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One year passed after another.
One day after the last,
until suddenly…
Time seemed to have passed him by entirely. A continuous cycle that he never was, and never would be a part of.
Some days he felt like a speck in the world’s largest hourglass—just a piece of sand that made no difference.
Time seemed irrelevant now.
And only by others was Sans reminded it had ever existed at all.
Particularly, it was when his younger brother suggested the idea of them throwing a party for his birthday that year. At first, Sans had found the idea silly, especially considering they’d never usually done it before—only for said younger brother. (Not that it made much of a difference.)
But, he’d insisted and…
Papyrus could be rather persuasive, even at the age of seven.
It shouldn’t have been very surprising that almost the entire town showed up to it, with how popular Sans was (so Papyrus claimed)—still even then, it was kind of shocking to see everyone arrive with at least one present in their grasp.
He…
Had a lot more fun than he’d care to admit. Papyrus being the source of it, mostly, having excitedly ranted about what cool new things could be under the paper.
Lunch came, and Papyrus even helped him prepare it, setting out the dishes for everyone. He chattered on and on about various things, and Sans listened, even if no one else did.
For a while, things were nice.
For a while, he was reminded of the good moments that Time brought; that somehow, even if he forgot them, nobody would forget him any time soon.
It was… Comforting.
And when Politcs Bear handed him the first of the gifts he’d been given, although it might have been selfish, he wasted he no time tearing into it, and everyone else’s thereafter.
He laughed, and smiled more genuinely than he had in a while,
but something was wrong.
Something felt... Missing.
Someone.
Suddenly, the voices turned to nothing more than white noise. Whatever unwrapped item he’d had turned slack in his grip.
None of it mattered.
He looked around the room, stare almost vacant now with the desperation to find who he was looking for.
Where was Papyrus?
Without even thinking Sans shoved the item back, not caring—suddenly he was gone from the room. He searched the house up and down, and outside, and the whole town and still nothing.
At that point, the others started asking. They’d found nothing wrong, nothing seemed out of place for them other than Sans’s worrying, and talking to them wouldn’t make it better; it’d just be wasting precious Time, he had to find his brother before—
Soon Snowdin was just a distant land behind him. Wet soil crumbled under his slippers, the echo of rushing water only heightening his nerves.
He looked everywhere.
Every crevice, every small chasm that he knew Papyrus would have known to stay away from but he left nothing unturned.
It seemed like hours until he found himself in the garbage dump.
Sans’s soul stuttered.
Papyrus had been fiddling with something next to one of the piles, knee-deep in water, completely focused on whatever he had in his hold. When he finally glanced up, to see none other than his brother standing utterly frozen several yards away, Papyrus froze with him.
“I… I-I’m sorry, this—I was supposed to...”
He continued stammering out similar phrases, trying to search for the right one.
“But I… I forgot!” He gestured wildly, almost panickedly to whatever he had in front of him, “I-I didn’t mean to, I swear but I—a-and I figured! Y-you wouldn’t even notice if I left, b-because...” He trailed off, as Sans trudged through the water towards him, saying nothing. Papyrus stared back, nervously, even as Sans came to a stop next to him and the old looking telescope.
“Umm… Dr.… Dr. Alphys helped me… Fix it up, and...”
His expression wavered,
“And… I-I know you like weird science-y spacey stuff and even if they’re not real down here I just thought—”
Sans cut him off.
He dropped to his own knees into the murky water, reaching for him, and pulling his baby brother into his arms.
“Papyrus...” was all he could choke out, after several long bouts of silence.
The younger simply hugged him back and burrowed his mandible into Sans’s now-wet shirt.
“I’m sorry, brother. I—”
Sans quieted him, brushing his teeth to the top of his skull in a kiss.
“it’s okay. i-it’s okay Papy, i’m just...”
A slow, deep sigh, along with a nuzzle.
“...i’m glad you’re okay.”
They stayed like that, for a moment.
. . .
And for a moment, Time paused.