Chapter Text
Papyrus clicked the power button on the T.V. remote, running a bony hand over his face. He sighed heavily, leaning back into the lumpy couch. There was a blizzard coming soon and they hadn't done groceries in a long time. He was even running out of his stash of dinosaur egg oatmeal...
He pulled himself up with a groan, using the armrests of the couch to support his lanky frame. He arched his back as far as his vertebrae would allow, eliciting a few satisfying *pops* from his stiff spine. After stretching, he dragged himself over to the kitchen to check how much food they had left—and it wasn't a lot. A half-empty container of three day old spaghetti sat at the back of the fridge, partially forgotten. Other than an empty bag of chisps on the top shelf there wasn't any other food there.
"GREAT..." Papyrus thought to himself, sighing as he leaned on the door of the fridge. "AND SANS LEFT GARBAGE IN THE FRIDGE. AGAIN. I REALLY NEED TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT THAT..." With a less-than enthusiastic push off of the fridge door, he closed the fridge and strode over to the counter. He grabbed a notepad and a pencil from the corner, leaning down to write on it.
"SANS, STOP LEAVING EMPTY GARBAGE IN THE FRIGDE!! - THE GREAT PAPYRUS" He wrote down, securing the note to the front of the fridge with a bone-shaped magnet. After he had left his slob of a brother a note, he went back, grabbed the notepad and pencil, and stepped over to the fridge once more to take inventory. If a blizzard was coming, that was sure to mean the shops would be closed because of power failure. He shuddered at the thought. Papyrus had always been terrified of the dark, ever since he was a little babybones—sometimes, he still needed to sleep with the lights on.
He didn't know why he was so afraid of the dark. I mean, it wasn't like it was going to hurt him.
But it wasn't the dark itself that scared him the most.
It was what could be lurking in the dark.
He snapped himself out of his thoughts, attempting to focus back on taking inventory of what they needed to buy. Better to be safe than sorry.
Sans' alarm went off. With a sleepy groan, he flopped over and drowsily scrounged around the floor for his old, beaten-up alarm clock he found in the dump. Honestly, he wished he never got it. Now Papyrus makes him get up every day at 8:00...
Once his hand found the alarm clock, he gave it a good WHACK with his fist and it shut up. He rolled back over, putting a bony arm over his sockets and planning to go back to sleep—until he realized how pissed Papyrus would be. He'd already tried to pull that stunt a few times, and it ended in a lecture each time. With a sleepy huff and groan, he pushed his back off the mattress and sat up, letting his eyelights adjust to being awake. He yawned, scratching his sternum as he got up off his bed (if you could even call it that...) and stumbled over to his dresser.
He didn't bother changing his clothes; they didn't smell bad and he only wore them yesterday. They'd be fine.
After slipping his slippers on, he bawled his phalanges into a fist and pressed them against his palm, cracking his knuckles. They made little cracking and popping noise, providing Sans the small joint relief he needed after waking up. He twisted his upper body sideways, swinging it around to the other side a few times to crack his spine. Being skeletons and all, air would get into the crevices of their bones much easier than with other monsters, so they needed to do this regularly. Once he was done with that, he cracked his door open, blinking at the bright light from the hallway, and stepped out.
Papyrus was cleaning out the old spaghetti container and empty bag of chisps into a garbage bag when Sans came down.
"FINALLY, YOU'RE UP. REALLY, YOU NEED TO STOP LEAVING GARBAGE IN THE FRIDGE! IT'S DIRTY AND I JUST CLEANED THE FRIDGE OUT AND-" Sans cut him off. "whoa, calm down paps. i'm sorry. i won't do it again." Sans eased, putting his hands up in a placating gesture.
"YOU BETTER NOT, BECAUSE-" Papyrus was cut off once more as, suddenly, all the power in the house clicked off. Uh oh.
Sans' eyesockets widened as he looked around, barely being able to see his own phalanges in front of his skull. His eyelights shrunk, darting around, trying to find Papyrus'.
He knew how afraid Papyrus was of the dark. He always had been.
As soon as the power clicked off, panic bubbled up in Papyrus' SOUL. That panic only festered and grew inside him as he looked around, realizing he was surrounded by complete darkness. He stumbled back, hitting against the counter with his pelvis as his eyelights desperately tried to find Sans' while his breathing picked up. The only noise was the raging blizzard that had started outside. It wouldn't be safe to go out anymore.
This... was not going to end well.