Rap-pa-tat

Rap-pa-tat

Rap-pa-tat

Rap-pa-tat

Sans idly drummed his fingers against the dark, oak, kitchen table as he eyed down a spot on the wall that seemed to hold his attention more than the ruckus that was going on in the kitchen.

Papyrus ran around the small kitchen, seeming to be trying to make spaghetti and pancakes, while Toriel chased him around, trying to keep the kitchen from burning down. Frisk sat next to him, watching attentively as the other two ran around the kitchen and Flowey was seated at the window sill, right behind Sans' head, looking out the window, seeming to be bored.

They made it to the surface.

Sans frowned. He should be happy.

But he was anything but that.

Yeah, maybe they did get their happy ending finally, but boy did that kid like messing with him before.

Sans glanced behind himself to the flower, who was the only other person he was aware of that knew about the time shenanigans besides Frisk. He recalled Flowey saying over and over again that if he had any power left; as he lost all of his after Frisk fought him the final time; he would have killed Frisk by now. For a flower without a soul, he sure seemed steamed about the whole five genocides in a row before going pacifist thing.

Frisk giggled, watching Papyrus dancing around Toriel, his booming voice declaring that she was making the pancakes all wrong.

Sans rolled his eye-lights. He knew he was building up too much frustration. By now the sound of the child's voice was like nails on a chalkboard to him. It was all he could do not to snap and kill that thing.

you made a promise. His own conscience echoed in his head. keep yourself together.

He held in a breath, in an attempt to suffocate the temptation. Hell, it was literally right next to him, with low health. That's considering if he'd even want to attack it with magic. For crying out loud, his nails were sharp enough to cut right through flesh if he wanted to.

He drummed his finger a bit louder. c'mon, stop havin' creepy thoughts about killin' a kid.

"Sans?" Frisk asked quietly.

The skeleton immediately dug his nails into his own bone. It hurt, but it was the only way to keep his anger in check, "'sup, kid?"

Frisk looked at him concerned, "You've been acting weird since we got to the surface three months ago, are you okay?"

"never better." He answered simply, leaning back in his chair, ignoring what he read to be mock concern on the creature's face.

Frisk frowned, "You're a horrible liar."

He simply paid no attention to them, shoving his hands into his pants pockets, as he did not have his usually blue hoodie on at the moment.

"Why won't you talk to me?" The human asked, slightly irritated.

Sans gave them a side glance, "i'm talkin' to ya right now. there ya go."

Frisk puffed out a breath, standing up from their seat, hovering over Sans. Even if he was standing and not sitting, at this point they would still be lingering over him, as they hit a growth spurt over the last three months. They crossed their arms, "Sans, all you do is ignore me. I know there's something wrong, and you're not saying anything. Why don't you trust me?"

Sans forced himself to stay seated, and not say a word, putting his hands back onto the table. He could feel himself boiling over the edge. He just wanted them to stop talking.

They looked at him bitterly, "I care about you Sans, if something's wrong, just say it. I want what's best for everyone. I know what I did was wrong, and I'm sorry. But it doesn't matter anymore. No one else remembers, so it doesn't matter. No one was really hurt, I fixed it."

"what?" Sans asked hollowly, his voice almost sounded as if it echoed.

Frisk sighed, "It doesn't matter. Everyone is alive now, no one is hurt anymore."

No one is hurt?

No one is hurt?!

Flowey looked over, watching the skeleton intently. He could tell he was fuming, he'd been through enough resets with just him and the trashbag to the point where he could read his expressions pretty well. He smirked. It seemed the smiley trashbag needed a bit more of a push.

Flowey leaned in, ignoring Frisk's confused look, whispering next to Sans, "Did you hear that, your brother's death 'doesn't matter'. Bet they would kill him again just for fun if you don't do something."

There was a high pitched scrap, drawing all the attention in the room to Sans who had just dug his sharp, nail-like fingers, into the soft wood of the table.

Toriel and Papyrus exchanged a quick worried glance, before the much larger goat woman chirped, "My friend, are you al-" Her and Papyrus' eyes shot wide at what he did next.

Out of nowhere, Sans sprung from the seat, swiftly grabbing Frisk by the collar and slamming them into the wall.

Frisk yelped in surprised, staring down at him. He twisted their collar in his hands, so that their own shirt was nearly choking them. Frisk held their breath, watching the skeleton's chest rise and fall rapidly, a near insane, mad, gleam in his usual lazy eye-lights.

"what the hell did you just say?!" He growled, staring into the child's now wide, frightened, eyes.

Sans suddenly felt someone strong grab his shoulders, ripping him away from the child. He wriggled his body in a manner that allowed him to quickly escape, just to be grabbed again, this time being held against the wall himself.

"BROTHER!?" Papyrus yelled, confusing lacing his voice as he sturdily held Sans to the wall. He locked his eyes with Sans', as if he was trying to read what was going on in his mind, "WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU LATELY!?"

Papyrus noticed Sans' behavior, he wasn't as illiterate as he let people believe. About a month ago, Sans had started pushing himself away from him. His overall mood becoming more callous and irritable. And recently, everything had started getting worse. Luckily, Sans had never lashed out towards him before, which Papyrus was grateful for, but he would watch his brother do it to other people, the most likely subject being Frisk.

Papyrus looked over at the two being to his side. They both were looking at sans as if he was some cynical beast. He felt a tinge of frustration, wishing with all his soul that their faces weren't portraying how they actually felt towards his older sibling.

He knew his older brother was a good person. He was a really good person. But lately he had not been anywhere near himself. He held back his crazed, distraught, sibling, looking him in the eye, as if it would be a window for him to see what on earth had made him so... different lately.

He just wanted his older brother back to normal.

Toriel ran to her child, pulling them close to her side, staring at Sans in horror and betrayal, her fur standing on end, "Sans, what in the heavens do you think you were doing!?" Frisk ducked behind Toriel, hugging their adoptive mother tightly.

An unimaginable amount of anger was rushing through Sans. He was angry at his brother for holding him back, angry at Toriel for not understanding, angry at Flowey just for the amount of shit he had put him through in the past, angry at Frisk for nearly everything they had done, but most of all he was pissed at himself.

The amount of self loathing that went through him on a daily basis was suffocating.

He didn't even care anymore.

Sans squirmed, "i don't know! how 'bout you ask the homicidal maniac you're protectin'!!" He snapped, not being able to think before the venomous words spilled from his mouth as his mind was too clouded to even realize he was talking about the resets.

Frisk looked at Toriel in wide eyed innocence, playing dumb to the subject.

Toriel marched up to the two brothers, looking Sans in the eye, "Young man, have you lost your mind?! What are you talking about, my child didn't harm a single monster. Frisk, do you know what he's talking about?" She looked to her child.

Frisk shook their head 'no'.

Sans' eyelights left his eye-sockets as he looked down at Frisk, they knew exactly what he was talking about, "you lyin' little-!"

He quickly jabbed his brother in the ribs with his foot, hoping to free himself, only for Papyrus to gulp down the pain, then use his whole body and strength to hold him flat against the wall. "Sans. Stop." Papyrus said firmly, his voice murmuring lower than usually as his face was no more than a millimeter away from his brother's.

Sans felt his own frantic rib-cage, push against his brother's chest plate for air as he was pinned securely to the wall.

Papyrus noticed his brother's panicked breathing.

Toriel's snout wrinkled in an angered confusion "Sa-" Toriel was immediately cut off by Papyrus.

"Brother, breathe." He said, his voice remaining calm. He glanced towards Toriel, "Your majesty," Papyrus began, "I believe it would be best if you took the human away." Papyrus heard Sans growl under his breath at that, but ignored him. He couldn't just let them stay in the same room or else one of them was going to get hurt.

Toriel looked at the usually loud skeleton shocked, not expecting him to suddenly take on such a calm approach. She took a step back, deciding not to interfere, grabbing Flowey's pot and her child's hand, leading them out of the room.

Sans didn't appear to be any more calm than before. His soul buzzing around his cavity, frantically trying to find a way to get back to the 'human'.

Papyrus' eyes suddenly began to glow, "Sans, look at me."

Sans looked toward his brother, before he subconsciously started glowing his eye back.

"Please... you need to calm down," Papyrus begged, "Brother, I don't know what has gotten into you lately, but it's been scaring me." Papyrus looked at his brother pleadingly, "Sans, I, as great as I am, can't help you unless you calm down."

Sans looked at his brother. Papyrus could have sworn he saw his brother grin drop before almost instantly being put back to his neutral smile. A tinge of guilt was held in his eye-lights as his breathing slowly began to steady.

Papyrus hesitantly loosened his grip on his older sibling, wary of him possibly trying to run and attack the human again. He was also quite concerned by what could have cause Sans to attack Frisk for seemingly no reason. He was aware Sans wasn't in exactly the best mindset at the moment, but he hadn't expected him to attack anyone for no reason.

Papyrus loosened enough for Sans to easily escape if he wanted to.

But he didn't.

He didn't move at all.

He appeared to be in an empty trance, not looking away from his brother.

Papyrus leaned his forehead into his brother's, holding eye contact with him, "I am going to put you down, brother." He said quietly, as if he was afraid if he spoke too loud, Sans was going to go haywire again.

He gently placed Sans on the ground, so his feet were touching the floor, before letting go of his shoulders, kneeling down in front of him.

Sans didn't say anything, instead he glance to the side,his brows knitting slightly together as he subconsciously put his hands into his pants pockets.

Papyrus gave Sans the most encouraging smile he could as he spoke, "Brother, I want to know what happened. I know you're a good person and I believe in you but I also believe both I and lady Toriel would like to know your side of what happened."

His older sibling didn't look towards him, and instead just shrugged, "sorry, bro, guess i'm just havin' a bad day."

Papyrus frowned, "Sans, I know that can't be why you'd attack them. You've had bad days with me and not once did you ever do that."

"it's nothin', alright? i just-..." Sans looked down sighing, "i don' know how to explain."

"Can you try?" Papyrus asked hopefully.

The smaller being brows furrows, "no, i-... i can't. sorry but-.... i think i'm just gonna go to grillby's." He walked away from in front of his brother, grabbing his coat off the back of one of the dining room chairs.

Papyrus stood up, immediately opposing of the idea, "BUT-"

"i'll deal with tori and the kid later." He said firmly, "see ya." He turned the corner, walking away.

Papyrus quickly ran to follow him, looking into the hall only to find him gone. He clenched his teeth together, sighing. He didn't understand why Sans would always do that. Every time he would try to talk to him, he'd head straight to that greasy diner.

He gulped, knowing he'd have to explain to Toriel where Sans had gone, dreading the fact that she wasn't going to be happy with him when he returned.

Longfully, Papyrus stared in the direction his brother disappeared off into. Wishing with all his might, one thing.

That he would stop running away.