Blue stood nervously on the doorstep, stepping from one foot to the other and steeling his nerves. Finally, he knocked.
"Just a minute!" called a familiar voice, and Blue had to stop himself from running away. There was a crash that made Blue wince, wondering what had been broken and hoping it was nothing important. Then the door was flung open, accompanied by a fair amount of cursing, and Stretch was standing in front of him.
The moment he saw who had knocked, he fell completely silent, just staring down at his brother emotionlessly. He had dark circles under his eyes and he was only wearing his shorts and a tank top. His sweatshirt was probably in the wash, which seemed strange. Blue didn't know Stretch even knew how to do laundry.
"Hi Papy." Blue said, wringing his hands. He half-expected Stretch to just slam the door in his face and walk away, but instead, he stepped off to one side, wordlessly telling Blue to come in. Blue did so, wiping his shoes off on the mat and walking into his old house. He looked around for a few seconds, noticing some minor changes here and there. The pet rock didn't have any sprinkles on it, and there was a new couch. He supposed the old one must have finally given up the ghost and he had been forced to replace it. He found himself hoping it was still comfortable enough for his brother to sleep on when he got too drunk to make it upstairs.
"What are you doing here?" Stretch's voice seemed raspier somehow, as if he'd been smoking more since Blue left.
Blue turned to look at him, taking in the relaxed posture of his brother. Anyone who didn't know him well would think he didn't care what was going on, but Blue could see the nervousness in the way he kept sliding his hands along where his stomach would be, as though he was trying to stuff his hands into his pockets.
"It's been almost a year." Blue murmured cautiously. He wanted this to go well. He wanted to mend ties, he wanted his brother back more than anything.
"Yeah. What about it?" Stretch asked, eyelights flicking down to the ring on Blue's finger before coming back up to not quite meet his eyes. "So you're married, then, huh?"
Blue nodded, trying not to cry at the intense awkwardness between them. "Yeah. Wish you'd been able to come."
"Sorry, I had a thing."
There was a long silence, punctuated only by the ticking of the clock in the kitchen.
"What have you been up to?" Blue asked, desperate to break some of the tension.
"Working a lot. Not much else to do."
There was another long silence.
"The house looks nice."
"Yeah."
"Oh, for goodness sakes, Papyrus!" Blue said, tears finally coming into his eyes. "I don't want it to be like this!"
Stretch scoffed slightly, walking to the couch and sitting heavily, refusing to look at Blue. "Then I guess you shouldn't have left, huh?" he said bitterly.
Blue huffed, stepping a bit closer. "You did kick me out." he said cautiously.
Stretch's head snapped up, and he glared at his little brother, who couldn't help taking a step back. "I didn't kick you out," he snarled. "You chose to leave, with him . I'll bet he's here, isn't he? Waiting down in the basement for you to come back to him? To leave me again?"
"No!" Blue protested, holding his hands out in a calming gesture. "They don't even know that I came. I...I didn't want to jinx it."
Stretch looked at him curiously. "You want to mend ties?"
Blue nodded, tears starting up again.
"Fine. I'll mend ties. If you come back here. If you leave him and you stay with me."
Blue sighed. "I can't just leave him, Papy. I told you before, I love him. And especially now that we're bonded, I don't want to--"
Stretch shot to his feet, taking a few steps forward until he was in Blue's personal space. Blue froze in place, forcing himself not to step back and away from his anger.
"You're bonded?"
Blue squinted at him incredulously. "Of course. What did you think being married meant?"
Stretch let out a short, mirthless laugh. "Marriage doesn't mean a bonding! It's only a promise to stay together, to work honestly towards something like that."
Blue was already shaking his head, cursing himself for forgetting how his old world was different. "Not in UnderFell. They bond right away because of how often people die. It helps partners always know if the other is alive or being attacked."
Stretch swore loudly. "So they've even fucked that up! Damn it, Blue, how can you live somewhere that's so backwards?"
Blue just watched his brother sadly, not knowing what to say.
Suddenly, Stretch was on both knees in front of him, holding tightly onto his hands. "Please, Blue. You need to get rid of it. You need to stay with me."
"Papy, I'm not just going to erase it. It means more to me than that!" Blue said incredulously, pulling his hands away and glaring at his brother.
Stretch looked almost desperate as he reached out, grabbing tightly onto Blue's hands again and not letting him pull away this time. "Please, Blue. I'm begging you, I can't protect you while you're there. I don't know if you're..if you're alive, or if you're a pile of dust and a blue bandanna!"
Oh. So that was it.
"Papy, I'm not going to die again. There's already been a reset in Red's world. The human in UnderFell doesn't kill people."
Stretch's head snapped up and he stared at him, unbelieving. "How do you--"
Blue gestured at his chest, where his soul lay beneath his ribs. "My soul bond with Red. He remembers the resets, so it lets me remember them, too."
Stretch just stared at the place where Blue had gestured, then something seemed to come over him. "That's it..." he said quietly. "You have to forget."
Before Blue could react, Stretch lunged forward, and in less than a second, he held Blue's bared soul in his hand and was standing up to his full height. Blue began to panic. He knew Stretch would never hurt him, but he also knew that that didn't hold true for the part of his soul that was dyed red.
"Papy! Please! Please, don't, please stop, I don't want you to--" Blue was sobbing, devolving into incoherency as he watched him summon a small bone construct. He jumped for his soul, but Stretch was so much taller than him, he would never be able to reach it in time. Desperately, he summoned a bone construct, but he just couldn't make himself throw it at his 1 HP brother...
The bottom curves of his soul turned to dust as Stretch severed the section of red away. Blue screamed in pain, his attack dissolving, and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Stretch, with far more care than he had given anything else in his entire life, returned his brother's mutilated soul to his chest cavity. He scooped him up gently, carrying him out the door and murmuring, "Don't worry, Sans. I'll keep you safe. They'll never take you away from me again."
Red burst in through the door, slamming it closed behind him and yelling, "It was his fucking brother!"
Fell looked up from his book, surprised at the sudden entrance. When he heard what Red said, he quickly set it aside and took of his glasses, standing and crossing the room to his brother. "What are you talking about?" he asked quietly, not wanting to wake Blue, if he'd had time to fall asleep yet.
"Stretch! It was Stretch! He cut the soul bond off!" Red said angrily, stomping the snow off of his shoes and folding his arms tightly.
Fell's mouth dropped open despite himself and he said, "He did what? How do you know?"
Red threw his hands up into the air. "Motherfucker never liked that his brother left him. And Blue went to Swapverse the day he disappeared! Stupid fucking blueberry must have wanted to mend fences or something."
"Didn't you go talk to him once we realized Blue was missing?"
"Yeah, but it's not like he would have admitted it. He barely let me into the house, and he would have hidden Blue somewhere where I couldn't see him. Besides, you know I thought it was Undyne!"
Fell cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well, then I suppose we are lucky that I didn't allow you to kill her wife, aren't we?"
Red snorted at that, then swung around and punched the wall, leaving a sizeable dent behind. "That fucking--gah! I would kill him if I could figure out why Blue's fucking world is blocked!"
Fell placed a hand on his brother's shoulder comfortingly, and Red took several deep breaths. "I don't think that Blue would want you to do that, Sans." Fell said softly, and Red deflated.
"I know," he said softly. "Even though he fucking deserves it." Damn it, he was crying again.
"Are you going to tell him about this?"
Red looked at the ground, rubbing at his eyes. "I don't know. Should I?"
"I think he deserves to know. What are we going to do about it?"
"What can we do about it? Is there a way to fix this?"
Fell took hold of Red's shoulder and steered him to the couch so that he could sit. "Fix what, exactly?"
Red sat down heavily, still rubbing at his eyes and trying not to let his brother see the tears that were falling down his face. "Th-the soul bond. Or even just his soul, I suppose. He was talking about wanting to fix it after you walked out, and I thought maybe--"
Fell was shaking his head. "You know you can't do another one. The amount that you traded in the first place was dangerous enough, and if you give any more of your soul, there is the possibility that you could fall down. And Blue doesn't have enough of a soul left to allow for mistakes."
Red rubbed at his chest thoughtfully. "What if I gave it back?"
Fell looked at him, confused, and Red hurried to explain. "What if I give him some of his own soul back? Since it has my magic now, wouldn't it be like a soul bond on his end? And I would still have some of him left, so it would work both ways. M-maybe it would even give him his memories back!"
Fell looked thoughtful, and Red felt his hopes soar. "That could work. But Red...that could easily kill him. Is it worth it, to lose him?"
Red almost said yes. He almost stood up and started going upstairs right that second to try it, consequences be damned. He needed Blue , and not the...the stranger upstairs. But he saw the look in Fell's eyes, and he remembered how much his brother had changed over the last few years. How much Blue had changed him. He had basically adopted his brother's alternate, taking him in and treating him like family. Blue and Red were everything to Fell. Blue wasn't just his to risk.
"I...no. No, it's not," Red whispered.