The Time Before (Undertale)

28 ~ Fourth Soul

Within his first few days, Papyrus came to love preschool. Every day when Sans went to drop him off, he would hug Sans tightly, say goodbye, and then race off to his friends. Every day when Sans came to pick him up, he would linger around his friends until Sans called to him, and then the entire walk home would be filled with Papyrus's voice as he told Sans about his day.

And Sans would listen, and sometimes add a comment or ask a question. Papyrus would always respond with the same cheerful enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, Sans' little hotdog business was doing well. Once or twice a Royal Guard member had come by to shut it down, on the premise that he had never applied for a permit to open a business. But monsters were sympathetic creatures, and when he explained that he needed the money to support himself and his baby brother, they usually decided that he really wasn't doing any harm or anything, and sometimes even bought a few hotdogs.

But it really was pulling in the gold. By now, he was almost completely paying the rent for the room himself.

He hadn't seen Gaster anymore, either. And as much as he was glad that Gaster wasn't a problem anymore, and as much as he wanted to hate the monster for what he had done, Sans found that he was worried about the Royal Scientist. He had seen the deadness in Gaster's eyes. The tiredness in his face. And as much as he tried to push it down, that worry kept cropping up.

But, time went on. Sans turned nineteen. Papyrus turned four. Next year, when he turned five, he would be able to enroll in kindergarten. He was excited about that.

Sans, meanwhile, wasn't. Papyrus was only four inches shy of four feet tall. Sans didn't want his little brother growing up so fast. He didn't want Papyrus to be as tall as he was. He didn't want Papyrus to reach the point where Sans couldn't carry him around anymore, or have Papyrus curl up in his lap. He wanted his little brother to stay his little brother, to stay the innocent little child he was.

But Papyrus wouldn't. Stop. Growing.

Sans supposed he'd just have to settle for an arm around Papyrus's shoulders.

~o0o~

Sans was going to pick up Papyrus when he heard the shout.

"A human!! A human is coming this way! Everyone run! A human!"

He looked forward. The preschool was just six blocks away along the main road.

The human was coming this way. The preschool would be right in their path. Papyrus would be right in their path.

Sans remembered the dust on the human's hands in Waterfall, all those years ago.

Thought about how he was meant to be a weapon, and how Papyrus's dust might end up on the human's hands if he didn't do something.

How his dust had almost gotten on the previous human's hands.

The streets had gone empty astoundingly fast. Sans glanced over his shoulder. The doors to the preschool were closed, likely locked, but Sans knew that if the human wanted into there, they were getting in.

Unless he did something to stop them.

He looked back down the street. The human was there, now.

Suddenly, Sans was standing at the Waterfall entrance. The human. Dust on their hands. Reaching for him. His dust on their hands.