Sans followed a few paces behind her. She wandered into the back of the room and sat down in the corner, back pressed against the wall. She hadn’t put on the coat yet. She held it close and kept rubbing the soft white fur of the hood. Apparently the gesture had meant a lot to her. It made him feel a little guilty about what he was about to do next.

Not a lot, just a little.

Not quite turning his back to her, he opened up a panel in the wall. “you must really like my coat huh?”

“Yes. Thank you. Again.”

“no problem. thought it would be a good reminder for you when you hit a rough patch in whatever it is your going through.”

“It will. I won’t forget. I promise.”

His eyes darted from his coat to her face. “i can tell. judging by the look on your face, i’d even go so far as to say the gesture fills you with… determination.”

“yeah I-”

Click.

The gaps between the too-wide bars buzzed with static for a brief second. After that everything went back to normal for the most part, except for the air shimmering a little between the gaps.

“What was that?” She got up, leaving the coat on the floor and rushing over to the bars. “What did you do?” Quick as a whip she reached out to slide her hand between the bars and hissed between her teeth when her hand slammed up against the magical barrier, making her fingers tingle.

Flicker.

Flicker.

Flicker.

“-i’d even go so far as to say the gesture fills you with… determination.”

She jumped to her feet and rushed forward.

Click. Too slow.

Her hip slammed up against the wall and she stumbled back, glaring daggers at him. “What the hell Sans?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “sorry. didn’t want to risk it.”

She paced back and forth a few times, eyes rarely leaving his. When she saw no unprotected gaps in the wall she slowly sank back down to the floor. “So what now?” She demanded. “Are you going to kill me again?”

“i’d really rather not. i don’t want to tempt you to reset the timeline, remember? besides, i made a promise to someone better than myself - better than you- and i prefer to keep my promises. even if you are a pain in the ass. so, you just sit tight and catch some z’s while i mull over all this new information, capiche? i will go find someone more qualified to handle this situation and she can take things from there.”

Her eyes widened in panic. “Sans, no! You can’t! If you tell Undyne I’m here and leave me trapped like this she will kill me!”

“hey i didn’t specify who i would tell.” He winked, then his eyes turned black. “that kinda depends on how well you behave. just stay away from my brother and you will be fine.”

“Sans, let me out.”

“nah.” There was a faint buzzing and the smell of ozone. His figure became blurred by shadow.

“Sans don’t-”

“see ya.” There was a crack of static and he was gone.

***

Sans plopped down in his seat at the sentry station guarding the entrance to Hotland. He ran a hand over his skull and leaned back in his chair. He gave a loud sigh, body going limp as he exhaled. His eyes were heavy and when he closed them it was a struggle to crack them back open again.

A lot of things were buzzing around in his mind right now. Listening to his thoughts voice themselves was tiring. He needed a moment to rest. A moment to think. And that was something he just couldn’t have if he let that little terror run free. So for now he was going to keep her where she was, playing on a gamble that she wouldn’t force a true reset if she was stuck for a few hours, so he could buy enough time to process this and maybe get some fresh input.

Besides, he had jobs to do. He couldn’t afford to be late to all of his legally required breaks!

He made an amused sound at his own joke.

It was so tempting to just hand her over to Undyne and let her handle it. Maybe the king could catch her soul if they held her down. Asgore had been able to catch all the others after all.

He frowned. Did a promise still count if the timeline it had been meant for had been destroyed? Was he really still responsible for her? He rocked his head back and stared at the ugly mess of stalactites hanging over him like looming swords. “god, what am i going to do with her, Dings? this is a mess.”

He listened carefully to the ambiance around him, waiting. He hoped he would get an answer. To hear anything at all was rare but he was relatively close to the lab and sometimes that helped.

…He heard something.

One could have easily reasoned that it was just the wind. Or the sound of the bubbling magma off in the distance. One could say it was his imagination when the strange garbled sounds reached him like a sigh, passing before most people would have ever been able to understand that they had heard something odd. But Sans was nothing if not observant.

He wasn’t sure what to feel once he deciphered its meaning but at least it was something to go on. “if you say so.” he murmured, closing his eyes.

That settled it. He was going to have to go visit his friend and see what could be done. All his options were dubious at this point but he still trusted his judgment. Because for the first time in a very, very long time, the whisper had spoken of hope.

***

The shed creaked a little in the night. She kind of liked the sound. It was a relaxing sound to focus on as time passed her by. She had given up on trying to get out. Aside from a broken plastic dog bowl and her raw fists she didn’t have anything in her little cell that could wear down the magic enough for her to get out. The windows were protected and the walls were solid.

She didn’t have the sleeping bag he had promised. He had left without going to retrieve it. All she had was a musty smelling dog bed to sit on while she shivered and cursed under her breath.

“I hope you know I saw this one coming from a mile away."

"shut up."

"I don’t get why you keep trying to reach out to that one." She sighed, "He’s as far gone as we are. He’s just gone in the opposite direction. He’s Hopeless you know. And he doesn’t trust you.”

“Yeah well, whose fault is that?”

“Yours as well as mine.”

She made a displeased sound. “Fair point.” She stuck her hands in her coat pockets and fell over onto the dog bed, limbs all bunched up together so she could fit. “This sucks.” Her fingers became entangled in a mess of sticky ketchup squeeze packets. She made a disgruntled sound and began to fling handfuls of gooey wrappers out onto the floor. The smell of tomatoes permeated the small space as a result. A crumpled piece of paper fell out onto the floor in her frenzy.

She paused mid throw and picked it up, grimacing at the ketchup stains on its uneven edges. It was addressed to Papyrus.

“Are you going to read it?”

“I shouldn’t go reading peoples letters. It’s probably just a grocery list or something.” She declared with uncertainty.

“If that’s all it is then read it!”

“Go to sleep, Chara.”

“Read it!”

She grunted in surprise when her hands started to yank the note open, tearing its folded edges with clumsy force.

She grit her teeth.“Hey, knock it off!” She was the one in control. This body was hers. These hands were hers. She forced herself to be calm. Anger, fear, loneliness, sadness; these emotions were fuel for Chara. They twisted her, aggravated her and gave her strength. She had to be calm.

Rain thought for a moment while she flipped the paper this way and that, trying to calm them both. If the letter had been important would he have left it with her? “If I read it for you, do you promise to be quiet so I can sleep?”

Chara considered it for a moment. “I will allow it.”

Rain rolled her eyes and unfolded the red stained note. A compromise then. A little evil for a little good.

It was a long letter. It scrawl was quick and messy. Almost nothing had been capitalized. She read it aloud for the sake of learning to use her own voice again.

Papyrus, if you are reading this then one of two things has happened. thing one: i came home and passed out on the couch covered in ketchup stains again and now you are trying to wash my coat. if that’s the case then please put this note back and don’t read it.

also, my coat is dry clean only so, yeah.

thing two (the bad thing): i’m dead. gone. caput. dusted. something got to me and i’m sure right about now you are feeling pretty raw. you are probably about to do something foolish. Bro, i wrote this all down so i could tell you: don’t.

i doubt you’re thinking of hurting whoever did this. that’s never been you. then again i have never been around to see how you react when i die so maybe i’m wrong. i won’t judge. i’m sure you're angry either way.

but that’s not the point. the point is you are still alive. that’s what matters to me. that’s all that’s ever mattered to me. and even though you may feel like all the happiness has been sucked right out of you, i know you are strong enough to pull through and hold on long enough for things to get better. you have always been really cool like that.

look, i know i keep a lot of stuff from you. it’s not stuff i ever wanted to burden you with. but i need you to know the truth now so that you can stay safe. you know all that space-time stuff i used to mess around with? i was tracking an anomaly.

and if i’m dead then that means i found it- or rather it found me. the anomaly is a living thing, Paps. and its nasty. its hungry. for what i don’t know. but it keeps resetting time. over and over again. you have no idea how many times we have relived the same days because of that thing. (though i suspect you have sensed something wrong for a while now too and just kept it to yourself for whatever reason. you are pretty sharp after all.)

its killed you before, Paps. i’m sure of it. but maybe this time i saved you. maybe this time it will be satisfied with just me. maybe this time if you lay low, it will find what it wants and you will be ok.

i know you will want to go and find them. either out of a need for revenge or a feeling of pity. but please, i’m begging you: Don’t.

let them go. let them do their thing. call it my dying wish. i know it hurts but maybe it’s better this way. chances are in a few days or weeks they will reset the timeline again and it will be like none of this ever even happened. it will be nothing more than a bad dream to us. this run probably won’t even matter. i’ll be fine. i’ll come back.

and if not? well, you always were the strong one. be strong enough to let them go. let me go and live a good life.

your loving brother- sans.

The room fell into silence. Rain’s voice was quiet and cracked. To her credit Chara did not make a sound. She let Rain lie back down, the letter still held at am arm’s length.

So this is why Papyrus had known about resets back in Waterfall all those timelines ago. He had disobeyed his brother’s dying wish and put himself in jeopardy to try and help her.

“Papyrus you idiot.” She whispered. “I wish I could have been as good a person as you turned out to be. I wish I could be half the person you think I am.”

Maybe it was a good thing he had tried. Chara would have won if he hadn’t been there with Undyne. By choosing action over inaction he had saved that timeline. That’s was something Sans had always failed to do. But Papyrus had also prolonged her own personal suffering and part of her didn't know how to feel about that.

The world was full of strange things.

She stared at the letter until sleep took her. Her last conscious thought being that of a letter stained in red.

***

This was not a dream. This was a memory…

“What are you drawing now, creep?” He demanded, candy-tainted breath assaulting her as he loomed over her from behind. “I want to see! Come on, what are you afraid of?”

She lowered herself over the chair she was using as a table, shoulders hunched and hands gripping the crayons tight as she glared at him out of the corner of her eye. “Go away.” She growled, hiding the drawing as best she could with her body.

“I bet you’re drawing something evil again, aren’t you?”

“Samuel, be nice. Don’t call her names.” The teacher warned from the other end of the row of chairs where she was talking to one of the other kids.

Samuel made a face at the teacher then turned back to her.“I need the orange and the blue crayons.”

“Use your own.”

“I can’t. They broke and I had to throw them away.” He whined, stomping his foot as he pouted.

“You don’t have to throw away broken crayons you idiot!” She snapped, still staying low over her drawing.

“You aren’t even using those colors. You are only using the red and black!” He tried to pry the crayons from her hand.

“No! Stop it! Let go! These are mine!”

His fat face started to turn red with anger as he shoved her aside and tried to take what he could.

“Samuel!” The teacher snapped.

“Woah.” He gasped, looking down at the drawing she had been protecting. “Sister Smith! Sister Smith! Look!” He pointed excitedly at the drawing, seeing the opportunity and taking it.

She tried to save her drawing but he snatched it away, waving it in front of the teacher like a victory banner. “She was drawing demons again!”

“Give it back, you pig!” She snapped, gritting her teeth as he kept her away with an outstretched hand.The teacher made another objection to name calling that fell on deaf ears. “They are not demons. They are monsters. There is a difference! Sister Smith told us to draw something from our favorite story. That’s the monster king. It’s from a folk story!”

Samuel’s pig-like nose wrinkled as he smirked at her.

“You were supposed to draw your favorite bible story.” The teacher amended, upset that her troubled student was once again straying from the path. “We have been through this before. You can’t keep drawing these things in church. They are not right. They are inviting a negative spirit into the classroom.” The teacher took up the paper and sighed, disappointed. This was the second time she had been caught drawing “demons” in Sunday class and the fourth time she had drawn something that the adults considered “disturbing.”

Samuel chose this moment to open his ugly mouth to pipe: “My mom says that story is about demons, Sister Smith! There used to be demons that would try to steal souls and lead them down to hell but then a holy man locked them under the mountain because God told him to.” He cast a sly eye at the drawing and feigned confusion. “Why did she draw the demon king instead of the saint, Sister Smith?”

The teacher brushed off his remark but all the other children where set alight with chatter at this revelation, eager to gossip about the latest issue with their oddball classmate.

“Honey, you promised if I let you draw you would stop doing this.” The teacher chided, pinching the bridge f her nose.

She clenched her fists, tears pricking at her eyes. “They are monsters, not demons! I wasn’t drawing demons!” She insisted.

“Monsters are just another word for something evil, sweetie. Why don’t you draw something else? Something from the Bible? How about Noah’s Arc? You could draw lots of animals instead.”

“I want to finish my monster drawing first.” She pleaded.

Her teacher had reached the end of her patience. She sighed and held out her hand. “Give me your crayons.”

She clutched them closer to her chest, rage flaring up inside of her when she saw Samuel’s smug smirk out of the corner of her eye. Everyone was staring at her now, waiting to see what she would do.

She heard one of the kids whisper something to another classmate and giggle.

Her lip quivered in defeat as she handed over her crayons.

Samuel didn’t even wait for her to sit back down before he started to scavenge. “Sister Smith, if she’s not going to use those can I have the orange one?”

She was sentenced to sitting in her chair and pretending she didn’t hear her classmates whispering about her while Samuel got his desired crayons and returned to his seat, the one right next to her own. “Should have just given me what I wanted, freak.” He sniffed. “Bet your dad is going to be real mad at you when he sees that creepy thing you made.”

She crossed her arms, grinding her teeth as silent tears streamed down her face.

“Hey, you paying attention to me, you little demon worshiper? Listen to me when I’m talking!” He shoved her shoulder.

She snapped. With a frustrated scream she rounded on him, small trembling hands balling into fists and crashing against his stupid pig nose. “Leave me alone!” She shrieked.

He fell backwards onto his butt, blood trickling from his nose. For a moment he gaped at her in shock, then he began to sob like a baby.

“Chara!” The teacher yelped, aghast, eyes flaring in anger. “We do not hit our brothers and sisters!”

She flung an accusing finger at the crying boy. “But he’s not! He’s not by brother! He’s just a bully! How come you don’t yell at anyone else when they push me or pull my hair?”

“We. Do. Not. Hit! Cathy," The teacher turned to one of the other girls in the room, "help him please while I deal with Chara.” The teacher was coming for her now, taking her by the wrist and dragging her out of the room.

Everyone was alight with shocked conversation. Samuel was still bawling on the floor, holding his nose while a friend came to help him.

As the flustered young woman yanked her along down an empty hallway, Chara’s hands balled back into fists.That had felt… good. Her whole body trembled and her anger boiled inside of her like liquid fire. She was crying but she didn’t care. It felt good to make him suffer. No one else was going to help her anyway. Even as her stomach filled with dread when she realized the kind of trouble she would be in for this once her parents found out, she still felt a dark, satisfied sort of pride in herself for standing up to him; for doing what the teacher was too weak to do herself.

It felt good to be the strong one.

***

It couldn’t have been more than three or four hours before she was woken up by the sound of someone ramming against the shed door, forcing it open a few inches with a shuddering groan. She sat bolt upright and muttered a curse. For a moment her mind swam in confusion as the dream lingered. She snatched her hand away from an imagined adversary and rubbed her wrist, glancing around the room in confusion while she tried to remember who and where she was.

“Chara?” She whispered into the dark.

There was no answer. Chara had slipped into hiding, shrouding herself in dreams.

That… that had not been one of Rain’s dreams. Had that really been…?

Another loud thump disrupted her thoughts and the door skidded open. “Hello?” She rubbed at the bags under her eyes and pulled the coat a little tighter around her body. “Sans, is that you?”

“Human! There you are! I have been waiting all morning for you.”

She groaned into her hands. Yay! More complications! “Papyrus don’t you have a job to get to or something? How did you know I was in here?”

“I heard Sans open the door last night. It was very loud. When you did not come over like we planned I began to worry that maybe Sans thought I was still trying to capture you and thus locked you up in the shed for me.”

She listened to his footsteps thump across the creaking wood floor. When he marched into view he had a fuzzy green and red blanket slung over his shoulder. She had to crane her neck to look him in the eye from her spot on the floor. Good god he was tall.

“Oh dear.” His face fell into a look of shame and embarrassment when he saw her locked away on the other side of the room. “Human, I am so sorry! This place was meant to hold a dangerous human. It was never meant for someone like you. I hope you don’t think this is how I treat all of my cool friends and house guests!”

“Friends?”

“Of course! I chose to take you under my wing as both my protégé and my friend when you accepted my mercy after all, didn’t I?” He puffed out his chest. “Do not be intimidated, dear human. For although I, the Great Papyrus, am no doubt an awe-inspiring, daunting figure to behold, at the end of the day I am still just a cool dude who puts his gloves on one finger at a time like everyone else in the world!” His eyes flicked back and forth. “Well, except for ghosts. They can’t wear gloves… And slimes. They don’t have hands-” He held up a victorious hand. “-but other than that!”

She gave him a warm smile, the scar on her lip tugging one side higher than the other. “Yeah. I guess you are a pretty cool guy, Papyrus.”

“I know!” He put his hands on his hips and gave her an expectant look. “So, are you going to come inside?”

“Can’t”

“Why not?”

“Have to stay here and keep out of trouble.”

“Nonsense! With me here to guide you I guarantee you shall stay on the straight and narrow! It was my promise to help you after all.”

She grimaced. She doubted he knew the time-twisting extremes he had gone through to keep to that oath.

He finally seemed to notice the way the air between the bars was shimmering and scowled, the gaps behind his last set of teeth seeming to narrow into a concentrated line. How strange.

“What the heck is this?” He flicked the barrier with a gloved hand. His eyes widened with realization. “Oh! Oh human, I am so sorry! I had no idea he installed this. I mean, I think I remember him installing it shortly after I had finished my own master craftsmanship,“ he gestured to the bars, “but I never asked him what it was for. Oh that Sans!” He was waving his arms around in exasperation as he turned to the panel on the wall and opened it up. “He never pays attention, I swear! He wasn’t supposed to do this. Hold on. I will get you right out.”

“Uh I don’t know whether or not that’s a good-”

Click.

“-idea.”

“There. All better.” His smile was just about as wide as the bars he stepped between to meet her. He draped the blanket over her shoulders and gently helped her to her feet.

“Uh, thanks. I guess I will be going now.”

His face fell. “Going?”

“Yeah I should probably get going.”

He looked crestfallen. “Oh. I see. I understand. I mean, I thought we could hang out and be cool friends today but I should have expected that you would have other things to do. Everyone says humans are very important after all so I suppose it only makes sense that you have to go do a lot of very important significant activates today. Alone. Without me.”

Damn, the gangly little marshmallow could sure twist her heart. She wanted nothing more than to tell him she would be his friend and do whatever things cool skeleton friends do when they hang out together but it was best to cut him off now while she still could. She patted him on the shoulder. “Sorry. It’s just not a good idea for me to be here, ya know?” She stifled a yawn. “I’m not good luck.”

“Nonsense! Everyone in the Underground talks about how a single human soul could save us all. With a soul as powerful as yours I imagine you are tons of good luck!”

She kept smiling as she brushed past him and slipped out the door. “Well, anyway, thanks for letting me out.”

He came trotting out after her, seemingly oblivious to her attempts to break things off. “Are you going to go through Waterfall?”

“No other way for me to go really.”

“And then to the king’s castle?”

She pressed her lips into a bitter line. “Eventually.” Not that she was entirely sure what she would do when she got there.

“Ok. I will let Undyne know you are coming.”

She spun around on her heels. “No, no, no, no. No Undyne.”

“But she knows Waterfall like the back of her own hand! And she’s really brave and strong, like you. You would love her! Also, she’s the Captain of the Royal Guard so once I explain that you are a good human and not a bad one, she could make sure no one tries to bother you on your way to see the king!”

“Trust me. It won’t work out that way.” One of her scars twinged at the thought of running into The Underground’s heroine again. She rubbed at mark on her left side where a blow had narrowly missed her soul and grazed her ribs on more than one occasion. “And I’m not a fan of surprise body piercings.” She added under her breath.

He scowled at her, oblivious. “Um, ok. Well at least let me call my brother. I’m pretty sure he has several stations that you will be passing by anyway and-”

“Hah! No thanks. I’m not in the mood for shish-kabobs either.”

His frown deepened. “Okayyyy. I don’t know what those are?”

She grimaced. So far her attempts at a non-crazy sounding conversation were not going well. She had to remember that most people couldn’t hear her internal thought process and instantly understand her out-of-timeline references. “I will be fine on my own.”

He was starting to look rather distraught now. “Maybe I should go with you. You still look really tired. Do humans need to take lots of naps? Sometimes I have to carry my brother while he’s napping. Perhaps I can do the same for you.”

Her eye twitched. “Let’s not.”

He put his hands on his hips in exasperation. “Human I am very worried about you. You don’t look well and your clothes are dirty and full of holes. If you are not going to stay here and let me help you then the least you could do is let me call someone else so they can look out for you on my behalf!”

She stood there for a moment. Her outward appearance was of someone deep in thought but internally, she was just screaming oddly creative curses out of frustration. Her eye twitched a little more. “Fine. If I stay for a few hours and sleep inside will you let me go without telling anyone?”

He held out his hand. He was all smiles again. “Deal!”

She didn’t so much shake his hand as just sort of limply slap it before plodding over to the house and nudging the door open with her foot.

Lucky for her Chara seemed to still be sequestered away inside her old memories without showing any signs of waking up.

She cast a sleepy eye across the room. The carpet’s colors hurt her eyes.

Papyrus gave her a little nudge forward when she lingered in the doorway. “Go ahead and make yourself at home. Go on, don’t be shy. Oh, and wipe your feet please.”

She grunted her compliance. “Where do you want me?”

“Go wherever you want. My brother usually prefers to sleep on the couch. I can’t imagine why. There is always a rogue spring that digs into my hip whenever I try it.”

She collapsed onto the couch. Sure enough there was a rogue spring waiting for her.

Papyrus started to rattle off a list of the things in the house. “See that? That’s my brother’s pet rock. But I’m the one that always has to feed it. And over there is our trash can. I have a friend on the Undernet who always talks about visiting the trash. I don’t know why though. But if that’s your thing you can visit it whenever you like!” He carried on like this for several minutes. Most of it was just white noise to her. She didn’t feel like admitting that she had broken into this place a few times in the past and was already familiar with her surroundings, if not the stories behind them.

She had never been able to worm her way into their garage though. Chara had torn the house apart on multiple occasions trying to find the right key but had had no such luck. The cluttered state of Sans’s room usually put her in a bad mood and caused her leave early.

Rain’s eyebrow twitched in thought as she recalled her misadventures in Sans’s room. The place was a dump wrapped in an enigma: full of strange things that made no sense.

He also had a surprising amount of fanfiction drafts for something called Earthbound.

She soon buried all of her questions about Sans’s room, it was a place she didn’t want to draw attention to in case Chara woke up.

Papyrus was still twittering on about his home, his brother and various other stories while Rain inched closer and closer to sleep- only to have it pulled out from under her like a rug when Papyrus turned on the TV. Blaring music and flashing lights assaulted her senses with all the elegant subtlety of a bottle full of firecrackers. She jerked back into a full state of awareness and fell off the couch with an undignified squawk amidst a graceless act of flailing of limbs.

“Oh, sorry. Let me just turn down the volume.”

Rain glared at the screen as a familiar shape wheeled out onto the set and began to introduce the show with an overly loud, grandiose voice. The amount of flashing lights on display were enough to make her worry for the first time in her life about the dangers of epilepsy and whether it was something she could spontaneously develop. She was only a few seconds into the show and already she was on the verge of getting a headache.

Papyrus turned the volume down by half, explaining that Sans always seemed to like keeping the TV on when he slept as he offered her a blanket.

When he wandered back into the kitchen she tugged the blanket low over her eyes and crawled off into a corner where the arm of the couch obstructed her view of the flashing lights. She pressed her back against the wall and tried to drown out Mettaton’s voice.

She didn’t have particularly strong feelings about the entertainment bot one way or the other but Chara seemed to have a thing against him and she began to worry that the show would wake her up.

“Are you hungry? I know Sans took you to Grillby’s but if you are still in need of some proper food I made plenty of Friendship spaghetti while I was waiting for you to get back. I also have…” He hummed in concentration as he checked several containers, “Work Ethic Celebration spaghetti, Midnight Spaghetti and Cooking Lesson spaghetti.”

She could hear him shuffling things around in the kitchen. She idly wondered what the difference was between friendship spaghetti and normal spaghetti. Also why did he only have spaghetti?

“I hope you like sprinkles!”

Oh. Sprinkles. The difference was sprinkles.

Papyrus made a distressed sort of whining Nyeh that reached her from the kitchen. “Oh dear. I forgot I left the microwave out in the snow!” He strode back into the room with a container of congealed sauce, sprinkles and wadded up noodles. “We will just have to eat it cold!” He paused and tilted his head when he found that his guest had wandered from the couch. He spotted her huddled up in the corner with the blanket draped over her head. “Human, are you alright?”

She watched his boots from under the hem of the blanket as he quietly strode across the room and crouched down next to her. “Are you feeling ok?”

This was weird. All of this was weird. Weird and scary. What even was this? How was she supposed to function in a timeline where she didn’t know what was going to happen? She forced a smile. “I’m fine.”

He set the container down on the arm of the couch and halved the volume on his show again. “Are you sure? You can tell me the truth. The Great Papyrus is a fantastic listener.”

She ducked her head and sighed. “No. I’m not.”

She could hear his phalanges drumming against his knees as he processed this. He got back to his feet and went upstairs. A minute later he dropped a pile of blankets at her feet. Then he was gone again, hurrying across the room without a word and returning with a chair tucked under each arm.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s alright. Don’t get up.” He wedged the chairs in around her and began draping blankets over them, tucking the stray ends into the couch cushions until she found herself sitting in the back of a tiny makeshift fort. When he was done he knelt down by the entrance and pushed back the curtain to give her a smile. “There. Is that any better?”

She smiled a little. Actually, it sort of was a little better this way. “Yeah.”

“Can I come in?”

She drew her legs up under her and considered this. He shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be here. It was dangerous. But she felt like she had a good hold on Chara and she ached to have some friendly company for once. “If you want.”

His little smile broadened and he crawled inside, sitting down so that they were shoulder to shoulder. He was tall enough that the moment he sat down he became the center tent pole of their little fort.To her surprise, he managed to keep his voice fairly soft when next he spoke. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about what’s wrong?” He was drumming his fingers against his leg again, little soft clacking notes.

She shrugged.

“You remind me of Sans a little.” He crossed his arms and huffed. “He tries to act like nothing bothers him but I know that’s not always true. Some days he does what you are doing now and won’t say anything.” He held the blanket-ceiling up with a forearm so he could look down at her. “So on those days, we do this. I think it makes him feel better to have a safe spot… I hope it helps.”

She nodded a little.

“Just remember Human, its ok to be sad sometimes. What’s important is that when life gets you down you eventually find a way to stand back up again! And now that you have me as your friend, I will always be there for you!”

“Papyrus, can I ask you something?”

“Of course!”

“What made you decide to try and help me when you knew I could hurt you?”

He opened his mouth and took a deep breath like he was about to blurt out the most obvious answer in the world but the wind seemed to get caught in his chest. He slowly closed his mouth and lowered his arm, causing the blanket to sag around his head.“Well, if I told you, I'm afraid it would sound rather silly. So you must promise not to laugh.”

“I promise.”

“Well you see, I try not to sleep if I can avoid it. I don’t like the dreams I usually have.” He rubbed at his arms, seeming insecure for a split second. “And I can be much more productive by staying awake! But alas, a nap got the better of me recently. I had a dream just the other night about meeting a human.” He frowned to himself in an attempt to recall the details. “I don’t remember very much of the dream. But I remember that the human I met was very frightened. Naturally, I was trying to capture them so I could be part of the Royal Guard. But they were afraid of the Guard and thought Undyne would hurt them.” He bowed his head in a hint of shame. “Alas, I was so caught up in my own excitement that I did not see that the human was scared and needed help. I think they wanted to be friends... I was not a very good friend to them in the dream.”

She bunched up wads of blanket between her fingers and picked at the lint. She strained to keep her voice even. “Then what happened?”

“Um, then I woke up! Nyeh heh!”

“…Ah.” Then he had died.

“Like I said, I don’t remember much about the dream. But that sense of regret lingered for quite some time. And then lo and behold- my brother said that you were coming to Snowdin! I thought to myself: Papyrus, this is no coincidence! This is destiny! Truly this dream is a warning. This human must need guidance and friendship and it is your job to be that friend!”

“Were there… any other dreams?”

“A few.” He admitted with a sad note. “But I wouldn’t give up on the human in those dreams. Even if they had given up on themselves.” He looked down at her and bumped her with his shoulder. “And now I won’t give up on you.” He laughed a little and rested his back against the wall. His spine and armor made scraping sounds against the wall but she ignored it.

“I must admit Human, I am glad you turned out the way you are. You kind of scared me at first.” He tucked his chin up against his collarbone. “Sans said some not-so-nice things about you. And in the dark you did look rather intimidating. I was afraid you wouldn’t listen when you ran up to me like that.”

Rain felt like she was going to drown in guilt. She had killed him several times before she had been able to throw away that horrible fire poker. She had thrown herself into the ice cold river to wash away the dust several times.

When she finally managed to stop the blow, her legs gave out and he caught her. “Wowie!” He said, nearly breathless as he tried to hold her up. In the end they both fell to their knees. “You didn’t do a violence!” He spluttered.

Rain gave a strangled cry, feeling the iron hot in her hand as the tip remained angled down at his back, her arm shaking with the effort to hold back the strike. Letting go felt as draining as trying to move the entire mountain but at long last she threw the weapon into the snow behind him. Free at last of its cold weight, she clung to him and sobbed.

She could feel his warm breath against her ear as he held her. His arms were shaking. His whole body was shaking. It was so bad that she could hear his bones rattling.

He had known the dangers all along. He had not been naive. He had not been oblivious. He had been acting, putting on a brave face because he had to. Every time he did this he had known the risks. He was scared. Yet for some reason he had refused to run. He always refused to abandon her.

Chara can called him Forgettable.

Chara had been wrong.

“Me too.” She whispered. “It scared me too.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. Papyrus seemed content to sit there and be her tent pole for as long as she needed him.

Rain shifted positions and stuck her legs out in front of her.

Papyrus frowned when he saw the state of her shoes. Her toes were poking out of the sides. “Oh my god! Human, I was not aware of the poor state of your shoes!”

She cracked an eye open and wiggled her toes at him. “Oh yeah. I think one of the dogs did that on the way over.” She said through a yawn.

Papyrus made a knowing tsk. “Oh I know how that is.” He folded his arms and pouted. “Always gnawing on your bones, pillaging your sink cabinets, chewing on your sexy action figures- stealing your laser skulls!”

She snorted. At least she wasn’t the only one spouting nonsense now. “Is that so?”

“It can slip through the gap under the doors you know!” He tapped at her shoe with his own. “They will probably be too big but I can lend you a pair of my boots if you’d like.”

She jerked awake. “No! God no! Never again!”

Papyrus balked at her violent reaction. She looked ready to bolt. “Human, calm down! It was just an offer. If you don’t think you can pull off the color then I won’t take it personally. Not everyone can look this good in orange. I’m just worried about you.”

She pushed herself towards the exit. “I should go.”

His face fell in defeat. “Am I not being a good host?”

She bit her lip. A track of eternal frustrated screaming was playing in her head again. “No. It’s not that. I just-” She fell back into her original spot. “I could still hurt you, ok? And don’t ever offer me shoes again.” She was rubbing at her eyes. “It brings back bad memories.”

He draped an arm around her and pulled her into a one armed hug. “Ok. I’m sorry Human. It won’t happen again.”

“Rain.”

“Hm?”

“You can call me Rain. If you want.”

“Ah. Rain. That is a pretty name!”

“I don’t like it every much.”

“Why not? Weather is super cool! My brother always talks about wanting to see the stars but personally I think seeing a thunderstorm would be neato!” He looked up at the ceiling with a wistful look in his eye, as if he could see through the roof of his home and the nearly unending layers of stone above them to enjoy the nearly forgotten sky above. “Sometimes if I’m having a boring day I like to think about how even though it can’t rain here, it must be raining somewhere else and how cool that must be. Then I feel much better!”

She rested her head against his shoulder. “Yeah, well, storms are not always good. Sometimes they destroy things. People get hurt... I have done a lot of bad things with this name.”

“Well, I bet you could still do a lot of good things with your name too if you tried. Maybe the reason you see so much dark is just because bright lights cast strong shadows!” He rested his head against hers. “I can see still the good in you. I believe in you, Rain. You can make your name great.”

“Like the Great Papyrus?”

His jaw twitched with a content little smile. “Exactly.”