The establishment was busy and bustling with life. Some dogs were playing solitaire, one of the dogs was getting way too close to losing all of his dog treats. The dog's distressed whining could be heard across the whole establishment. The other customers of the establishment were already used to the dogs' antics, so they weren't really bothered by the noise and kept on cheerfully conversing over their meals.

A short figure, sat on a barstool, was sipping from their tartar bottle without a single care in the world. They were a regular customer with a tab bigger than one could imagine. But they weren't ever bothered by it. After all, the bartender was their friend who they practically knew since they were little.

Who is the figure, you may ask? Well it's none other than Sans the skeleton. He has been coming to Grillby's ever since anyone could remember. There wasn't really a time when he wasn't coming in. Everyone knew the skeleton, they knew where he lived, knew where to find him most of the time, knew his favorite thing to drink. (Spoiler: tartar sauce) But the skeleton kept his personal life away from prying eyes. No one ever pushed him for an answer why, everyone deserves their privacy after all.

The skeleton took a long sip from his tartar bottle and looked up at the clock hung over the door to the bar's kitchen. The chains protruding from his back twitched in annoyance while he switched his gaze over to the bartender. Grillby. The owner of this fine establishment. ''Hey, Grillbster, I gotta tick out now.''

The bartender looked over to the skeleton and raised his metaphorical eyebrow, being a fire elemental and all did not really provide any real face, ''And the tartar?'' The skeleton chuckled lightly, ''Put it on my tab.'' The fire elemental sighed in mock annoyance, ''Of course, see you later bones for brains.''

''Later Grillbz.'' Winked the skeleton while walking out of the bar backwards. Once he got to the door he quickly opened it and told the other monsters in the establishment goodbye. The other customers of the bar told him their own forms of goodbye, while the dog who's previously been losing the game of solitaire is dominating the match now.

Sans walked through the snowy town of Snowdin towards the snowy forest, oh so originally dubbed Snowdin forest. When he was out of sight of any accidental passerbys, he teleported to his sentry station located closest to the entrance to the Ruins. He slumped onto a warm chair he had brought to his sentry station a while back. What? A guy can get cold while keeping watch for humans that never come.

A common misconception about skeleton monsters is that they do not get affected by cold or hot temperatures. Complete bullcrap if you ask Sans. Sure, he has a bigger resistance to it than other monsters, but he still does get cold. One of the reasons why he wears a thick coat over a sweater. Better to be safe than sorry.

The skeleton let out a tired sigh and closed his eye sockets. His younger brother is going to come any minute now to make sure he actually stayed at work today. Which he didn't. But the younger one doesn't need to know that.

Quick energetic stomping can be heard coming from the path to Sans' left. The skeleton cracks an eye socket open and sure enough, a tall skeleton monster comes trudging through the snowed over path. The path was most likely never seen without the huge mass of snow covering it. The tall skeleton monster trudged over to Sans' sentry station with a huge smile on his face.

'''sup Paps?'' The younger skeleton's eye sockets gleamed with undoubtable happiness and mirth. ''Do you remember how I had my Royal Guard exam a few weeks ago?'' The shorter skeleton nodded his skull. ''Well I got my results delivered today by one of the Royal Guards stationed in New Home, they came all the way from New Home to deliver my results!''. The older skeleton righted himself in his chair. ''And? What are the results?''

The younger of the two rubbed his skull sheepishly. ''I haven't actually opened it yet, I was hoping we could open it together?'' Sans smiled fondly with a mischievous spark to his eye lights. ''Shore we can bro, I don't really have much else to do tibia honest.'' The taller skeleton cringed at the pun internally, but a smile pulled at his face anyway. ''I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.'' The older of the two smirked at his younger brother playfully.

''Heh alright bro, so about those results?'' Papyrus perked up and placed the envelope with a royal seal on the desk in the sentry station. The younger opened the envelope and the older took out the paper in it and unfolded the paper carefully. He skimmed over the results with his eye lights quickly and smiled excitedly. ''So?'' The younger skeleton is fidgeting in place with nervous energy. ''What does it say Sans?''

Sans stands up from his chair with the results in hand and walks over to his brother. He smiles proudly up at him. ''You got in Paps.'' The younger skeleton squeals in excitement and strikes one of his famous poses. ''Yes! No one can reject the talents of the Great Papyrus after all!''

''You worked yourself down to the bone for this bro. No wonder you passed the exam.'' Papyrus rolled his eyes at his brother playfully, the other just shrugged and held out the results to his brother with one of his chains. ''There's also when and where you have to attend to get your Royal Guard uniform made.'' Papyrus nods along and takes the results from Sans' chain with a small thanks. He reads thoroughly through the results and looks up in a panic. ''Sans that's tomorrow!''

''Yep.''

''Sans, how am I supposed to get ready if it's tomorrow at 11am?! And in New Home nonetheless!'' Papyrus begins to devolve into panic.

''Don't worry bro, It's only around, what?'' Sans quickly tries to remember the time on the clock at Grillby's, ''Fourish in the afternoon, the lights aren't even off yet. Don't stress yourself to the bone bro, you're fine. My shift is gonna be over soon as well, so we can get home to get you prepared for the big day.'' Sans tries to walk around Papyrus to the path, but the taller skeleton abruptly stops him.

''You said soon, not that it is. Your shift ends in 5 minutes.'' Papyrus says with a dark undertone, he doesn't like it when his brother tries to get off his shift too soon. The shorter skeleton stops in his stroll. 'Crap, crap, crap.' Papyrus picks up Sans and sits him on his chair, walking to the side of the sentry station, crossing his arms afterwards. Sans just leans onto the desk in the sentry station. A silence hangs between them.

''...''

Papyrus starts humming and tapping his foot in the snow after a while.

''...''

Sans is just watching the snow peacefully fall down from seemingly nowhere. It's relaxing.

''...''

The taller skeleton sags after a while, ''Has it been 5 minutes yet?''

''Ye-'' The shorter of the two doesn't even get to finish speaking.

''Ok let's go!'' Papyrus picks his brother up, puts him on his shoulders and runs through the Snowdin forest. They pass Papyrus's sentry station, it's not that different from Sans's, Papyrus actually cleans the roof of the station every once in a while even though the snow always comes back. They pass Doggo's sentry station, said dog monster is taking a quick nap with a dog treat sticking out of his mouth. They also pass some teenagers playing in the snow, who they shout quick greetings to.

Papyrus slows down his pace once they're back to Snowdin and speed walks to their house. The other residents of the town pay them no mind and continue on with their day. The tall skeleton pushes the door of their house and steps in. Sans hops down from his younger brother's shoulders and closes the door behind them.

The older turns around to his brother who has already disappeared into the kitchen. ''Spaghetti?'' He peeks his head into the kitchen. ''You can bet on it brother.'' Papyrus says while taking a pot with spaghetti he made earlier this day out of the fridge. Sans walked over and opened a drawer where they keep their dishes, pulling out two deep plates and placing them on the kitchen unit. Papyrus took the plates and put spaghetti on them, after that he put the plates into the microwave to heat them up and make them actually edible. He isn't uncultured, mind you.

When the microwave finished reheating the spaghetti, he pulled them out and placed the two plates onto the dining table. He then turned around and Sans was praying to whoever was above that he wasn't reaching for what he thought he was reaching for. Papyrus turned around with a salt shaker that does not contain salt anymore. What does it contain? Rust. Oh please make the rust not ruin the spaghetti too much again.

The rust did in fact ruin the glorious taste of Paps' spaghetti. Sans was in his room lying on his back on a mattress now. He could still feel the rust on his tongue. His chains swiped a little, responding to his discomfort. They clanked a little against each other, startling the grumpy skeleton slightly. He sighed in annoyance and turned on his side. Say what you want, sleeping on literal chains is uncomfortable. Putting that aside, tomorrow is a big day for his brother, he has to put his act together, for Paps.

Lying on his side on the mattress, he can't help but feel like something bad is bound to happen in the near future. Probably something insignificant. Maybe Paps is gonna add more inedible things to his ingredients list. Sans sure does miss his brother's cooking before Undyne started teaching him. Who knows? It's just a stupid feeling after all. Nothing is gonna come off of it.

...right?

(Word Count: 1703)

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Hello again! Came back to this thing exactly a year later, how bonkers is that? Really sorry about that-
First of all- I SUCK AT WRITING CHARACTERS, WHAT WAS THAT INTERACTION BETWEEN SANS AND GRILLBY??? Well it gets worse before it gets better as people say.
Second of all... I tried to make the chapter longer than 1k words because I just enjoy reading a story that is longer
I hope my writing wasn't too bad for you guys!
I will be redesigning some of the characters, and make designs for the ones that don't have any *coughs* Paps *coughs*

Next chapter: We'll either have a look at the tomorrow or we'll jump more forward in time, who knows, I certanly don't
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