Papyrus sat up in bed, instantly awake.

That was how it usually was; he'd always been quick to start in the mornings. Not like Sans, who practically had to be dragged out of bed. Yes, mornings were one of Papyrus's many and widely varied specialties.

But, the problem was, it wasn't morning. Well, it was, technically, but... Papyrus was quite suddenly wide awake at, according to his bedside clock, two AM. He didn't usually get up until six. Which was still four hours away. Which didn't make sense, because Papyrus should have slept rather soundly until then.

Which made his Soul race, because if he was awake now, then something must have woken him up.

For a long moment, he sat in bed, a chilling familiarity sinking into his bones. The Great Papyrus was nearly completely fearless, but a few things did still scare him, and the dark, and the things in the dark were both included in that very, very small selection.

Because there could be any manner of beasts roaming about in the dark.

There could even be one out there right now, in his house!

The thought made Papyrus shudder a little, in turn making his bones rattle as they knocked together. He scrunched his knees to his chest and pulled his blankets up to his chin. He just had to stay here, stay quiet, and he would be safe. Just like always, he would be safe.

But then an even scarier thought occurred to him, a thought he was surprised he didn't think of sooner.

If there was a beast in his house...

It could hurt Sans!

Papyrus was strong, and for however scared the thought of a faceless, nameless beast scared him, he could stand to take a few hits. Sans, on the other hand, wouldn't survive one, and, more than the dark, that terrified Papyrus.

It terrified him so much that it spurred him into action, despite the dark.

He tossed aside his bedsheets and leaped to his bedroom door. Without a second's hesitation, he flung open the door, ready to face whatever beast might be fleeing the house.

But there was nothing there.

For a moment, Papyrus simply stood in the hallway, Magic fairly bursting at his palms, ready to be summoned at a moment's notice. From here, he could see down into the living room, which was quite empty of any Sans-harming beasts.

And suddenly, a sinking feeling washed over the tall, heroic skeleton. If it wasn't in the hallway or in the living room...

That meant it could already be in Sans' room!

Papyrus lunged down the hallway and flung open Sans' door. And finally, Papyrus saw that which had awakened him, and saw that he had, in fact, been right.

Admittedly, the beast wasn't a physical one, but one in the form of a nightmare, but still, a beast all the same.

Sans was thrashing about on his bare mattress, muttering under his breath in a sort of panicked tone. Papyrus stepped into the room and sat down on the edge of Sans' mattress, careful to stay out of the way of Sans' flailing limbs. Papyrus knew that when Sans was asleep was the only time he ever fought harder when things got more difficult. That was why Sans' mattress was bare. Some time ago he had gotten tangled up in his sheets during a nightmare, and the more tangled up he got, the more he struggled, and...

Well, in the morning, Papyrus had spent a good hour trying to figure out how to fix Sans' dislocated shoulder without causing him even more distress, as he was still on edge after the nightmare.

Among Papyrus's great and many skills, however, was the ability to calm Sans down, no matter the situation. For example, this particular, commonly occurring situation required that, due to the amount of limb-flailing to which Sans was committing himself, Papyrus merely stay seated on the edge of the mattress and not grab up his brother in a tight hug just yet. Instead, he elected to merely reach out a hand and settle it on Sans' back, a light gesture to inform his brother that he was there, a safe, friendly, familiar presence amid the chaos of Sans' dream.

The effect was only minimal, a mere slowing of Sans' thrashing about, but it was still immediate. And with Sans' movements a bit less violent, Papyrus moved on to to the second step of the calming-Sans-down procedure. He began to gently rub his brother's back, yet another soothing gesture. This, too, worked to settle Sans down, and with a bit of time, his breathing had slowed to a more normal pace, and his flailing turned more to twitching.

This meant it was now time for the final step to calm Sans down: a loving, brotherly hug. So Papyrus scooped Sans up- Sans jerked a little, making a surprised noise, but quickly settled into Papyrus's arms- and deposited him in his lap. Papyrus cradled Sans' head against his shoulder, wrapping his brother in a tight hug. Sans shifted a bit, mumbling. One eyesocket cracked open for a barest second, then slid back shut as he began to wake up. Papyrus knew that Sans wasn't really awake enough yet to really be registering and understanding what he was seeing, but he gave his brother a small, warm smile anyway.

Sans let out a sort of choked, garbled groan, one hand pressed against his own ribs, the other reaching up to find Papyrus's scarf.

Papyrus hugged Sans a little tighter. "It's alright, brother! I'm here!"

"i-..." Sans let out another strangles noise, still struggling to wake up. "i-... gonna-... go to grill..." he shifted a bit more, his sleepy mumbling becoming a bit more coherent as he approached lucidity. "pap-...yrus-... d'you want... 'nything...?"

Despite the fact that the familiar question sent a wave of relief washing over Papyrus, he still gave his brother an incredulous frown. "No! Absolutely not! You are most certainly not going to Grillby's, not at this hour, and definitely not in your current state!"

Finally, Sans twisted to look up at Papyrus, blinking sleepily, actually awake. For a long moment, he just looked up at Papyrus. His expression was stoically unreadable, but if Papyrus were to guess, he would say it was very much close to breaking down sobbing.

It took a minute, but Sans did eventually respond to Papyrus. To bury his face against Papyrus's chest and murmur our a quiet "okay" wasn't a total surprise to Papyrus, though it did mean Sans' nightmare must have been a particularly bad one.

So Papyrus just let out a small sigh and gave Sans another squeeze, resolving to sit with his brother as long as he was needed there.

~o0o~

Something was... horribly wrong. Papyrus could tell. Maybe he didn't know what, and maybe Sans wasn't being helpful because he kept doing that evading thing whenever Papyrus tried to ask about it, and maybe the Snowdin residents weren't all that helpful either because they had all spontaneously decided to disappear at the same time so Papyrus couldn't ask any of them about it, but he knew. Something was wrong.

Wrong with the human.

It was in the way they moved. How they sort of shuffled forward, endlessly. In the way they acted. How they refused to participate in any of his puzzles. In the way they looked, even. Hands covered in a dusty powder, a blank, empty smile on their face.

Papyrus could plainly see that their life was going down a dangerous path.

That was why he stood before them now. To help them. To guide them. To lead them away from the dark, dangerous place they were rapidly approaching, to keep them on the straight and narrow. Despite the dread that shot through him with every footfall of theirs as they approached him.

But still, he stood, and waited, arms spread wide, a welcoming, encouraging smile on his face. And when they hesitated, he just smiled wider, more encouragingly. They could do it, he knew they could. Even if they seemed so shrouded in darkness. They could stop, now, and they could be a good person. He knew they could.

With his help, they could turn their life right around-

And then, Papyrus saw them lash out, and he found he could no longer feel his body.

He blinked a little. "W-well! That's not what I expected... but... st... still!!"

He was on the ground.

"I believe in you! You can do a little better!"

His... body wasn't there to lift him back up.

"Even if you don't think so! I-..."

There was... a white powder, not snow, that matched the stuff on their hands, falling into his eyes.

"I-... promise-..."

And then-...

...

. . .

. . .

Papyrus sat up in bed, instantly awake.

§

A/N

It's... honestly pretty refreshing to be writing something that's not NOiHwT. (I mean, sure, it probably was pretty easy to write this chapter, considering most of it was copying, pasting, then editing, but still.) Who knows, maybe I'll even have a chapter of this out every day or something again, like the good old days of my writings here.

...Ugh, honestly, Mouse? I made this account just two years ago, and I'm already referring to that as "the good old days". How sad. XP

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!