill him even if I had seen it over a thousand times.
"IF IT IS NOT THE GREAT PAPYRUSES FAULT WHY WILL YOU NOT SHOW YOUR SHORT CUTS?" He asked, I felt the dribble of tears on my jacket as I sighed and pulled away from the hug. Funny this timeline had never happened to me before, maybe if I played along I could live though this one a little happier... Maybe.
"I'm sorry Paps, I just don't think you're ready yet." I admitted, then I realized what I had said and face-palmed. Oh god why could he get past my defenses so easily? I was just trying to protect him, he raised an eyebrow at my behavior, lowering his voice a bit.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BROTHER?" Papyrus asked, I had really dug myself into a hole now.
"N-Nothing." I said, my brother was obviously not very satisfied with my answer.
"OH NO YOU DON'T SANS, TELL THE GREAT PAPYRUS WHAT YOU MEAN." He said, I sighed and allowed myself to tell him a little bit, how bad could that be?
"Fine, Promise me that if you ever meet a human child named Chara or named Frisk, never go anywhere with them alone, especially Chara okay?" I said, the deep seriousness in my voice causing visible quakes in my brothers form, it was very rare for me not to be cracking jokes and even more rare for me to be so serious like this.
"O-Okay, Wait a HUMAN? And why?" Papyrus asked, I stood up from the couch and looked him in the eye
"Please trust me on this one, okay paps?" I said, he replied with a short nod. That conversation brought up more questions than it answered but I went to my room without even one more word anyway.