Chapter Text
It was a nice chilly day in Snowdin, well it was chilly everyday but that was beside the point. Wearing just his usual orange sweater and some khaki cargo shorts, Papyrus exited Muffets after hanging there for most of the afternoon. He trotted down the main road of Snowdin town, passing familiar monsters on his way. One hand rested in his hoodie pocket and the other held a cigarette to his teeth. How could a skeleton smoke without lungs? He wasn't sure, but definitely was not complaining.
He always went to Muffets, either to sneak away a bottle of honey or just to chat with the bartender Ms Muffet. Honestly, he enjoyed her company. Sure she acted like a condescending mother at times, but she was probably the closest anyone had come to being a mother figure to the two skeletons for a long time since they moved. While walking, he hummed lazily to himself, and overall found himself feeling in a better mood than normal, despite the fact that he was normally pretty… depressed? Was that the word for it, the RESETs had been whittling him down for some time; little by little, but he tried his best to get by. Whether the mood shift was because of the excess sugar he consumed was up for debate, he was sure he was in for the sugar crash of his life later.
He got to the door of the house, lazily pulling his keys out of the pocket of his cargo pants. Stepping inside (and throwing his cigarette back outside into the snow), he was immediately hit with the smell of meat simmering and crackling on the stove. He hummed with a small smile, walking into the kitchen to see his brother Sans preparing his usual special on the stove. As if on queue, the smaller skeleton turned around with a bright smile. He lowered the fire on the burner (he learned that one the hard way) and ran to hug his brother. His cyan eye-lights instantly lighting up upon eye contact, He was wearing his signature battle body, a blue bandana with gloves to match and a yellow apron draped over it all. He must’ve started cooking right when he got out of work.
“PAPYRUS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” The smaller skeleton asked, stepping back crossing his arms, cocking an eyebrow.
“Hey bro, just went to Muffet’s to unwind after work. Whatcha making today?” Papyrus replied
“MUFFET’S AGAIN…? BROTHER YOU REALLY HAVE TO START PAYING ATTENTION TO THE TIME, IT’S LATE.” he chastised the taller skeleton, skull nudging towards a clock on the wall.
“AS PER WHAT I AM ‘COOKING UP’… MWEH HEH- A TWIST ON MY MAGNIFICENT TACOS! ALPHYS HANDED ME ANOTHER RECIPE TO TRY!” He said, eye sockets closed as he stood proudly, his cape flailing in the non-existent wind. Wait what- How did he do that? Papyrus gave the smaller skeleton an eye roll at the obvious pun.
“sure bro, it can't be as bad as last weeks’ noodles.” He chuckled as it earned an incredulous look from his brother, they couldn’t get the smell of burnt noodles out of the house for days.
“HEY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO BURN IT… I …JUST FORGOT THE WATER… NEVERMIND. I WILL JUST INFORM YOU WHEN THEY’RE DONE!” Sans huffed.
He had boiled the noodles in just sauce, he thought it would be more flavorful but it just turned into a mess. Sans sighed, briskly turning his brother around and trying to push him towards the door with not much resistance. He did not want to hear about last weeks’ noodle incident until his new batch was successfully and perfectly cooked.
“sure, bro. I’ll leave the cookin’ to the professional.” Papyrus lazily smiled, “just be careful, don’t burn the kitchen down.”
“I WOULDN’T DREAM OF IT, MWEH HEH HEH!”
The smaller skeleton said with glee, striking a dramatic pose with his hands on his hips. Sans was always a fast learner, one mistake in the past means less mistakes in the future, hopefully!
The taller skeleton walked into the living room and lazily threw himself onto the couch, he turned on the TV to see what was on. Papyrus lazily flipped through the channels before stopping on a Rerun of one of Napstaton’s raves… it looked like the only good thing showing at the time so he decided just to watch that. Not many shows aired in the underground anyway, and the background noise at least helped while he napped waited.
Around 15 minutes passed before Papyrus was woken up by the sudden sound of his brother’s announcement, his brother had always had a loud voice, the taller skeleton had been used to it by now. In a way it was comforting, and made it loads easier to tell if something was wrong.
“BROTHER! MY NEW AND IMPROVED TACOS ARE READY!” Sans called from the kitchen, his voice was brimming with pride and newfound excitement.
“wha- coming Sans… oh hey, there’s no smoke this time.” He said with a smile, watching his brother squint at him from the kitchen doorway.
Papyrus stood from the couch and stretched, turned off the TV and walked into the kitchen where Sans was serving the tacos onto the plates setting the table while Papyrus washed his hands.
“TAKE A SEAT! DESPITE YOUR CONSTANT COMMENTS ABOUT MY NOODLES, I CAN ASSURE YOU THIS TIME I AM VICTORIOUS.” Sans said with a proud smirk as he turned to the sink and pulled off his bright blue gloves.
“so, how’s the training going with al? anything new?” Papyrus asked as he settled at the dinner table.
“IT’S BEEN… INTENSE! BUT IT IS NOTHING THE MAGNIFICENT SANS CAN’T HANDLE!” Sans paused, as if thinking about what to say, his shoulder slightly slumped as the sound of running water filled the all too sudden silence.
“...BUT SHE HASN’T SAID ANYTHING NEW ABOUT ME ENTERING THE GUARD. SHE KEEPS SAYING THAT I NEED MORE EXPERIENCE. BUT WE’VE BEEN ONLY FOCUSING ON COOKING-” Sans turned the sink off and met his brother at the table, his cheery smile still present but there was something behind it that felt… forced, but as quickly as Papyrus noticed it, it vanished.
“BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I AM GIVING UP! THE MAGNIFICENT SANS DOESN’T GIVE UP!” Sans exclaimed, pulling his own plate over to himself.
“that’s great bro- almost as great as these tacos look.” Papyrus said with a laugh, the comment made his brother’s eyes light up… that’s what he likes to see!
The two conversed over dinner (which much to Papyrus’ surprise was pretty edible), the recipe that Alphys had given him was definitely a success, he was definitely gonna chat with her later. After they finished their meal Sans opted (like usual) to do the dishes while Papyrus put the leftovers away in different containers for the next day. Sans never did cook in small amounts after all.
“hey bro, is it okay if I go to bed a little earlier? do you need your story?” Papyrus asked through a yawn.
“I WILL BE ALRIGHT!” Sans looked back and gave Papyrus a smile, “GET SOME REST, BROTHER. BUT DON’T THINK BECAUSE WE HAVE A LATER SHIFT TOMORROW THAT I’M GOING TO LET YOU SLEEP IN.” Sans chided before turning his attention back towards the sink.
“thanks, bro. don’t worry, I won’t.” Papyrus laughed, lazily trudging out of the room with his hands in his pockets.
“GOOD NIGHT BROTHER!” Sans chimed out from the kitchen, giving his brother a wave while he made his way up the stairs to his room.
Sans let out a breath and finished up the leftover dishes, there wasn’t much given that there were only the two of them living in the house. And Papyrus didn’t leave dishes much with all the takeout he got from Muffet’s, much to Sans’ displeasure. Surprisingly he wasn’t all that tired tonight, the food was his guess as to why. The skeleton turned off the sink tap and set the dishes on a rack to dry, he could put them away in the morning. Sans opted to walk into the living room to see if he needed to clean anything that his brother might have missed the day before. His brother wasn’t the… best at cleaning. Sure he didn’t want to believe it wasn’t on purpose but there was no way his brother would forget to pick up the same sock that he’d been practically begging his brother to pick up for almost a month now.
Surprisingly, everything was fairly tidy other than that same sock that his brother refused to pick up, causing him to roll his eye lights in frustration. Sans couldn’t think of anything else to do. The smaller skeleton rarely had time to relax- not to say he didn’t know how- he just didn’t want to seem as lazy as his brother. Sans huffed and scanned the house for anything to do… after a couple of minutes of thinking he surrendered and decided to just go upstairs to his room and at least try to sleep, he didn’t want to re-clean the house and wake his brother, and he definitely didn’t want to ruin his sleep schedule by staying up too late. He made sure his brother locked the front door (which he had forgotten- again) and turned out the lights. The smaller skeleton carefully made his way up the stairs and into his room to lay down, after quite some time (and some mindless scrolling through his phone) he found himself sound asleep.