The day went by slowly, and to the two sitting on the couch, it seemed like time hadn’t passed at all. It seemed like the clock had stopped ticking, the race to get to the next day was on pause and it was just them, there in that moment. They're fingers laced loosely together, both of them chatting about everything to nothing. Before they knew what hit them, the day was almost over and the guests were starting to leave, tuckered out, filled with pie and tea, and ready for a nap. Papyrus saw them off, thanking them for coming and the wonderful time and looked at the two on the couch, just chatting away. Another pang of sadness hit Papyrus’ soul, why couldn’t his brother talk to him like that? Talk to him so freely, without worry, without walls that blocked him out so often. Papyrus quickly shook his head and smiled, “Brother! Outer! The guests have left! Will you be staying for dinner!” Papyrus cheered placing a hand on his puffed-out chest. Outer looked at Papyrus and then the empty house, he quickly glanced at Sans. 

“Sure Orange, thanks for inviting me!” Outer smiled looking back to Papyrus for a short moment. 

Papyrus quickly nodded, “Why of course! I am the great Papyrus after all!” Papyrus stated rather proudly and quickly left to the kitchen to cook dinner. Sans laughed and smiled at his leaving brother, his laugh was so carefree and his smile without worry. Outer chuckled and smiled softly, everything was great! Everything was amazing and peaceful, Sans hummed softly, the ache in his bones slowly coming back. Outer gave Sans a worried look seeing his smile suddenly drop, 

“Classic-” 

“Sorry, my bones just hurt,” Sans whispered slowly pulling his hand away rubbing his legs trying to ease the pain. Outer sighed and rubbed Sans back, of course, how could he forget, this sickness, this horrible, horrible sickness that's trying to pull away the love of his life. Outer laid back on the couch and pulled Sans to just chest hoping that relaxing would soothe the pain. Of course, that would never work, Sans would still be in pain, but this. This would make HIM feel better, to not have to look at Sans while he's sick, to just keep the memory of him being so lively and happy. That's what he wanted back do badly, for Sans to be well and not sick anymore, it may be selfish but that's just what he wanted, for Sans to be okay. Why did Sans have to be the one to get sick? Why couldn’t he get sick? Why of all the skeletons did it have to be Sans? He couldn't figure it out for the life of him, but if he could, he'd switch roles in a heartbeat. 

---

“Outer! Look! Look at that!” Sans’ voice rang out, his tone was so cheerful, excitement rung clearly in his tone. Outer looked when Sans had pointed, looking at the sky, shooting stars raining past, the smile on Sans’ face would be something Outer would never forget. The glimmer in his eye and the excitement in his voice the way he seemed to bounce around like a child on Christmas day. 

Outer chuckled and smiled, “Yeah! It's beautiful... But! Not as beautiful as you!” Outer chuckled and nuzzled Sans' cheek who laughed and gently pushed his face away. 

“Ew! I can taste the cheese, just make a wish silly!” Sans spoke breathlessly, smiling at the skeleton next to him, a smile just grew on Outer's skull. 

“Why would I do that when everything I want is right here?” laughter quickly filled the quiet void. 

“I love you!”

"Goofball."

---

“Outer...Outer!” Sans hissed softly waving a hand in front of Outer’s face. 

Outer jolted, “Whoops. Spaced out there, sorry.” he chuckled nervously, Sans huffed and sighed he was back to rubbing his legs. As if that would get rid of the pain he felt, Outer was sure that it didn't help but he wouldn't dare say anything about it.  

“It’s fine, but dinner’s almost done, did you not hear a word anyone was saying?” Outer shook his head slowly his nervousness growing. 

Sans rolled his eye lights and sat up, “Well, as I was saying, I was thinking maybe I should start taking pictures?” Sans spoke slowly unsure of the idea.

Outer just smiled and nodded quickly, “That’s a great idea! I have a camera I could give you!” 

Sans snorted, “You still have that old thing?” 

Outer's smile became a lazy grin, “Of course I do! It was expensive I’ll have you know.” Outer chuckled. 

---

“Say planets!” Outer chuckled as Sans smiled at him, standing on the edge of a floating island. He held an expensive-looking camera in his hands, he moved the lens around a few times and then gave a thumbs up. 

“Planets!” Sans cheered; the flash of the camera went off blinding the two for a moment. As soon as Sans' vision cleared, he quickly bounded to Outer and looked over his shoulder. He watched as Outer flicked through a gallery of photos on the camera stopping on the one he just took. A smile grew on his face at the sight of the pretty sky behind him. 

“You next! We have to get another picture!” Sans spoke quickly, excitement lacing his voice. He took the camera from Outer gently ready to take more than just a few pictures.  

---

“Alright! I’ll start taking pictures then! That way, I have something to do if I’m in the hospital again.” Sans hummed as he got up, he seemed sluggish in his movements, the ache in his bones must be getting to him. 

Outer chuckled and nodded suppressing the sigh he wanted to let out. “Sounds good! I’ll bring my camera over sometime!” Outer encouraged, just as Papyrus popped his head out of the kitchen. 

“Dinner’s ready!” he stated proud as ever, he walked out of the kitchen with two plates of spaghetti. He gave one plate to Sans and the other to Outer before running to the kitchen and back again. This time he came out with two purple pills and a glass of water. He held them out for Sans to take, Sans used one hand to hold his plate and took the pills quickly. He tossed the pills back like a deprived drug addict and grabbed the glass of water downing it all with the pills. Papyrus gave Sans a worried look like he wanted to say something but couldn't. Sans sighed and handed the glass back to Papyrus who smiled softly. Sans sat next to Outer again and started to eat slowly, Outer sighed and began to eat as well, Papyrus quickly joined them, and the chatter started back up again. It was just happiness, nothing bad, no 'what if’s' or anything, just recalling of memories and sweet words. It was one of the better nights they’ve had, and one they wouldn’t soon forget. 

---

Sans groaned and slowly woke up in his bed, that’s weird, he doesn’t remember falling asleep. Sans groaned again and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his skull, he sighed and slowly got up. He didn’t bother to stretch or anything, he just got up and left his room, the house was dark and quiet. It must be late judging by the lack of sound coming from the kitchen. Sans wandered downstairs slowly, hating each step that would only make his bones ache more. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he sighed and wandered into the kitchen, on reflex he walked to the fridge and opened it, grabbing the ketchup, taking the cap off and drinking the ketchup straight from the bottle. It felt amazing to finally have his ketchup back again. He quickly finished off that bottle and grabbed another closing the fridge and tossing the empty bottle into the trash. He walked to the couch and sat down drinking the second bottle of ketchup, he stared at the blank TV for a moment, the ache in his bones growing. 

“Why did I have to get sick,” he whispered, he leaned back into the couch, the more he stared into darkness the more tired he felt, the more sadness he felt as well. Sans sighed heavily and threw back what was left in the ketchup bottle and dropped in on the floor. He rubbed his face trying to focus, stay focused, trying to ignore the intrusive thoughts running through his head. He groaned softly the pain starting to get to him, everything slowly just started to hurt, and the more he tried to focus the more pain he was in. Sans rubbed his legs again, trying to get the pain to stop, he hated this more than anything, he hated being sick, he hated that his brother had to take care of him! He hated himself for getting sick! He HATED all of this! Why did he even have to get sick in the first place!? Sans took a deep breath trying to calm down, his head began to spin with thoughts, now that he thinks about it, he never really gave himself time to think about how he felt or what he thought on the matter. He was always just trying to do something to get his mind of it. He was always busy doing tests, sleeping, talking to friends, taking medicine, drawing, talking to doctors... When did he just finally take a moment to rest? Sans started to tear up, the pressure of what was going on finally setting it. And the more he thought about it the more he hated it and hated himself, the more he wished it would just be over and he could sleep again.

“Everyone needs me to get better! …And what a-am I doing…? Just SITTING here...drinking ketchup…!” Sans whimpered tears filling the corners of his eyes. He wiped them away and took in a shaky breath. He has to get better; he just has to everyone's counting on him. It’ll be his fault if everyone dies along with him, he’s been making everyone worry and for what?! Sans rubbed his face more, “This is… all my fault.” He whispered and laid on the couch, “This is...all because of me.” he mumbled, no longer trying to stop the tears, he closed his eyes and let the pain take over, pushing him over his limit, he was going to die what was even the point anymore!? He’s the most useless monster in the multiverse so why him!? Why does everything have to depend on him!? 

Sans took a deep breath trying to calm down, trying to stop these thoughts but he just couldn’t, he couldn’t stop them, they wouldn’t stop coming. They JUST kept coming! 

Sans gave up, just laying there, tears filling his eyes and spilling down his face. He truly felt weak and worthless at this very moment. Sans didn’t hear the creak of a door over his small sobs and whimpers. He wasn’t listening for the quiet footsteps that patted down the stairs, and he surely wasn’t expecting arms to wrap around him and pull him into a hug. 

“It’s okay brother.” The soft voice of his younger brother broke his thoughts, broke him into his reality, Sans quickly hugged his brother back. Wanting this feeling of being grounded back into reality and the feeling of being okay again. “It’s going to be okay Sans…” Papyrus whispered hugging his brother close, of course, the reality set on both of them, it wasn’t just Sans who had to deal with this, it was both of them! Sans sobbed and shook, he choked on his tears as he tried to sob out sorries for being weak. For being sick. But Papyrus wouldn’t have it, no, he understood, his brother isn’t the strongest anymore. He finally understands that his brother isn't a superhero, that he gets sick too, and it was up to him to help his brother get stronger again, to help his brother feel better again. “It’s just a cold Sans...it’ll be over before you know it. Remember.” Papyrus whispered with a shaky voice, Sans seemed to stop for a moment, he nodded slowly, 

“Yeah...Just a cold bro... just a cold,” he whispered back, 

“Everything will be okay.”   

---

Papyrus slowly opened his eyes, the weight of his older brother pushed him into the couch. Papyrus sighed and slowly sat up laying Sans on the couch, he quickly got dress, made breakfast left some out for Sans and left for work. He had to make money, somehow right? How else would they pay for Sans' treatment and medicine? He just wishes this would end soon so that he can once again spend his days at home with his brother. Soon, very soon, everything would be back to normal and no matter what anyone says Papyrus will never let go of this hope. Papyrus puffed out his chest and fixed his scarf and set out to work. He stomped through the snow happily all the way to Undyen’s and pushed on through the day. They were going to make it no matter what came their way, and nothing can stop them! After all, they are the skeleton brothers. And nothing or anyone can stop the skeleton brothers, not even a thousand humans sent to kill them. They’re unstoppable! And after all this blows over Papyrus can go back home and listen to his brother make horrible puns while he cooks. Everything will be back to normal and the skeleton brothers will live on. Happily

---

Sans smiled at the note in his hands next to a plate of hot food, he had already taken the pills next to the plate and drank the glass of water. He set the note down and quickly started to eat the waffles left out for him, a large smile on his face, his tired eyes lighting up for the first time today. “Thanks, bro,” he whispered, smiling like an idiot, everything was going to be okay, everything is okay. But instead of worry, for right now, he’ll be scarfing these waffles down like no tomorrow. Just living in the moment, yeah, that’s what he needs to do. Not worry about tomorrow or what could happen, instead of living in worry he needs to live in the moment and take charge! And if these are his final moments, he’ll make the most of them!