Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You lay on your worn-out mattress in your rundown apartment, the weight of the world seems to press down on you, matching the heaviness of your heart. The dim light filtering through the dirty windows casts shadows on the peeling walls, highlighting the cracks and stains that’s been there since you’ve bought this shitty apartment.

Your gaze shifts to the bedside table, where a towering stack of bills looms over you.

Utility Bills for electricity, water, gas. Rent…The loans you took out to buy yourself a shitty car, The credit card depth you put yourself in to, to try and pay the loans have been maxed out..

Envelopes of various sizes and colours, each a financial burden you can't seem to shake off, are piled up haphazardly. You avoid making eye contact with them, your stomach already feeling sick, knowing that they only serve as reminders of your mounting debts and the ever-present struggle to make ends meet.

The room feels suffocating, cluttered with your belongings, some reminding you of better days now obscured by layers dust of neglect.

Dirty dishes pile up in the sink of your kitchen, mingling with unwashed clothes strewn across the carpet. The once vibrant posters on the walls now hang askew, their colours faded with time.

You can feel the weight of your own despair pressing down on you, keeping you anchored to the mattress, Your thoughts spiralling as you swipe your hand over your tired face. It's a struggle to muster the energy to get up, to face another day filled with uncertainty. But you have to, just how life works you guess.

You turn your head to the side to look over at the mountain of envelopes, picking up the most recent one, a bright red envelope. You use your unkept, uneven fingernails to slide the envelope open.

An eviction notice

Tears burn your eyes, of course.... of course it would be an eviction notice. As if your life couldn’t get any worse. Tears spill over and trail down your cheeks, you feel like you could scream but your neighbours already hate you for blasting music while you cook so you decide against it.

Jonathan Williams, 123 EbotWay, E27910,  14/02/20XX 

Dear [Your name],

RE: NOTICE OF EVICTION

This letter serves as formal notice of eviction, pursuant to the terms of your rental agreement date 20/05/20XX , for the premises located at 496 Green Avenue, Eco Flower Heights, E90210

As your landlord, it is with regret that I must inform you that you are required to vacate the aforementioned premises within 30 days from the date of this notice, as outlined in Section 3, 7 and 9 of the rental agreement. The reason for this eviction notice is as follows:

• non-payment of rent for an extended period, repeated violation of the lease terms:
• causing disturbances
• damage to the property 

• failure to remedy lease violations after receiving prior warnings.

Please be advised that failure to vacate the premises by the specified date may result in legal action being taken against you to enforce this eviction notice. It is imperative that you make arrangements to relocate within the given timeframe to avoid any further complications. 

Furthermore, you are reminded to ensure that the premises are left in a clean and undamaged condition upon your departure, in accordance with the terms of the rental agreement.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this notice, please do not hesitate to contact me at  ------- or --------

Sincerely,

Jonathan Williams.

Your hands shake with emotion, your fingers curl around the letter, crinkling it slightly. The obnoxious bright red words, Eviction Notice, angering you further. With a wet sob you sit up and curl up into a little ball, resting your forehead on your knees. Your nest of hair itching and irritating your neck.

After a few hours of your pity party you pull yourself up and sniffle, looking into your dirty mirror and chuckling at yourself.

Wow you look pathetic.

Rubbing your face you stand up and pull out your phone. 30 days, 30 days to scrounge up enough money to pay for a new apartment.

You’ve lived in your car before, When you were booted out of your home and left to rot. Although it was only for a few days…. And you had paid the deposited for an apartment already.

You sigh and pull out your cracked phone, looking to see if there’s any apartments at all for you to rent, you’d even take the rougher parts of town at this point.

You look in every section, every website and app. Yoou eventual look at a few websites that look for roommate’s…. Which isn’t too desirable for you since…well…

Your current apartment looks like a rubbish dumb..

Most of the roommate adds are collage students or people who have reviews posted about them on the website, you wince as you think of a way to pretended to go to college, since you can’t just magic up positive reviews of yourself.

You scroll and scroll and scroll, it just keeps pilling up and up and up on your stress. Making you more frustrated. Eventually you are able to find Three viable roommates to move in with.

An apartment housing two people already, Brandon and Robert. It’s a little pricey but it’s in a pretty safe area….ohhhh wait ok you’ll be sleeping on a couch never mind.

Another apartment, housing a person and two monsters. Catty, Bratty and Lilly. It looks promising, it’s also a plus that it’s a house full of girls.

The last roommate add you look at is by the name sans…comic sans. A monster looking for a roommate with another roommate called….papyrus. well that seems like a scam. There’s no way thats their real names .

Even if it wasn’t a scam their looking for a monster roommate, not a human one.

Your scrolling gets interrupted by your stomach, it growls at you, urging you for food that you don’t have, its been awhile since you’ve went shopping.

With a burdened sigh you push yourself out of bed and throw your hair up into a messy bun. Not even bothering to brush it out or wash it. You throw on a hoodie over your pyjama shirt and leave your plaid pyjama bottoms on, Rubbing your eyes and feeling your eyebags you mentally prepare yourself to face the outside world.

You stumble over your messy floors with a grunt, making your way into the Livingroom and pulling out your backpack.

You throw your purse, phone charger, Headphones and sketchbook into the bag. You aren’t planning to be out for too long, not long at all, But you would rather be prepared than under prepared. And you have an attachment to your sketchbook. It’s almost finished! One of the only hobbies that’s stuck with you through your life.

Once your satisfied with what you’ve packed you make your way out of the apartment. Supressing a scowl as you pass your soon-to-be ex neighbour, who’s collecting his post. You walk into the rickety old elevator and press the ground floor button.

The air carries a chill, It seeps into your skin through your jacket, making you shiver.

Mist surrounds the area further worsening your mood. Maybe some divine being has it out for you...

A gentle patter of rain drops against your hair, dampening it slightly, worsening the greasy look it has to it. Drawing your hood over your head further, you huff and grumble to yourself. Pulling your bag over your shoulder tighter and stuffing your hands into your pockets.

As you set off towards the shop, thoughts of food mingle with the heavy weight of impending eviction, making you more anxious than normal.

You walk a little quicker down the strangely empty path, looking around at the few people who have decided to come out into this sombre weather. You wonder if they also have issues as big as yours, they all look so happy… you feel envious.

Monsters and humans alike happily walking around and chatting, others running to get out of the rain as it slowly starts to get heavier. You stand your usual bus stop, not really wanting to walk the fifteen minutes to the shopping centre that’s up the road when you can catch a bus that’ll take a little less than five minutes.

A little kid and her mother walk past you, happily jumping in puddles together, their laughter fill the mostly silent air… the kids little red boots stick out in the gloomy scene around you. It makes you think about your own mother briefly, how your relationship with her has worsened over the years, you can’t ask her for help with the situation you’ve gotten yourself into, you can’t call anyone...

You frown at the kid and look away.

Rain rolls down your tired face as you look up at the grey sky.

You feel hopeless, worthless.

As your thoughts get more and more hopeless and self-deprecating, something in the sky catches your eye.

Amidst the dreary grey clouds, a glitchy white square appears, slowly expanding like a digital anomaly. Its edges flicker and waver, resembling a projection from a glitch-ridden video game. Your eyes widen as you focus on the weird glitch

Strangely, the area surrounding this glitch seems distorted and unsettling, as if it’s being twisted and contorted. Random with squares appearing and expanding around the bigger white glitch. What the fuck is that…

Just as you attempt to make sense of this bizarre glitch, theorising that it must be a projection from somewhere, a blood-curdling scream pierces the air from a distance, sending shivers down your spine. Your head whips towards the noise.

The world around you seems to slow down.

You stop,

Your body locks you in place as your eyes widen with dread. Fight or flight senses get pushed into over drive, your muscles tense involuntarily, every nerve on edge.

The ground starts to stain a reddish tint, mixing with a puddle of rain. A sickening squishing sound rattles your ears.

The wide manic smile and red mismatched eyes being the only thing you can see from a hooded figure, crouching over a limp body of a woman, a purple bone sticking out of her pretty blonde head.

It's hooded head turns to yours, its Ruby eyes peering into yours. It looks....exited.

“Run.”

You collapse briefly, almost throwing up from the scene that has unfolded Infront of you. Pure disbelief plastered on your face, you can almost taste the vomit that threatens to spill past your lips.

The grinning figure leering out you as it slowly tilts its head. You scramble to your feet and dart away from the scene. Tears filling your eyes as your heart beats in your ears. You stumble over your feet as you let out distressed cry’s and sobs.

You barley take notice to your surroundings, pumped full of adrenaline you almost get sent into a blind panic, you almost feel numb.

You don’t know where your running to, But. You. Run. Your legs burn with effort, your knees hurt from falling to the ground, you know it hurts but…you can’t feel it.

Screams, the sounds of car alarms going off,  the vibrations of a building crumbling manages to get your attention.

But specifically the sounds of lazers.

You round a corner as your breath gets more and more ragged with exhaustion and fear, you look around wildly for the thing that was chasing you, but he it isn’t behind you anymore. Your too panicked to feel relief you…you-

You once again freeze like a deer in head lights.

The scene in front of you reminds you of some sort of Armageddon, maybe a terrorist attack.

A building has collapsed, buildings have collapsed. Strange blue string wrapped around some of the buildings.

Around the rubble, are injured people, crying, as distressed as you are, panicked. You feel sick again as your eyes land upon bloodied body’s….

You puke.

You cough and gag, throwing up what's left in your stomach. Nothing really, so you throw up stomach acid. Like it will rid your mind of the imiges of corpses now forever embedded there...blinking your tears away as a ringing fills your ears, you sway and watch in horror as people and monsters scream in terror around you.

A skeleton monster swoops down, black streaks slowly drip down his face, a familiar manic grin stretches across his head, the same hoodie worn by the thing that had chased you. It's just fluffy at the hood. The only difference being a red glowing target floats over his chest.

…He drives a knife deeply into a fleeing Whimsun, the monster cry’s out and turns to dust.

Monster dust sprinkles onto the killers face and he licks it off his cheek. His head tilts to the side and his smile widens more. Ice cold dread seeps down your spine as he raises his hand and tilts his head, waving at you with his fingers.

The weird glitching in the sky has expanded to the ground, it eats anything that touches it. Looking at it hurts your eyes. Its to white.

It swallows up a man helping a woman with a broken leg, moving onto a building that has crumbled, making it glitch out of existence.

A deep, distorted chuckle comes from the void, blue strings zip out of the white void and tangle themselves around a woman. She writhes in pain as her soul is ripped out of her body. Another skeleton stands there, his bones black, blue streaks travel down his cheeks almost looking like tears. He also looks distorted like the glitch, errors jumping around his bones. His red and yellow finger tips inspect the woman’s soul, he scoffs seemingly not finding what he was looking for and crushes it.

You don’t know what’s happening, you don’t know if what your seeing is real, or…or if its fake or…. It has to be a dream right? Your dreaming-

A bone whizzes past you, cutting your cheek. The hot feeling of magic burns the shallow wound.

A deep, raspy chuckle comes from behind you. Its real.

You scream, but you can hardly hear it, the only reason you know you screamed is because your throat feels like it’s being ripped apparat from the inside.

“I see you’ve taken my advice dusty, ain’t playin’ with your prey more fun than just killing em’?”

The killer purrs in your direction, the promise of pain in his tone. You scramble away from the both of them, hearing them both chuckle behind you.

The burn in your leg muscles starts to get worse and worse, your lungs feel ready to collapse. A purple bone shoots past you once more, embedding itself in a poor man stuck under some rubble. The sound of his bones breaking and his screams of help makes your stomach turn once again.

Sudden white hot pain shoots through your leg up to your waist. Your eyes widen and you scream. Your head hits the ground, distorting your view by blurring your eyes. You feel something lodged in your thigh, the pain un-imaginable. With a sob you begin to crawl away.

The sounds of slow footsteps come from behind you, you cry out and drag yourself across the gravel.

“Oh Jesus Christ… Will you just get this over with and stop torturing the woman.” A new tired voice says.

“oh come on criss cross, let dust have some fun! Boss locked him up in the castle for to long, he’s itching for a good massacre.” The joyfulness in the killers voice makes you shudder.

“Will both of you shut the fuck up.”

You sob, the image of that creature killing the woman fresh in your memory. You feel its dusts mismatched eyes burn a hole into the back of your mind.

“I'm just starting to enjoy myself..”

You turn around and freeze, tears pooling down your cheeks.

Dust stands there over you, his hands causally in his pockets, his grin now easy going. His eyes half mooned as they peer through you. You can still see the devil in them.

He crouches down to your level, you tremble in pure terror and freeze up.

“ple-please…p-please don’t-”

Your silenced when he coos at you, false care in his voice. He grabs your chin, his grip harsh as he cocks his head and chuckles. He raises his hand, a purple bone appears and floats towards your temple. The sharp end resting on your skin making you sob.

“shhhh….its been fun kid. But the chase is over, n’ I'm bored now...”

your eyes widen, your body tense. His grin and eyes widen for a split second and-

You get sent flying backwards, your body slamming into a wall. A silent scream leaves your lips as your winded. You can feel the broken bones, the teared muscles, the bone lodged in your thigh gets pushed out of your leg a little, causing you to bleed out more profusely… you go limp in the bonds that enrapte your limps, cutting into your wrists and thighs. A glitchy voice right next to your ear.

“H-H-HAHAHA-AA—A-AHAHA—H-AHAHA, t-the way you f-lew across-s-s the air, snort”.

You cant even respond to the mocking voice, gasping for air. Feeling on the verge of passing out. Thighs blue strings force your arms over your head and keep them painfully stretched there. You feel like a rag doll.

“OI YOU GLITCHY FREAK, THAT WAS MY KILL.”

The glitchy voice scoffs, blue strings tightening around you, black spots cover your vision.

“y-y-you snooze you l-l-lose d-dust ba-a-a-ll.”

You tense up, your eyes wide as you start to black out- at least, you think your eyes are open. You bow your head as a metallic taste invades your mouth. A wheezing cough leaves you.

And then you feel like someone just ripped a hole in your chest.

You feel so vulnerable, you feel cold air everywhere. Looking to the right you see your soul. Its usual soft cyan colour now saturated to a more greyish colour, little cracks graces the surface of the cartoonish heart. 

You haven't seen your soul in a long time...it used to be such a pretty colour. Your cheeks feel wet again.

The glitchy skeleton seems to hum and inspect your soul, he tilts his head and huffs in irritation. Clicking his tongue.

“another d-d-dud.”

Dusts voice buts in and growls up in our direction.

“if its not good enough for your weird ass collection then give it back, freak.”

“hmmm…how a-a-about, no-o-o~.”

The glitchy one lets out a loud cackle, you can’t see his face since your vision is pretty much fucked. Your kinda glad you can’t see his face.

The pain is so bad its numbing you, he so carless with your soul. You can feel every twitch of his fingers, the light squeeze of his hand when he laughs. Everything. You try to speak, to scream, but the air has been completely taken from your lungs.

A growl rips through the air, the feeling of violent magic irritates your skin.

Fingers dig into the skin of your arm, you hear a surprised glitchy yelp to your right

You feel the world twist, distort. You feel cold and warm at the same time, you feel a tug and a push on your soul. You gasp, your vison comes back briefly from the shock. The hooded guy has you by the arms, the glitchy ones strings coiled around your exposed soul still…. They attack each other with bones and now, giant skulls. so that was the lazer sounds.

You turn your head, eyes focusing.

The white glitches have gotten close, to close.

it envelopes your arm, dusts eyes shrink, you feel a pull on your soul.

You feel like you’re being ripped in half. Pulled into a white void and pushed into a dark one at the same time. You feel hollow, but over flowing. dark, darker yet darker. bright, brighter, blinding-

White

Black

White

black

Pain

Numb

Pain

Numb

Rip

bind

Rip

bind

Its to much….

Pain. You feel pure and utter agony…..and cold. Very cold. Your eyes are blurry, dizzy. Your barely coherent. A whimper leaves your lips, everywhere is cold and white.

White is falling from the sky too.

You think you see trees…..?

The sound of crunching snow…

Red boots come into view…

A muffled nasally voice..

“….TH..T...A....UMAN?"

black

Chapter Text

Pain.

That’s the first thing you feel when you wake up.

You don’t feel like opening your eyes just yet, you're content with staying on your couch half asleep. After that weird ass nightmare? No thank you….

The springs in the couch feel a little harder than usual, less pillows to…

You squirm with a groan and try get comfortable but a sudden pain shoots up your body, arms, thigh, chest… You gasp and force your eyes open…

The first thing you notice is the couch. Its not the grey, slightly stained but remarkably cosy couch your used to. But a green, slightly beat up, couch. The walls surrounding you are a reddish colour, you feel your heart drop to your feet when you look at the wavey pattern on the carpet.

Blood.

Your blood.

A bowl of red stained water, red stained towels and crudely discarded bandages. Medical supplies and what looks like some empty Iv bags with a green shimmering residue left over in them.

You feel like you’re about to freak out… no you are freaking out.

Eyes darting to Look down at your body you notice through your brain fog that your covered in poorly wrapped bandages, blood stains most prevalent with the bandage around your thigh. The most pain coming from there too.

it wasn’t a dream…..

fear takes hold of you once again and you freeze.

You remember the buildings falling.

The people around you being picked off.

You remember the pain…the skeletons. Dust.

Heckles raised, you feel your muscles ache from how tense you suddenly are. Hissing you feel a sharp sting in your arm, a needle with a tube, that green substance being funnelled directly into your arms.

What you do next is probably not the best idea, but you ripped the needle right out of your arm, wincing as you feel it leave your skin, a small trickle of bood seeps from the small intrusion.

You need to get the fuck out of here.

Panic surges through your veins like wildfire, heart racing, breath quickening. Thoughts jumble in your mind, grappling for coherence as you struggle to piece together how you got here. Your hands tremble and you feel the familiar burn of tears threating to fall in your eyes, throat closing like your about to panic.

Frantically, you scan the room, searching for an exit strategy, your mind ablaze with questions. How did you end up in place? Who brought you here? What happened? The urge to flee grips you tight, but fear paralyses your limbs.

Every creak of the floorboards sends shivers down your spine, amplifying the panicked feeling rising in your chest.

You can’t help imagine scenarios of being caught, facing the skeletons who attacked you.…. Facing Dust again.

What if they brought you here? What are they going to do to you if they did?

Desperation claws at your chest, urging you to find a way out, to run and hide, to do something other than sit in pain on the unfamiliar couch.

Your chest tightens, aching from the impact of being thrown around by the skeleton with the blue strings, every breath is a struggle against the weight of pain. You can feel the bruises bloom beneath your skin, tender reminders of the trauma you’ve been forced through.
With a sharp intake of breath, you gingerly attempt to push yourself up from the couch, every movement sending a jolt of agony through your injured thigh. Your muscles protest, trembling under the strain as you struggle to bear your weight.

Using the armrest for support, you manage to rise, though your body feels as though it might collapse beneath you at any moment. Your movements are slow and deliberate, each one a delicate dance between the desire to escape and the harsh reality of your injury, Using the wall as you take trembling steps towards the front door.

“O-o-oh st-stars you’re a-awake…”

You freeze mid-step. Your heart is already dropped to your feet, it must be in the earth’s core now. You’re so afraid you feel ready the empty whatever contents are left in your stomach.

Slowly, you turn, muscles protesting with each movement, to face the source of the voice.

A little yellow lizard monster stands Infront of you, hunched in a timid stance. She’s  dressed in an oversized lab jacket, glasses crookedly resting on her…snout? her demeanour is more jittery than your own, noting the fidgeting hands and darting eyes that betray her nervousness.

A nametag is pinned to her lab coat, ‘Alphys’.

Alphys and you partake in a terrifying yet somehow awkward staring contest for a few fleeting seconds. Your skittish mind doesn’t know whether to label this monster as a threat or not.

….

With an awkward shuffle, Alphys looks over at you, grimacing when she sees your arm. She points to it with a trembling finger.

“Y-your um, you u-uh….y-you should-dn’t have p-pulled out the w-wire…”

….

….

….

“ahem”

Every conceivable option flashes through your mind like lightning in a storm. Fight, flee, or act... But the state you're in leaves little room for any. You're barely able to stand, let alone fight or escape. With the weight of exhaustion bearing down, you opt to speak, though your words emerge sharper than intended.

“who…who are you, where the fuck am I”.

….well that was a little more aggressive than you intended.

The little lizard seems to flinch back slightly and tense even more, her hands tremble more and she steps back a few paces, making you feel a little more in control of the situation.

“w-woah uh… Jeez human i-“

You shift and groan, interrupting her, you slide down the wall slightly in pain. Clutching your thigh. Its bandaged up tightly, though bits of red seep from under it, blood. You’re sick of seeing it.

…at least it’s your own this time…

Alphys looks panicked, she starts to sweat and her hands tremble more. She takes a step towards you, extending her hand.

You snarl at her, like a feral animal. You didn’t even know you could make a sound like that!

She flinches back and whimpers in fear, swallowing thickly and taking a trembling breath. Once again she opens her mouth and tries to speak, but your faster.

“W-where am I, what happened t..to..”

You end up on the floor, your legs give out, your eyes never leave alyphs as you sit heavily on the ground. Your breathing is ragged and hurts, a metallic taste invades  your mouth.

“Human p-please , you’re going to h-hurt yourself!” Alphys meekly squeaks out, you start to feel slightly bad for the monster. She looks just as afraid as you feel….but your life is on the line here. Nobody can be trusted until you know what’s going on.

“The…the buildings! A-nd the f-..fighting!” your head is swimming with thoughts and memories, body’s, smell of burning building and blood, dust…

Alphys slowly sits on the ground across form you, her eyes dart around the room, looking at a door leading to a different room every now and then. She finally looks at you and tensely swallows.

“….Human…can you t-tell me your um…y-y-your name?”

You eye Alphys, discomfort blossoms from your chest. You feel no trust nor comfort in your panicked state, for a split second you forget your name…

“Lilly…” The fake name slips from your mouth with ease, it’s the name you use when unwanted attention comes from a man asking for your number, or when you’re talking to a pushy sales assistant.

“w-well Lilly…i-I'm alphys, i…I'm a uh, well, sort of a doctor-“ Alphys sees your already fearful eyes widen and quickly backtracks “- I'm a s-scientist technically but I'm still a certified doctor!”

A doctor…You look around the room once again with your eyes, you aren’t in a hospital.

“s-sorry uh…its my first time s-speaking to a human who i-isn’t frisk…” Alphys mumbled under her breath. “a-and an adult one at that!”

First time?

Confused you look at alphys and glare silently, watching the lizard mess with her claws in the carpit.

You strain your ears, you don’t hear the horrible sounds of people screaming, or the sounds of bricks crumbling to the ground. Your hesitant to deem yourself safe, you don’t quite trust alphys or where she has taken you. Maybe she was able to pull you from…from….

You rack your brain. How are you alive?

Furrowing your eyebrows you remember getting snatched up by blue strings, a glitchy cackle haunts your memory, you remember being yanked by the arm by dust, his mismatched eyes burned into your mind, than the glitch overcoming you…

“alphys, you…do you know what happened to the city? T-there was some sort of terrorist attack…you…did you save me?”

The lizard looks at you with a myriad of different emptions, confusion and interest being the ones you can see on her face, yet an underlying sympathy to her eyes, she clears her throat and scoots a little closer to you.

You allow it.

“um…ok, so hum- er Lilly there’s been a-a bit of a uh, accident… I g-guess you could call it that”.

You glare at her a little, the tension in your shoulders start to hurt, being on flight or fight mode for so long has seriously made you tired. But you can’t relax now.

“do you know who t-those monsters were…? The ones that attacked?” Your voice is still shaky with emotion, the Sutter in your sentences never leaving.

Alphys eyes shine in awe… you aren’t sure why but it unsettles you slightly. She suddenly shakes her head and awkwardly tries to hide her excitement. She pulls out a very weird looking phone, it looks advanced and…dated...at the same time somehow. She starts to type something into it before looking up at you, studying you.

“before I t-tell you anything, I need you to uh…t-to just…Just head me out”.

Alyphs tone is suddenly a lot more serious now, her slightly nastily voice has no waver to it anymore. You take a breath and swallow thickly.

“you’re from an alternate timeline.”

You blink.

Then blink again.

“uh… did you…did you hit your head on the rubble or something..?”

Alphys cringes slightly and starts to sweat, messing with her claws and bringing them up to her chest. You feel like laughing in this monsters face, but something about her seriousness is starting to seriously freak you out more. You don’t even know if your safe from the skeletons, and this lizard is talking about timelines?

“i-I'm not lying to you…i-if you look outside you won’t see the sky, you’ll s-see the underground…n-now I have no idea how y-you even got here-“

You shuffle to the window, sending her a miss trustful look, you look out the window.

Snow, you see snow. Lots of pine trees too. No big buildings, no rubble, no body’s or screams. Looking up at the sky,

There is no sky

Its all just…black, or dark, straining your eyes you can see the texture is slightly rocky, with a few glowing…somethings lodged into the rocks.

“- after the machine started making weird noises y-you popped up on the radar! Well- I think you m-may have broken the machine h-heh, s-sans and me-“

Everything seems hazy, disjointed. You struggle to make sense of it all, to find a way out of this overwhelming feeling of confusion. But the harder you try, the more tangled your thoughts become.

With a trembling hand, you reach out to touch the cold glass of the window, as if seeking reassurance from the outside world…. That you aren’t actually in the underground, you can’t be. It’s not possible, the underground collapsed once monstered resurfaced years ago…

No. this person is messing with you, your mind feels like its breaking. With a rageful look you spin around and lean against the wall, jabbing a finger in her direction. She squeaks and flinches back while sweating.

“bullshit”. You snarl, cutting her rant off. “where the hell did you take me…” Your heart hammers in your chest, eyes trained on alphys.

“…oh boy, I should have really waited for sans..” She mumbles to herself, looking towards a door nervously, back to you, the door, to you….then the door.

Alphys stammers and scoots away from you. Her eyes wide as you limp over to her slowly.

Then you realise.

A wave of panic crashes over you like a relentless wave from the sea. The air feels heavy, suffocating, as if every breath is a struggle.

Your mind races, thoughts tumbling over each other in a chaotic whirlwind. You had almost started to trusted Alphys, believed in her sincerity, but now it all unravels before you.

The person you thought was your saviour, is part of the group that wrought havoc upon the city, upon you.

The realization hits you like a physical blow, driving the air from your lungs. Your vision blurs, the room spinning around you in dizzying circles. Nausea churns in the pit of your stomach, threatening to overwhelm you.

“Your with them aren’t you, your with t-that group! You….you kidnapped me. Oh god-”

You stagger backward, Fear grips you, its icy tendrils winding around your heart, squeezing tighter with each passing moment.

The walls seem to close in around you, pressing in from all sides, suffocating you with their silent accusation. You feel trapped, hemmed in by your own shattered trust.

Tears blur your vision, hyperventilating in a panic. You hear alphys try to speak to you but your heart thumps in your ears, defanging you. You scream some sort of threat at her, you’re not quite sure what you’ve just said but it worked, she backs off with a flinch almost tumbling over.

Then, the door opens…

“….Alphys what’s with the commotion-…oh, your up.”

Its Dust.

Chapter Text

Staring at Dust in absolute fear, your tears fall faster, yet you can't seem to make sense of the situation in your mind. Alphs is speaking to Dust, but you can't hear over your own panicked state. Fight or flight senses kick in at full throttle.

In the warm light Livingroom, Dust stood before you, though his sickening grin isn’t as face splitting as last time you met him, his blood red scarf isn’t around his neck… His presence seemed to fill the space, casting a shadow over everything in sight. You found yourself frozen, unable to tear your gaze away from him, even as your heart pounded in your chest.

Your fight or flight instincts surged to life, screaming at you to flee, to escape the danger standing right in front of you. But where could you run ? being cornered in the Livingroom, the wall behind you and the monsters upfront…

You’re royally fucked

“-id!... calm down.”

White eyelights pierce into your own, but all you can think about is the burning blue and red that you're usually met with. That permanent grin on Dust's face is tilted downwards slightly, his hand extended towards you.

“G-GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” you scream, your voice cracking with fear as you thrash with a sudden flurry of adrenaline. Gasping for air, you scramble backwards, feeling the cold press of the wall against your back once again.

Both Dust and Alphys flinch at your outburst. Alphys, with a clawed hand held up to her mouth, wears a worried and scared expression, she looks to Dust.

But Dust... Dust's expression doesn’t really change. He simply puts his hand back into his pocket and stares at you with complete mistrust, his grin turning a little more sinister as he not-so-subtly steps Infront of Alphys, murmuring something to her before she dashes out of the room. His eyelights trained on you… like you’re the threat here.

The air crackles with tension, thick with unspoken words and the weight of the unknown. You shrink against the wall, feeling as though every corner of the room is closing in on you, trapping you in this nightmare of a situation with no way out.

Dust stares you down, before letting out a burdened sigh.

“First time seeing monsters, eh?... Heh, the kid didn’t act like this,” Dust murmurs the last part almost to himself, but you catch it, sensing the slight jab despite your panicked state. His pale eyes looking over your defence form, with that  terrifyingly mechanical stare.

Your limbs shake and tremble, but you muster the strength to stand. With a desperate twist, you turn and dash towards the front door, your hand extended forwards. Time seems to slow down as you reach for the handle, feeling the painful stretch in your muscles, your hand almost there...

Almost........ there.

“Not so fast, kid. We need to have a little chit chat.”

Suddenly, you realize that you aren’t moving at all. You feel heavy and cold, a blue glow surrounds your limbs, you can move and speak (you realise when you let out a surprised whimper) but you can’t move from the spot you’re trapped in, in fact

You hover slightly above the ground.

you can’t get away, further fuelling your panic.

You thrash and shout at Dust, your voice cracking with fear and desperation, but he stands there with a bored yet slightly amused look on his face. His grin widens as he watches your futile struggle, a glint of… something dancing in his white eyelights.

“human, just calm down will ya? listen to me-“

You throw your shoe at him.

Which completely misses from your terrible aim. His eyelights lazily watch the shoe whiz past him before he levels you with a blank look.

And then they extinguish.

Empty eye sockets stare right back at you, his expression is completely unreadable, other than that chilling grin etched into his skull.

“Watch it pal”.

His voice low and ominous, sending shivers down your spine. Feels like the air around you has thinned, suffocating you with its oppressive weight. You once again freeze, feeling faint now.

You’re not going to die from Dust, you’re sure of it, it will be a damn heart attack.

Your stomach churns with nausea, the fear and anxiety threatening to overwhelm you completely. In a desperate bid for mercy, you beg for your life and freedom, your voice quivering with terror.

"Pl-please... I-I beg you... let me go... I-I didn't…... I'm sorry..."

Dust's response is surprisingly calm, his voice still monotone, but calm.

Hes trying to lull you into a false sense of hope-

"It's just a misunderstanding, kid. You're safe here, I promise. Just calm down and listen to me. I’ll tell "

his ‘reassurances’ only fuel your panic, sending you spiralling further into despair. The blue glow that surrounds you disperses and you collapse to the ground, trembling uncontrollably as you look up at dust.

He looks down at you, his fingers rubbing under his eye sockets. Which somehow have dark circles under them. He seems to make a decision and approach you despite you doing everything you can to get him away from you.

“I didn’t wanna do this kid but you need to relax.”

You scream, again. Shrill and desperate.

He winces but doesn’t stop his approach, raising his hand and hearing a soft ‘tink’ sound, blue surrounds you again and you cant fight. You cant move. Your vision starts to blur as your body gives up, you can’t function with this level of stress.

A door opens

Red gloves envelope your vision, blocking your view from Dust.

You feel like you’ve been picked up, your head spins with panic, so you cant quite tell. The only reason you know is because you fell sick again. So sick. despite you’re self, you cling onto this figure. It’s not Dust

That’s all that matters to you at this point.

"P-please... don't... I-I can't... I'm so scared..."

Your words are barely a whisper as you try to tell him to save you, to not put you down. All rationality seems to leave you at this point as you squeeze you’re eyes shut like a child watching a horror film. Your body trembles as you curl up in the strangers arms, whatever their wearing has a plasticy feel to it, smooth with occasional chips being taken out it. You’re hands find fabric and you grab it with a death grip.

“SANS! WHATS WRONG WITH THE HUMAN?”

…sans?

You flinch when you hear Dusts voice answer.

“papyrus! Jesus- will you put it down!”

Once again Dust sounds nervous…. Like you’d be the one to attack them.

Papyrus, holds you to his chest tighter with a soft, stern ‘nyeh’. His arms grip you a tiny bit tighter, a pang of fear travels through you, torn between letting yourself be held and fighting tooth and nail out of papyruses grip. But his gloved hands hold you a little tighter.

“I DON’T KNOW WHY THE HUMAN IS SO SCARED BUT I AM GOING TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER!”.

His voice is loud, which hurts your ear drum’s a little, but there’s an underlining finality in papyruses voice. You flinch and his arms loosen a little. You hear dust splutter, you feel the invading pressure of his magic surround you once again, making your panic heighten once again.

But in a sudden movement you are whisked away from the Livingroom, catching a glimpse of dusts expression.

He looks pissed.

You hide your face in papyruses chest and cling to his scarf tighter.

Your placed down on something soft and bouncy, a mattress. Your unwilling to let papyrus go but he pry’s your hands off his scarf and stands up straight.

….

….

Another skeleton

He’s different to the ones you’ve met so far, his skull is thin and elongated, more lanky and a lot taller. His eye sockets are a lot more beady than dusts and the other ones you’ve seen, his smile is a lot less fake. His blood red scarf is slightly tattered, reminding you of the one dust had on…

“DON’T FRETH HUMAN! FOR I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE SAVED YOU FROM…ER….WHATEVER IT IS YOU WERE AFRAID OF!”

You flinch and swallow thickly, you’ve learned no to trust skeletons.

You stare at him with an exhausted look, scared and hurt. You’ve been ignoring the pain since you’ve so pumped with adrenaline, but now its hitting you and it hurts.

You groan and curl up slightly, eyes on papyrus, he shuffles on the spot and rings his gloved hands together nervously. He looks away from you, towards a display of action figures.

You are just as nervous as he is, if not more. you shuffle away from him and back up on the matters. Noticing his bed looks like some sort of car bed for children, accept its much much longer.

“please d-don’t let him in here”. You say in a wobbly voice, papyrus tilts his head.

“DON’T LET WHO IN HUMAN?”

“Du-dust”.

Papyrus looks very confused, he blinks (somehow) and brings his fingers up to his chin and rubs it, humming, tapping his foot.

“I DON’T KNOW ANYONE CALLED DUST, SO NO NEED TO WORRY! THEIR NOT HERE.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion and swallow thickly. He was right their when dust was approaching you, hell, he called him sans for some reason. You weakly glare at papyrus. H doesn’t flinch.

“…dust, the g-guy who brought m-me here! The one you saved me from??”

Papyruses eyes brighten and he makes an ‘ah-ha!’ sound.

“YOU MEAN MY BROTHER, SANS! I DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU GOT THE NAME DUST FROM. I DO ADMIT MY LIVINGROOM ISNT REALLY UP TO STANDARDS AND IS A LITTLE DUSTY-“

You are truly truly confused…. That is dust… right? His eyelights were different sure but-

“-AND MY LAZY BROTHER WASN’T THE ONE TO BRING YOU HERE. IT WAS ME! THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

Papyrus smiles brightly and you curl up a little defensively, you furrow your eyebrows, your too tired for this, feeling the dullness of pain start to blossom all over your body.

“AHEM, UH, IF I MAY ASK, WHY WERE YOU SO SCARD HUMAN?”

You swallow thickly as you’ve lower lip trembles. Your eyes blur and sting, but papyrus still stays awaiting an answer. But you completely ignore it in turn for your own question.

“…..where am I.” seems like the most important question to be asked right now, you’re way too exhausted to snarl and intimidate papyrus like you did with Alphys, you grimace and tremble in place as papyrus’s face twists into one of confusion.

“OH! YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN MY HUMBLE ABODE”. He says proudly, somehow his scarf waves in the wind…that you can’t feel.

“I'm In your house? W-where…where are we though.” You try clarify, jolting when papyrus laughs.

“NYEH HEH HEH, OH SILLY ME WE ARE IN MY ROOM IN MY HOUSE”.

You start to get slightly annoyed and snap at him weakly.

“no- ugh, I mean… that lizard, A-Alphys, said were in the underground. I wanna know where we are actually”. Since papyrus brought you here surly he would tell you where you are. Pain shoots around your body as you shift into a more comfortable position on the bed, taking the strain off your thigh.

“UH, SNOWDIN?”. Your face must convey your annoyance since he stumbles a little. “THE UNDERGROUND…ER…EARTH?? I DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH MORE SPASIFIC I CAN GET HUMAN”.

That cant be true. It cant.

You stumble over towards a window in his room, wincing at every step. Leaning over the desk in the way, you look out the window and can see from a better view now that you are upstairs. No sky, just endless expanses of rock, glowing with an otherworldly luminescence, littered across the terrain.

Looking at the snow covered ground you can see monsters walking around doing their daily routine, not a human in sight. Snow softly falling onto the ground around them.

“HUMAN?”

You are in the underground.

Chapter Text

You stare

And stare

And stare

…

No.  

That can't be right.  

Your fingers grip the wooden Window sill, your nails dig into the surface 

But you can't feel yourself doing it.

You keep staring, unblinking, at the landscape outside. You wait for something. To wake up perhaps, or for someone with a tv camera to hop from behind a corner and announce it was all a prank. A social experiment that disproves what you’re seeing. 

A sign. A trick of the light. Some hidden hole in the sky that you just hadn’t noticed yet. But it never comes.   

The glow of the cavern walls pulses faintly, it's otherworldly and just….not real. 

The monsters outside move as if nothing is wrong, going about their business, walking through the streets of a town that is buried beneath the earth. That has always been buried beneath the earth.

You were waiting to wake up. You had to wake up.  

“H…N?”  

Papyrus’s voice is muffled and garbled, like it’s being filtered through water. 

It's hard to focus on him when the ringing in your ears gets louder and louder the more you think.

You hear it, but it doesn’t reach you. It just drifts, distant and weightless, like everything else.  

Your breath is too shallow. Your chest is too tight.  

You squeeze your eyes shut, willing it all to go away, willing the weight in your stomach to disappear, willing your mind to stop fighting itself.    

This is not real. It's not, it can't be, there's no logic here…

Papyrus is still talking, but the words bleed into nothing, background noise to the static ringing in your ears.  

….

You’re trapped.  

You’re trapped here.

You're trapped here with dust.

A hand presses lightly onto your shoulder.  

You jolt.  

Your breath catches.  

Your whole body wrenches away from his touch before you even register moving. The moment pulls on your injury sharply, making your vision blurring for a second. 

Papyrus stares at you, his sockets wide, his hand still half-raised in the air where you had been standing just seconds before.  

You swallow hard, your pulse pounding loud enough to drown out the silence between you.  

This is real.  

You're not waking up.

Papyrus wrings his gloved hands together nervously. 

He glances from you to the window, then back again. His smile is dulled now, smaller and unsure. 

There's something almost meek in the way he holds himself, like he’s afraid to move too suddenly.

“HUMAN,” he starts, voice softer than you’ve ever heard it. Still having that dramatic flair to it, but now tempered and careful, like he’s trying not to spook you. 

“I KNOW IT IS... A CHANGE. FROM BEING ABOVE GROUND. I MEAN, I WOULDN’T KNOW, BUT I ASSUME SO! BUT... YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY. I WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. AND SANS TOO! SO PLEASE, SIT BACK DOWN.”

He's speaking to you like someone might talk to a wild, injured animal, with a slow and deliberate gentleness.

You swallow hard, but the lump in your throat is thick and unmoving. 

It’s only now that you register the tremors shaking your frame, violent and constant. You shift your weight, hissing as pressure hits your thigh again.

You just  

don’t know what to say.  

Words feel too big, too clumsy. You open your mouth to speak but the words die in your throat. 

Papyrus huffs softly. He moves closer, and you expect the panic to come back, to rise in your chest like bile, but it doesn’t.

You don’t flinch. Or maybe you do, you just can't tell. You can't really really right now.

Your limbs are uncooperative, too heavy and too light all at once. And when his arms come under yours and lift you like you weigh nothing at all.

You don't fight him when he lifts you up.

It should alarm you. It does, somewhere deep inside. But it’s muffled. You’re drifting between awareness and absence, trapped in your own skin and your own mind. 

Everything hurts, and yet, you feel nothing.

But you're so aware.  

Painfully aware of every little thing.  

The sound of Papyrus shifting feet.  

The creak of the racecar bed as he gently settles you down.  

The way he positions your legs carefully to stretch them out in front of you.

He huffs again, a little louder this time.

“HUMAN,” he says brightly, though not quite cheerfully. “I AM GOING TO GET YOU SOME BANDAGES. OH, AND A NICE WARM BOWL OF SPAGHETTI. I WILL BE RIGHT BACK!”

He turns to go.

And you feel a sharp sting of panic again.

Your hand snaps forward before you even think, gripping his wrist tight. He freezes mid-step, startled, but he doesn’t pull away.

You shake your head no. You still can't speak. 

You can’t let him leave. 

You don’t know why, but the thought of being alone here, even for a moment, makes your stomach twist and your heart climb into your throat.

You don’t even like spaghetti that much. There's no reason to go….

You need him to stay.  

You need something.  

Someone.

His gaze softens. His free hand rises and gently covers your trembling one on his wrist.

“...OKAY,” he says, even quieter now. “okay. I’ll stay.”

“You have a very strong grip for such a small human” he says as he silently gets into his bed next to you.

He scoots in beside you, almost touching you. His knobby knees pulled up to his chest. His long limbs fold awkwardly as he tries to give you distance.

But his lanky frame is too big so he settles against you.

He stares out the window with you. Neither of you says anything.

You can feel his eyes on you now and then, but he doesn’t push.

But when his hand rests gently on your shoulder, something inside you finally gives.

Your head bows.

And you cry.

No words. No explanations. Just the quiet, shaking kind.

Papyrus doesn’t move but his hand stays right where it is.

“You know human, my brother used to calm me as a child when I was upset. He named it ‘put it in a box’!” 

You turn your head to look at papyrus as tears drip down your cheeks…he has your attention.

Papyrus gets up and rummages around his room until he pulls out a box full of bones from in his closet.

There's a joke in there somewhere you're just too tired and emotional to care.

He dumps it all on the floor making you jump, and waddles back onto the bed and flops down beside you. 

…

…..

“GET IN”

You sniffle and wipe your tears with your palm giving him an incredulous look. “P-papyrus im not…im not getting in a-a box?”

Once again he hooks his gloved arms under your armpits and hoists you into the air, you yelp as he places you into the cramped box, thankfully he lets your injured thigh lay over the side to not hurt it more then it has been.

“SOMETIMES THE WORLD FEELS TOO BIG AND OVERWHELMING. AND IT’S OKAY TO FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO BE TUCKED AWAY FOR A WHILE. JUST UNTIL THE EMOTIONS PASS.” he says while twisting his gloves around. “MY BROTHER TAUGHT ME THAT, AS LAZY AS HE IS.”

He gently lays a faded blanket over your head and shoulders while you remain cradled in the cramped box.

You blink at him open mouthed. Out of all the techniques used to calm an upset person down. This has to be the most unexpected way. 

It's sort of funny

It eases the debilitating amount of doom that has settled itself in your numbed chest.

Your eyes are still red and puffy from tears, stinging you in that weird way where you need to close them every couple seconds.

Papyrus settles beside you on the edge of the bed, his voice oddly softer to a more intimate tone as he begins to explain. “YOU SEE, HUMAN, THERE WAS A TIME… I DIDN'T HAVE A REAL HOME. MY BROTHER AND I, WE ROAMED THE STREETS OF SNOWDIN AS CHILDREN. IT WAS FUN! LIKE A COOL SUPERHEROES BACKSTORY!”

 Papyrus doesn't look as happy as he sounds, talking about how ‘fun’ his past was. But his talking is calming you down a lot so you listen uninterrupted. 

“NO PLACE TO CALL OUR OWN, THE NIGHT WAS ALWAYS DARK, THE COLD UNRELENTING, AND FEAR WAS A CONSTANT SHADOW.” He makes dramatic poses as he speaks. Making you chuckle a little and nod.

He pauses, getting a little more sincere now, fiddling with the tip of his glove as he continues, “THERE WERE MOMENTS WHEN I WAS SO SCARED. I WASN'T ALWAYS THIS GREAT YOU KNOW! I COULDN’T KEEP MYSELF CALM. BUT SANS HELPED ME A LOT. HE’D FIND A CORNER, SOMETIMES EVEN A BOX JUST LIKE THIS ONE, WHERE I COULD FEEL SAFE...AND WE WOULD PRETEND IT WAS A ROCKET SHIP, OR A BOAT, A BIG HOME, IT WAS EVEN A GIANT KETCHUP BOTTLE ONCE. UGH HE EVEN WANTED TO MAKE IT BE A BIG SOCK, SOCK, CAN YOU BELIEVE HIM?”

You smile shakily and chuckles softly at him. The tension drains from your shoulders slowly.

“ANYWAYS, WE WOULD SIT IN THE BOX OR CORNER AND THAT WOULD BE A SPACE NO PROBLEM COULD GET US. LIKE NOW! NO PROBLEM CAN GET YOU, HUMAN”.

His warm tone wraps around you comforting you more than the blanket over your shoulders does. 

He can't be talking about dust-or sans- or whatever his name is! You really can't imagine that demon having a shred of kindness in his bones…

Just as the charged air seems to settle, a gentle knock interrupts the tender moment by the door. 

You both freeze. Papyrus’s eyes widen in a silent question before he rises from the bed.

The door creaks softly open, revealing Sans standing in the frame. 

Clutched in his arms is a modest bundle of medical supplies. bandages, antiseptics, and a few other items like that weird green IV drip that was in your arm.

Your heart races.

Every muscle primed with the instinct to run.

You must look so stupid in this box.

Noticing the shifting tension in your posture, Papyrus quickly moves between you and the doorway. 

“NOW, HUMAN, PLEASE DON’T RUN AGAIN” he says, his eyes meeting yours with empathy and determination. “I PROMISE YOU, SANS IS HERE TO HELP, NOT HARM”.

Sans steps further inside the room. His permanent grin seems to be strained even more than the last time you've seen him, blue orbs of sweat glisten on his skull.

If you weren't so frozen in terror you'd tell him he looks constipated.

He places the supplies carefully on a small table near the bed.

“I only came to bring what ya need to get better.” His words are ‘sincere’ enough to make papyrus nod happily with a small ‘nyeh’ slipping from his teeth.

Your eyes dart between Papyrus and Sans.

The same terror threatens to overwhelm you again. Every instinct screams to run, but Papyrus’s steadfast presence stops you from moving. 

Sans eyes you the same as you eye him, and papyrus looks happy but clueless.

…

You look at your bandaged thigh and it does need new bandages. From all this movement you think the wound has reopened.

“Your- your name really isn't dust?”

Sans looks confused, offended even, but nods slowly.

You really don't have many options here other than to put your trust in a skeleton that looks almost exactly the same as the skeleton that tried to not only kill you. But enjoyed almost killing you.

So you don't place your trust in him. You place it in Papyrus and look at him.

Slowly after a long moment, you nod.

Sans moves closer, his approach is cautious. “I’m sorry if I frightened ya kiddo” he says as he kneels down near your injured thigh. 

His gloved hand extends slowly toward you. “I need to clean your wound, reapply the bandages, and check those stitches. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Sans’s movements are clinical, He unwraps your bandages as you sit in the box. Unwilling to get out of it now that it sembles safety.

Sans seems to be respecting it but the way his eyelights flicker coldly to your face is not helping.

He cleans the wound meticulously, reattaching the bandages around your thigh and ensuring the stitches are secure.

Throughout the entire process, Papyrus never lets go of your shoulder. You'd been too stressed to notice up until now.

"Looks like your wound's been hanging by a thread, don't worry, I'll have it stitched up in no time." he quips. His words, delivered in his signature laid-back style, seem intended to ease the building tension, even if the sound of them grates on Papyrus.

But you remain silent.

Papyrus, who scolds Sans for his ‘unoriginal’ pun, suddenly brightens and blurts out, "OH, HUMAN, HOW ABOUT WE MAKE SOME FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI LATER?" He claps his bony hands together with childlike excitement. "YES! NOTHING BREAKS THE ICE LIKE A BIG, HEARTY BOWL OF SPAGHETTI, RIGHT?" His tone is earnest, completely oblivious to the tension between you and sans.

Sans eyelights fizzle out for a few seconds before they flicker back into place.

You really really don't like when he does that.

“Um…i don't think that's a uh- good idea?” You Hiss a little when Sans pulls the bandage too tightly.

"NO, NO, HUMAN," Papyrus chimes in, clearly irritated. "THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER. WE'RE NOT JUST MAKING PASTA, WE'RE MAKING SURE THAT OUR FRIENDSHIP IS SECURED AND BONDED!"

“Gonna have to rain check that friendship pasta paps, The kid won't be able to stand on this leg for a bit.” Sans stands up and dusts his shorts off. He looks over you for a second before sighing and slumping as he stuffs his hands back into his pockets.

“The safety box huh paps?” He says a little softer. Papyrus nods happily and strikes a pose with his chest puffed out. 

“NOT TO WORRY DEAR BROTHER! THE HUMAN CAN SIMPLY SIT AND WATCH AS I MAKE OUR FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI. THAT WAY SHE CAN STILL BE INCLUDED.” Papyrus goes to pick you up again but you hold out your hand to stop him.

“I can get up myself!” You huff and shuffle out of the box slowly. Eyes on sans.

Slowly you stand up and limp, now that most of the adrenaline is gone you can really feel the pain. You grimace and limp to papyrus’s side. You don't want to make spaghetti with some random monster. Not really, but papyrus seems like the safest option here. Befriending him could help if the situation you've found yourself in gets hairy.

And it will get hairy.