When Papyrus came after school the next day, Sans was relieved. He had spent the entire night and then the entire day afraid that Gaster may have decided not to allow Papyrus back, that it was too dangerous, that Sans was too dangerous.

But, Papyrus came.

Sans was strapped down to the table, as he often was on afternoons, with the usual variety of equipment attached to him. He had been meekly cooperating the entire day, afraid that one misstep would result in his never seeing Papyrus again. When Papyrus's usual friendly greeting to both Gaster and Sans accompanied the sound of the door, Sans' grin widened.

"papyru--" Sans stopped in the middle of his greeting and sucked in a sharp breath. He couldn't see, his skull was held in place, but that didn't matter. It bubbled up quickly, the intoxicating burn in his bones, the compelling megalomaniac pulse in his chest.

Gaster started to voice some protest, but Sans barely heard.

Frisk had come with Papyrus.

And this time, h̹͖̤͖͎̕ͅe̖͉͝ ̳͕̺̤̪̩w̗̩̹̫̮̘͙͡o҉͓̥̬u̥̤̞l͔d̶͕̼̲̱͈̱̪n'͖̙̞̲̟̠t̯̳ l̼͉̣̝͚̿͗͂͂e̮͎̙̬̺̞̥̾͆̐͡t̯̳̓͆̈́ ̳̤̼̏͑̈͆t̢̤̩͕̯̒h̘̥͎̘e̠ͭ̚m̴̘̪͎̟͎̳̗͌ ȇ̷̙̺̬̘̞̗̬̌ͩͥͨ͘s̨̻̟̮̼̺̍̒ͦ̇͞ͅc͚̰̫̰̊̔ͨ̉͛͐ͭ̕͠a̡ͤ̂͐̐͐̓̈̈̚͏̼p͍͉̰͙̼͉͎͐̓͂͒̔͐̓̓e̙̾ͧ̑ͧ̌̕͟͡.

He would ṯ̶̩̿e̷͖̟̱͂ͮ̔ͧͮͩͯã̹̝̀̎r̥̮̃͑̒̔ ͕͉͍̗̖̎̎̔̈̕t̖̤͉͎͇͇̞ḧ̟̱̻̰͓̋̃͘ͅͅe͖̋̌̂̓ͫ̅̚̕m̴͈͔̩͔̀ͪ̓͊̊̔ ̓̅̊ͨ̍́҉̦ä̷̫͓͔̦̮́̾̋ͮ̉p̘̤̈́̐̒̽̏ͮ͟a͑ͤ͊̓҉̮̠̙r̼̼̣̯̲͔̃͂̃͠t̢͓̺̻͇ ͈̳̋̄h̹̤͙͖͍̮̯e̱͚̭̦͍̺͚̓ ̴̂̋̏̍͒ͨw̥͔̮͈̖̰ͬ̾͞o͕̤̺ͪŭ̩̲̩͚̜̯͛ͦͤ̌͞l͉͇̪̝͌̉ͨdͬ͊̅ͯ̐͜--

"Sans." Papyrus was there, one hand resting against Sans' rapidly rising and falling ribcage.

And it subsided. The compulsion to kill the human was still there, still itching in his chest, but it was... manageable. With Papyrus there, everything would be alright.

Papyrus smiled at someone Sans couldn't see, presumably Frisk or Gaster. "See?" He laughed a bit, his hand still on Sans' chest. "I told you it would work."

"Papyrus," Gaster said slowly, "what are you doing?"

Papyrus looked most likely to Gaster, who was still outside of Sans' range of vision. "Well, Frisk and I had an idea! Yesterday, when I hugged Sans, he calmed down. So I thought that maybe if I stayed touching Sans, he would be okay!"

Gaster stepped over to the operating table and loomed over Sans. "Are you okay?" There wasn't a whole lot of concern in his voice, it was more like he was asking Sans what the answer to a mathematical equation was, rather than his wellbeing.

Sans decided to ignore the almost total lack of sympathy. He closed his eyes a moment, and thought about it. Then he looked up at Gaster. "... umm... i... i think... i'm mostly okay... ish. i still wanna kill frisk, but only a bit more than i wanna kill you."

"Hm." Gaster seemed mildly impressed. After a moment, though, his expression changed to one half concerned, half reprimanding. "Papyrus," he began in a tone matching his visage, "while I am extremely proud that you have more or less followed the scientific method, you really shouldn't have taken a risk like this! What if it hadn't worked?"

Papyrus grinned. "Well, Sans can't really move much."

"he's right." Sans input, and was ignored.

"But what would have happened if he had gotten strong enough to break the restraints?"

Papyrus was silent for a moment. "Then Frisk would have left."

"Papyrus-"

"Um, Dr. Gaster, Sir?" Frisk interrupted. "It was-- ...uh. I told Papyrus to try it."

Gaster rounded on the human child, whom Sans still could not see. "Why in the name of Annoying Dog would you do that?! You could have gotten us all killed!"

"It- it worked last time, and- and I-" Frisk paused. "...and I wanted to see Sans again."

"huh?! what? why?" Had Sans been able to move his skull, he would have turned to look at Frisk. The idea that the human had wanted to see him after he had almost lost it and almost attacked them was a little disconcerting.

"Uh-..." They walked over to the table. Sans gave them a somewhat suspicious glare. "I wanted... I wanted to apologize. For, um, what happened yesterday."

For a moment, Sans just stared up at them. Then he started to laugh. "you-- hah-- you're such an idiot! haha! i- i tried to kill ya-- an' you come back-- hah-- risk your life, an' pap's an' gaster's-- heheh!--jus' to apologize?! hahah! an' i thought- HRK!"

Sans jerked against the restraints as Gaster suddenly grabbed Papyrus's arm and lifted his hand off Sans' chest. The burning, aching hunger swept through Sans, and his vision quickly covered in a purple film. When he glanced at the human, he saw they were different. They were bathed in a red glow, and their Soul was bright against their chest.

Their Soul. He would h̪͙̩͞a̬̞͖̹͙v̵͎̖̘̬ͅe̷͔̥̠͙̼̭ i̠̫̟t̟̦͙̹.̟̙̦̼ ̜͖̬͎̞̼͢It̞̭̦͎̪̼͠ͅ ̭̺̬̬w̙̳̦͟o͓͍̣̤̰úl̺͓̬̩͕͠d͕̫--

And then Papyrus was draped over top of him, hugging him as much as possible, as he was still strapped down.

Sans struggled to slow his breathing. When he looked again, Frisk was normal-looking. And Gaster wasn't standing near the table. Sans couldn't see him.

So he just shouted. "what were you thinking?!" He roared. "do you realize what you just did, gaster?! weren't you the one just a couple minutes ago, telling papyrus that was incredibly stupid?!"

As he raged, Papyrus sat up, careful to keep a hand on Sans' chest as he did so.

Gaster, meanwhile, was seated at his desk, doing something on his computer, either oblivious to or ignoring Sans.

As Sans continued to rant, Papyrus noticed that Frisk looked a little concerned. He leaned over his brother and said quietly to them, "Don't worry. He's not swearing or talking in the Corrupt language, so it's okay. He's just shouting to relieve the tension."

"Do... do they normally do this?"

Papyrus frowned a little. "... No, most of the time, Dad is talking back to Sans. Sometimes, it's even fun to listen to. They're both really smart, and fast."

"Oh." They said, a note of bemused curiosity in their voice. "Huh!"

After a few more minutes of Sans continuing to shout, Gaster stood from his desk, and returned to stand at the table's side. He waited until Sans paused momentarily, and said, "If you'll calm down for a moment, I'll explain."

Sans spent a few more moments insulting Gaster in a wide variety of ways, then fell silent.

Gaster gave him a mildly annoyed look. "Now. First of all, to justify my actions, Papyrus, however riskily, had already proven that he could keep you calm. So as long as he still was nearby, no harm could be done, and no harm was done."

"does the harm done to my mental health not count?!"

Gaster ignored Sans' interruption. "As for why I did it, I was curious-"

"you were curious?!" Sans roared. It was pretty impressive how intimidating he could look while being strapped down to a table.

Gaster gave Sans a withering glare. "Yes. And no one was in any danger." He paused a moment, still glaring at Sans, then continued. "I saw that, according to this," he tapped one of several devices attached to Sans' Soul, "while Frisk is near, your Corrupt Magic... grows, to put it simply. However, when I looked at the readouts, the ratio for your Corrupt Magic to Pure Magic was about the same as it normally was. So I wanted to see if Papyrus was dampening the Corrupt Magic."

For a moment, things were silent. Everyone looked at Gaster expectantly. Well, no, Sans glared. But for all intents and purposes, it had mostly the same message; hurry up and tell us already!

Finally, Frisk broke the silence. "Well? Is he?"

Gaster shook his head. "No. Sans' Corrupt Magic level stayed exactly the same when I pulled Papyrus's hand off. Papyrus, you are boosting Sans' Pure Magic, enough for it to effectively counteract the rise in Corrupt Magic."

For another moment, there was silence, as that sunk in. Then, "so, wait. papyrus is making me stronger, pretty much?"

"Pretty much, yes." Gaster confirmed. "Except, only when he's touching you, and only your Pure Magic. And possibly only when a human is nearby."

"huh. that's pretty cool, i guess." Sans thought for a moment. Then, very slowly, he said, "actually, i think he does it all the time, just more when he's touching me. because, yesterday, i only managed to last as long as i did because i kept thinking about how papyrus didn't want me to attack frisk."

"Really?" Papyrus looked quite excited at the thought that his very existence gave Sans strength. With his hand still on Sans' chest, Sans could feel the small quiver of excitement that ran through him. "Nyeh heh heh!"

Frisk looked at Sans, smiling. "So does that mean I can shake your hand, then?"

Sans glared at them. "no."

They looked a little disappointed, but mostly surprised at his flat-out refusal.

Papyrus smiled at them. "Don't worry. He's like that to everyone. You just have to keep trying, and he'll like you eventually!"

"no i won't."

Papyrus turned back to Sans. "Yes you will! You like me."

"yeah, but that's a special case!" Sans protested. "you're my brother."

Papyrus just grinned. "And Frisk'a a human!"

"which is exactly why i'm even less likely to like them, pap."

"But there's still the possibility, Sans! I believe in you!"

Sans just sighed.

~o0o~

For a while, Frisk stayed in the lab. That meant that Papyrus had to stay sitting on the table, hand on Sans' chest or arm or holding Sans' hand, but neither of the brothers really minded. Eventually, Frisk's phone rang; Toriel was calling them home to dinner.

But they said, if they were welcome, they would come back again. Before Sans could protest, Papyrus readily told them that yes, they were welcome. They just had to make sure to call first, so Papyrus could be already with Sans when they came in.

And they did come back.

This time, Papyrus was sitting in Sans' lap in the cell. When they walked into the lab, Sans felt the same itch in his chest, but it was only that, an itch that was easily ignored.

No, the annoying part was how they still offered to shake Sans' hand.

They did that every. Single. Time. that Sans wasn't strapped down to the table, and they only didn't then because he wouldn't have been able to move his arm.

Every time, Sans flat out refused, only because Papyrus would be upset if he killed them, and even with Papyrus touching him, he couldn't be sure he would be able to resist killing Frisk if he was also touching them.

Of course, with such a delicate setup, something was bound to happen eventually.

~o0o~

It started like a normal Thursday afternoon. Frisk had been coming for almost a month now, and while Sans was still annoyed with them, he was mostly used to them always asking to shake his hand.

On this particular day, Sans was sitting on the cot in the cell, with Papyrus leaning against his side. Frisk was near the door of the cell, bringing their homework sheet over to work with Papyrus. Gaster was at his workbench, messing with some electronic device that Sans wouldn't be surprised to find stabbed in his Soul tomorrow.

Frisk was about five feet away when whatever Gaster was working on exploded. It wasn't a big explosion, and while it blackened his face with smoke, it did no damage.

Not to him, at least. The sound had startled both Papyrus and Sans, so that they both lurched upright.

Papyrus was no longer leaning against, or touching, Sans.

In half a second, Sans was lunging forward, left eyesocket dark and right burning with a Corrupt purple anti-light. His voice tore from his throat, the harsh screeches and growls of the Corrupt language tearing through the air. His right hand was stretched towards Frisk's neck, burning with Corrupt Magic.

Time seemed to slow. Both Papyrus and Gaster were watching, neither able to move fast enough to stop it.

And Frisk stared up at Sans, eyes wide with fear. They stumbled half a step back, and then-...

Then they lifted their hand, offering a handshake.

Sans froze, silent, his right hand less than half an inch from strangling the life out of Frisk. For a moment, he just stared, then he blinked, the light in his right eye going out.

Then, very, very slowly, he stood up straight, and carefully took Frisk's hand.

And he started to laugh. He laughed long and loud and hard, like this was just about the funniest thing he had ever seen, shaking Frisk's hand all the while. After about thirty or so seconds of this, his laughter calmed down a little, and he gave Frisk's arm a bit of a yank, pulling them forward, wrapping his arms around them. Gaster started, thinking Sans was gong to crush Frisk, but Papyrus stayed where he was, just smiling. He knew Sans was just hugging them, in a rough, mostly friendly way.

And still, Sans laughed. "k-kid-- hah!- you idiot!!-- you insane-- heheheh!!-- idiot!! why-- why would you-- hahah!- try to shake the hand of your killer?- heh!"

Frisk just smiled as Sans released them. "I wasn't in any danger."

Sans just let out a snort.

It wasn't until some time later, after Frisk had left, that Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster found that the white streak in Sans Soul had stretched just a tiny little bit farther.

§

A\N

School's a butt. 'Nough said.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this! Remember, comments and votes are not only always welcome, but always appreciated, too!