Sans bolted straight up with a gasp. His bones ached, and he felt sick, but that didn't matter. He pushed himself out of bed, ignoring the nausea and weakness. He had to make sure this had worked. He froze as he heard a crash and a clatter of bones.

"Papyrus!"

He ran down the stairs as fast as he could, nearly stumbling as his head swam. Could skeletons throw up? He hadn't thought about it, but now wasn't the time.

"Pap-Papyrus, I'm co..." He trailed off as he reached the kitchen, finding Papyrus mid-monologue.

"And I, the Great Papyrus, will be willing to spare you, but if you refuse I shall have to—"

"Papyrus!" Sans gripped the doorway, his sockets wide. Oh god, oh god, it had worked! His face split into the widest smile he'd ever worn, and he more or less launched himself at his brother, hugging him tight enough to send a few pops through Papyrus' spine.

"Ouch!" Papyrus frowned down at Sans, and he freed one of his arms to wave at the whimpering Whimsun. "Sans, this isn't the time for horseplay! There is a threat in our house!"

Sans laughed and forced himself to let Papyrus go. He wiped at his sockets, once again wet but this time with relief. "Oh my god...oh my god, I'm so glad you're all right."

"I-I appreciate your concern, Sans, but...it's not really that much of a threat," Papyrus said. He looked down at Sans, slightly concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Yes! I am...I am doing so good. Everything is great!" He let out a breath and shook his head. "Okay, yeah. So you're about to fight the Whimsun, right?" He looked up at Papyrus, whose sockets were narrowed as he looked at him. "Pap?"

"Sans, there's something...weird about your face."

Sans' smile fell. "Weird? Weird like what?"

"It's..." Papyrus' odd look faded, and he poked Sans' cheekbone. "It's lazy, like the rest of you! I told you, there's a threat in our house,and I, the Great Papyrus, will not allow it any longer!"

Sans laughed. "The Great Papyrus can definitely handle it. And uh, you might want to check the bone drawer before you start the fight. I don't want you to be howling mad." He backed out of the kitchen and stopped halfway up the stairs as he heard "Again?" and, a moment later, "SANS!" as Papyrus got the joke.

God, god, he had never been so relieved. Papyrus was alive. It had so been worth the risk. He'd be careful this time. Tell Papyrus to keep his guard up, no matter what. Keep an eye on him when that day rolled around.

He sighed contently as he reached his room. Today, he remembered, was where he revealed his reset...well, the first one. But maybe he could skip it...he'd much rather spend as much time as he could with his brother. He rubbed his skull as he walked over to his dresser.

"So...be faithful to the timeline or spend the day with Papyrus?" he asked himself, looking up at his reflection. "What do y—" He stopped, sucking in a sharp breath.

Beneath shocked eye sockets, his mouth was stuck in a wide grin.

"What? What?" He spoke aloud more to see if his mouth moved, but it stayed firmly stuck. He tried to open it, to close it, to frown...eventually he even grabbed his lower jaw and tried to push it closed, but no luck. His face was frozen from the nasal cavity down.

He gripped his skull, trying not to freak out too loudly. Okay. Okay. This was probably a side-effect of the reset. It still felt like it was moving when he spoke though. Did it just look like this? Would he still be able to eat? Was this some sort of glitch from not having enough dust? His chest tightened as the questions kept piling on top of each other in his mind. He needed to get to Gaster, str—

"Do not be selfish, Sans!"

His thoughts stopped for a moment, and let out a slow breath as Gaster's words repeated in his head. Selfish. He'd called Sans selfish. For what? Trying to save his brother? What kind of cold-hearted son of a bitch said that, anyway?

In the mirror, Sans caught his reflection sort of grimace—as close as he could manage with his face frozen, at any rate. In any case, the thought of meeting with the other skeleton to discuss this—or anything—left a bad taste in his mouth now. He'd been studying resets long enough now to figure this out on his own.

He didn't need the help of someone who thought looking out for family was selfish.

~

Sans did finally go to the lab, though he found himself dozing half the time and nearly missed his cue to make the announcement. The reaction was strange, too; half the group was shocked, the others merely nodded knowingly, though they did ask about why Sans' face was frozen. The other half merely assumed it had always been that way.

It was fairly clear that the timelines had been, frankly put, pretty fucked up, though Sans was certain that wasn't all his fault. Six people resetting at various times meant that none of them had a coherent past up until the meetings began. This time around, research turned from learning how to reset to figuring out the effects of resetting, both on the monster and on how the timelines interacted.

Thankfully, Gaster had still been busy with whatever he and Alphys were working on downstairs, which meant that Sans hadn't needed to interact with him. Once their time was up, he was out, either to Grillby's or just back home to sleep. He was always tired now, and his attacks weren't nearly as powerful as they used to be. Papyrus had beaten him on occasion—not to say that Papyrus wasn't strong, but he also wasn't set up as the final defense before reaching Asgore. He kept quiet about this, obviously, and there wasn't anything he could do about it now, but...still. It added to his worries. By the week Papyrus was supposed to be killed rolled along, he was completely on edge, so much so that the whole research group kept their distance. Except for one person.

"Sans!"

"What?" The word came out as more of a snarl than he meant it to. He sighed and turned around. "Sorry, I..." He trailed off as he saw Gaster looking at him, face concerned. "Oh. Hi, Gaster."

"Is there something wrong, Sans?"

Sans quickly turned back around, half to cut the conversation short and half to hide his mouth. He wasn't sure if Gaster would notice, but he didn't want to risk it. "No. I'm fine."

"Well, I am sorry I have not been here lately. Things are, er...difficult in my other experiment." The other skeleton's tone turned hopeful. "But it is contained for now, so perhaps you could tell me what discoveries you all have made? Or we could have another lesson; your grammar improved quite a lot with the last lesson! Have you been practicing?"

Sans grimaced. He'd been keeping his hands in his pockets to stop them from moving. As Gaster leaned over, he pulled up his hood. "Can't. Have to go home."

"Sans...are you certain that you are all right?" A fluttering hand rested on Sans' shoulder, and he quickly shrugged it off.

"I'm fine, Gaster," he said sharply, turning his head just enough to glare at the other skeleton, who looked completely dumbfounded and...hurt?...by Sans' reaction. He huffed, trying not to feel bad. After all, Gaster only cared about the science, didn't he? Not the monsters affected. He shook his head sharply. "Bye."

He teleported away before he lost his nerve and apologized.

~

That day finally arrived, and Sans didn't even pretend to have any qualms about changing things. Papyrus had to live, even if everything else was screwed up. Papyrus had. to. live.

So, naturally, he was trying his best to get himself killed.

Sans had stayed home today with the express purpose of convincing Papyrus to skip his patrol, but he hadn't realized just how damnaddicted Papyrus was to working. If it weren't for the fact that his brother's life was on the line, he would have given up by now.

"Seriously, Pap, when was the last time we spent a whole day together? I know you have the 1,000,000th MTT Episode Special taped, we could watch it together!"

"Sans, I appreciate that you finally understand the appeal of the MTT series, but Undyne needs me!" Papyrus looked at Sans with bright sockets. "I know she'll promote me to full-time patroller soon, and then I'm that much closer to the Royal Guard!"

Sans, for once, was glad his face was stuck; there would be no way he could hide his grimace at how much work this was turning out to be. "But where's the fun of a job if you can't play hooky now and again?"

"ALL the fun of a job is not playing hooky! I mean, the fun of not playing hooky is...I mean...I need to go!"

Sans broke out into a sweat, and he blurted, "What if I take you to meet Asgore?"

Papyrus froze at the door, then slowly turned his head, his brow bone furrowed curiously. "Meet...Asgore? The king, Asgore? That one?"

Sans nodded, trying to keep his breathing even. Normally he'd joke, but if this was the key to making sure Papyrus made it, he was going to be as serious as possible. "Yeah. I mean, he will technically be your boss when you get in the Royal Guard. Best make a good impression as soon as possible, right?"

Papyrus thought this over for a long moment—a very long moment. Just as Sans thought he was about to dissolve right there from the tension, his brother's whole face brightened. "You're right! I can't waste this opportunity! I need to make sure the king knows that I'm the best candidate for the Royal Guard!"

Sans let out a quick breath of relief, relaxing as Papyrus bounced in place. Thank god.

"When do we go? How do we get there?" Papyrus asked excitedly. Sans laughed.

"Relax, I know a shortcut," he said, then frowned. "But, uh, you're gonna have to promise me one thing, okay?"

"Of course!"

"If a flower talks to you, you need to kill it. Hit it with your strongest attack right off the bat, don't give it time to say anything else. I need you to promise me this, okay, Pap?"

Papyrus frowned. "That's...a very specific promise."

"Please, Papyrus," Sans pleaded, gripping his brother's arm. Papyrus' browbone furrowed, but he nodded.

"Okay, I promise."

For the first time in the past few days, Sans' smile was genuine. "Okay, excellent. Now, that shortcut I was telling you about..."

~

They appeared in the hallway, and Sans kept his hold on Papyrus as they walked, more to keep him from smacking into any pillars as he looked around. It was weird, being here off-duty, and doubly weird with Papyrus. But he was distracted enough by how quickly Papyrus' head was swiveling around to take in everything.

"Careful, bro, your head might just come off if you keep looking around like that."

"But everything is so cool!"

"Heh..." Sans took a moment to look around the hallway, something he hadn't done in a very long time. "Guess it kinda is."

"Hey, wait." Papyrus' head stilled. "How do you know Asgore?"

Sans shrugged with a wink. "I work a lot of jobs." That wasn't really a lie. "It gets you connections."

"Wow..."

They approached the door to the throne room, and Sans held up his hand to stop Papyrus. "Hang on, let me make sure he's not busy. This is, uh, kind of last minute, after all." He looked up at Papyrus for a moment, not wanting to leave him alone for even a minute. But he let out a breath and slipped into the room. As usual, the hulking monster in purple robes was watering his yellow flowers. He'd seen these flowers plenty of times, but for some reason they made Sans awfully uncomfortable this time around. He shook it off.

"Uh, hey, Asgore."

The king turned around, and his kind face lit up with a warm smile. "Sans! I'd started worrying Gaster's been using you for experiments," he said with a rumbling laugh as he set down the watering can. "I'm joking, obviously, he'd never do that." Asgore's face went stony suddenly. "There isn't a human, is there?"

"Like I'd let one get this far?" Sans asked, shaking off the mentions of Gaster. "No, uh, it's actually...well, if you're not too busy, my little brother would really like to meet you."

Asgore's smile returned. "Of course!" He chuckled. "But if he's your brother, I might be tempted to give him an interview right away."

"Heh, he'd actually love that. But, uh, actually...could you keep quiet about my job?" Sans rubbed his neck. "I, uh, I think it might worry him if he knew how dangerous it was."

Asgore pressed a furry finger to his lips with a smile. "Mum's the word."

Sans winked—it'd become his new smile, more or less—and went back to the hall. He just barely hid his relief as he saw that Papyrus was still there, all in one piece and slightly vibrating from excitement. "Come on in, Pap."

Papyrus followed Sans inside, head once again swiveling like mad to drink in the royal throne room. He froze, though, as his sockets locked on Asgore.

"Sans...is that...?" he whispered. Asgore chuckled.

"Howdy," he greeted, walking over and starting to hold his hand out to shake. Papyrus, however, immediately bent over double, his head nearly knocking into his knees.

"It is an HONOR, King Asgore, your highness, sir!"

Sans chuckled, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Asgore, this is my brother, Papyrus."

"Oh, so this is Papyrus!" He smiled at Sans. "I should have known he'd be your brother."

Papyrus' head immediately shot up. "You've heard of me?"

Asgore turned back to Papyrus with a grin. "My captain of the guard's mentioned you were one of the trainees. You have a lot of promise, she says."

"She does?!"

Sans settled back on his heels, watching contently as Papyrus eagerly drank in Asgore's combat tips. There. Papyrus survived, and it looked like he was having the best day of his life. He couldn't ask for anything better. The moment, however, was broken as the doors to the throne room flew open.

"Asgore! Asgore!" Gaster's unmistakable voice echoed through the room as he ran in, stacks of papers fluttering in his mangled hands. "There is an issue with the experiments. Alphys and I have just..." He stopped dead in his tracks as he caught sight of the skeleton in the corner. "Sans?"

Sans would have scowled if he could have. "Hi, Gaster," he replied flatly, just as he had for the past week at the lab. A grimace flitted across Gaster's face at the cold greeting, and he turned back to Asgore. However, his expression brightened as he saw the other skeleton in the room. "Oh! You must be Papyrus!" He moved his papers around to free a hand, which he held out. "Sans has told me all about you!"

Papyrus blinked, then took Gaster's hand and shook it with a smile. "Wowie, another skeleton!"

"It is always good to meet another, is it not?"

Sans' hypothetical scowl would have intensified. This had to be an act. He knew how Gaster really felt.

The scientist shook his head with a smile. "Ah, I have not introduced myself, you must have no idea who this old man talking to you is. I am Dr. W.D. Gaster, the, er, Royal Scientist." He blinked, looking down at his papers. "Oh, god, that is right. I am sorry to cut this conversation short, Papyrus, but I must speak to Asgore." He glanced over at Sans, then back to Papyrus. "Alone, I am afraid." He smiled. "But I would like to have a proper meeting when things are, er, less..." He awkwardly signed with one hand.

"Complicated," Sans finished dully, not meeting Gaster's sockets. He took Papyrus' arm, more protectively this time. "C'mon, Pap."

"It was so nice to meet you, Papyrus," Asgore said warmly. "I hope to see you in the Royal Guard soon."

"Yes, me, too! I mean, it was nice meeting you! I mean..."

Sans chuckled. "All right, don't hurt yourself," he said as he guided him out, overhearing bits of a discussion about failed experiments before the door closed. They walked a ways in silence, and Sans sighed. "Sorry we had to leave so soon, bro," he apologized, sticking his hands back into his pockets. He glanced up, only to see that Papyrus was positively glowing.

"That was AMAZING!! King Asgore is so nice! I thought he would be more...well, I don't know what, but not so nice!" He looked down at Sans with a bright smile. "And your Gaster friend was nice, too!"

Sans shrugged. "I guess."

"And he's a skeleton, like us! I didn't know there were more!"

"Well, Mom and Dad had to come from somewhere, right? Skeletons don't just appear out of thin air."

Papyrus frowned. "Was that a pun?"

"Not a very good one."

"None of them are good ones!"

Just in case he made a pun out of that, Papyrus took several long strides to keep ahead of Sans, who merely laughed as he followed him. However, his browbone furrowed as Papyrus stopped and turned back. "Sans?"

"What?"

For once, Papyrus looked somewhat sheepish. "Do you...really talk about me? To other monsters?"

"Well, yeah."

"What kind of things do you...normally tell them?"

"That's a dumb question. I tell them how cool you are, obviously."

Papyrus cautiously brightened. "Really?"

"Come on, Pap, do I look like the kind of guy to fib-ula?"

"No."

"I know! You can see right through me!"

"YOU MADE THIS TERRIBLE!"

Sans laughed as he took Papyrus' arm. "Come on, don't skull-k." He waited for Papyrus to finish his groan/scream of annoyance. "C'mon. If we take a shortcut, we can still watch the MTT special before dinner."