Papyrus sat up in bed, instantly awake.

But—

But how?! Why?

He-... he hadn't died-...

He hadn't died, so why had everything gone back again? Why was he waking up here, now, in his bed, at 2:00 AM when he had fallen asleep in the kitchen with Sans in his lap, later in the afternoon? He hadn't died!

Maybe-... maybe him dying wasn't one of the necessary criteria for the cycle to restart?

Papyrus shuddered at the thought that something else caused it. Though, to be fair, the thought that anything, even his death, could cause something like this to happen kind of made him shudder.

Regardless, here he was again, back at the beginning. He knew he hadn't died- he would have woken up for that- and yet he was here again.

...So yes, his death was apparently not a factor in this.

For a long while, Papyrus sat in bed, brooding. So... what was it? Why did this happen? What kept the cycle cycling?

...He didn't know. And thinking about it, about all those times he- and Sans, too- must have died needlessly was kind of giving him a tight feeling in his chest.

Eventually, he decided perhaps he should go check on Sans. So he got out of bed, and walked over to the door.

But when Papyrus reaches for the doorknob, he hesitated. It was dark out there, in the hallway...

Then he just shook his head, letting out a small, sheepish laugh. A fear of the dark seemed a little trivial, now, in light of this great and awful circle Papyrus had discovered himself trapped in. So he opened the door and proceeded calmly down the hall to Sans' room.

When he opened the door to Sans' room, he found his brother lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. When Sans heard the door open, he sat up to look at Papyrus. "...pap? what are you doing here?"

"I- I don't know, I just-..." Papyrus realized what he was about to say, and remembered why he couldn't say that to Sans. So he quickly adjusted his expression to one much more akin to that which belonged on the face of the Great Papyrus, and said, "I just had a strange feeling, and my brotherly instinct told me to come check on you! And I'm glad I did! No wonder you're always dozing off in the middle of the day, you're not getting any proper sleep!"

Sans blinked a little, then he closed his eyes with a small laugh. "heh. yeah, you're probably right."

Papyrus blew out a sigh and walked over to sit down on Sans' mattress. "...Did you have another nightmare?"

Sans sat up a little, meeting Papyrus's eyes. He seemed hesitant. "...yeah."

"I wish you would tell me what your nightmares were about. I think it would help."

"...mmmnhh."

Papyrus let out another sigh. "You should try to sleep."

"yeah." Slowly, sans sat up, then flipped over in the opposite direction to settle halfway on Papyrus's lap. Papyrus responded with a sigh, this time one of compliance, and he pulled Sans up all the way into his lap, wrapping his brother in a hug. Sans let out a small, appreciative murmur, and snuggled against Papyrus's chest.

For a long moment, Papyrus just sat there, holding his brother.

The way they were sitting, it was almost the exact same position as yesterday—

Not yesterday, Papyrus told himself, last today.

...

How many times, he wondered...

Even though it had still ended with everything cycling back around, that time had been an alright one. Papyrus realized that, even without this looping back business, it had been a long time since he had just spent some time with his brother that wasn't Sans sleeping off a nightmare. And it had been even longer since he had seen Sans genuinely smile.

He hugged Sans a little tighter, wishing that he could just have that last time be the normal repeat cycle, instead of all this... dying. He wished he could tell Sans that today, they were going to take a lazy day.

But he couldn't. He couldn't tell Sans. Because he wouldn't have before he started remembering, and for the sake of his brother, for the sake of Sans' peace of mind- what was left of it anyway- he had to pretend he still wasn't remembering.

And because if he tried to get Sans to take a lazy day, he'd have to explain why. He'd have to explain the remembering. The dying.

Sans already had enough to worry about. Even if he would forget, even if the repeat cycle would make him forget, Papyrus didn't want to see his brother worry about that, even for just one cycle.

So he just sat there, holding Sans like he normally would when Sans had a nightmare.

And when he was sure Sans was asleep, when Sans' breathing had slowed and shallowed, when the beat of Sans' Soul dropped to a rate no active person could maintain, when Papyrus was certain Sans was asleep, he wept.

~o0o~

Papyrus stood in Snowdin.

He didn't want to, he didn't want to die. But he had to. Because that's what was expected, and to do anything else would mean explaining to Sans about the cycle.

So he stood in Snowdin, waiting for events to unfold how they always had.

Besides, he had to talk to the human, had to try to convince them to stop killing. Even if the cycle would just repeat itself again, he still couldn't condone murder. He still had to try.

He still—

...had to try...

"hey, papyrus."

Papyrus's looked up calmly as he heard his brother's voice. There it was, Sans coming to check in on him, just as he had the last few times. As Sans expected of him, Papyrus narrowed his eyes. "Sans! Aren't you supposed to be... loafing off at your sentry station or something?"

Sans just shrugged nonchalantly, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. "jus' thought i'd check in on the coolest monster around."

Papyrus looked at Sans. Maybe he could convince Sans to leave, so that he wouldn't be killed this time. "Well! I appreciate the compliment, but really, Sans! The human is going to be this way soon! I have to capture them!"

Sans didn't move, though, instead looking up at Papyrus, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. "yeah, you know, i was thinking about that. shouldn't you, y'know, go get undyne or something?"

Papyrus thought about that for a second. Leaving, he knew, meant Sans' death. But to refuse would be out of character, might tell Sans something was wrong.

But maybe, maybe if Papyrus went fast enough, got Undyne here soon enough, maybe, maybe things would be different.

So Papyrus grinned at his brother, doing his best to repeat what he had always said. "The Great Papyrus, Captain of the Royal Guard does have a nice ring to it, and I think it's a good idea! I'll go get Undyne!"

Sans nodded. "alright. i'll make sure to hold the human here 'til you get back."

That gave Papyrus pause. "Sans... just... be careful, okay? Really careful."

Sans just nodded again.

Papyrus turned and took off sprinting.

As he entered Waterfall, a thought occurred to him. He did have his cell phone! He could call Undyne! Get her to come faster!

Still running, he whipped it his phone and punched in Undyne's number. Thankfully, she picked up quickly.

"Hello?"

"Undyne!" Papyrus just about shouted. "Hurry! Get to Snowdin! The human, they're stronger than I thought! They're dangerous! I- I need your help!"

Papyrus knew that if Undyne heard him asking for help, she would hurry.

And thankfully, he was right. Halfway to her house, he met her, effectively cutting his travel time in half. He immediately grabbed her wrist and turned around with all haste.

Hold on, Sans! I'm coming!

And then they were right by Sans' sentry station, and—

...

Oh.

Oh no.

No.

There was the human.

Papyrus didn't understand. How were they here so soon? He had gone faster, so much faster, he should have had more time...

"Oh, Annoying Dog," Papyrus heard Undyne murmur beside him, but when he glanced over, he saw her eye wide, looking not at the human, but beyond them.

At Sans.

He was leaning heavily against the cave wall. It looked like his shirt had been all ripped up, too, and he had one hand pressed against his ribs, but there was a look in his eyes, something Papyrus had never seen in him before.

Something that kind of scared Papyrus.

Likely noting both his and Undyne's astonished looks, the human turned around. Papyrus could only assume that their expression matched his own- at least, if it ever changed from that blank smile.

Sans didn't seem to see beyond the human. He didn't look up, didn't look at Papyrus. He looked only straight ahead at the human.

"like- like i said, kid-" Sans spoke between labored breaths as he pulled himself forward, but once again, there was something about it that frightened Papyrus, "i- i couldn't afford not- to care anymore. but that- was because i literally had nothing to- pay with. n-now, though? s-something changed- something i can't- explain, and i've found- i might lose- something much more valuable- than anything you've ever- taken before. and i- i cannot- let you take- take-"

Sans collapsed to his hands and knees. Papyrus let out a cry, but found he couldn't make his feet move.

Sans wasn't done, though. Papyrus saw him reaching out, into his dimensional box.

And it wasn't full of trash like Papyrus would've expected. It wasn't full of hotdogs, either, or even ketchup.

It was full of spaghetti. Papyrus's spaghetti.

And then Sans was standing up again, standing up straight, shoulders back, hands loose at his sides, whatever wound that had ailed him gone.

*HP fully restored.

"after all, i'm the one who's supposed to be givin' you a bad time. so i think it's about time that i do what i was meant to."

Suddenly, before Papyrus could shout a warning to his brother, the human was lunging forward. And Papyrus could only watch as they lashed out, about to take Sans down again, Papyrus was about to see Sans die again-

But Sans just stepped aside, that unfamiliarly fierce look still on his face. And then, with just a twitch of his fingers, he sent the human flying. They shot across the room, Soul outlined blue against their chest, and slammed into the ground, skidding a few feet. And before they had even finished moving, before they had even lost all their momentum, Sans was charging- charging- forward, and then he was leaping, a bone in hand, and then he was plunging it downward, straight through the human's chest.

On the ground, the human lurched and gasped, and Papyrus could tell their HP was quickly dropping.

"lot harder without all that experience, huh?" Sans said with a nonchalance that was belied by the look in his eyes. "anyway. better luck next time."

And then-...

...

. . .

.  .  .

Papyrus sat up in bed, instantly awake.

§

A/N

This chapter didn't work out quite how I wanted it to, but eh, this was meant to be a more fun, lazy project to get my mind off NOiHwT. So I'm okay with it.

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!