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"Sorry for calling so late sans. I know you must hate me, for what ive done to you back underground and what im doing now. I just wanted to hear your voice again...but i knew that would make what I'm about to do even harder. Maybe i even would of broken down and come back home...."
The message left on the stocky skeletons phone made him tremble. His hands shook like he had been lost in a blizzard for far too long. The phone he held in his left hand gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and a stab in the soul. He brought the phone in his left hand up to stare at it with teary eyes, the phone in his right hand was the one he'd recived the message on.
".... I dont know how to fix what I've broken, our relationship, i argued with myself for so long. What i should do, what i could do..."
Sans eyes could get no larger. The lights that made up his pupils had shrunk and become very dull. Tears raced down his face, he couldnt move from before the kitchen table; where he had found the phone that morning.
His thoughts raced, he didnt understand. Is that why papyrus had been so quiet since coming to the surface? Is that why neither had spoken to the other for weeks? He had thought papyrus was just in a mood, or stressed from the move.
"...So i left, sans. I know that you'll be fine without me..."
"No.." he gripped the phone tighter.
"...In the fridge is some left overs. I also. Made a weeks worth of lasagna. There are portions frozen for later, maybe you'll get off your ass for once and..."
There was a grunt, the sound of bone smacking on bone and a sigh. The faintest bit of snoring could be heard in the background to which papyrus chuckled to himself. From the sound of the laugh sans knew he had been smiling. Which in turn made sans smile a watery grin.
"Paps, please come back" the tears turned to sobs, small unexpected ones that first caught in his throat.
"....you're very important to me, sans.... brother. You're very smart, smarter than you give yourself credit for. Please. Dont come looking for me..."
"PAPYRUS" he pulled the phone away from his ear to look down on the voice message that was counting down the seconds left. Ugly sobs left him and he fell to his knees, still gripping both phones.
"Goodbye....."
The phone spoke at said that the message had ended and closed the app. Sans listened to it again and again, watching his crying soak the floor beneath him.
With alphys the way she was and undyne no less crazy he was on his own to look for his brother. Weeks past, months past by even slower. A year had come and still no luck. Papyrus could of been anywhere in the world, or dust. Sans cried on the anniversary of his brother's dissapearence and listened to the message over and over. As he would for the next few years to come. 3 years, then 5. His friends tried to justify why his brother would leave but they werent monsters. Humans just couldnt understand.
On the anniversary of the 6th year his brother had gone there was a knock at the door. Being the day it was he'd told his friends weeks in advanced not to bother him. Undyne and the crazy alphys had tried visiting on this day in the past but that ended with bones in the wall and monsters frieghtened beyond belief. He grunted at the door and turned over to lay facing the back of the couch. The tv was loud enough to block out the sounds but the pounding continued.
His phone gave a light jingle, signaling that he'd recieved a text. He tried to ignore that too but the flashing light on his phone annoyed him to no end.
'Open the door.'
The mesage read. He tossed his phone down on the carpet but continued to get messages.
'Open the door' each one would say. None different than the first. After the phone jingled the 12th time he pushed himself off the couch and yelled.
"IM COMING IM COMING...stupid piece of shit" he grumbled the last part as he neared the door.
The person on the other side knocked once more, fast but not as hard.
"YEAH yeah what do'y want-"
Papyrus stood at his door, his brother. Sans eyes widened and he took a step back. They made eye contact for a split second before the taller looked off to the side. His posture slumped at the intense silence but returned straight as a rod when he found something to say.
"You finally picked up your sock" he spoke calmly as if he'd never left; gazing in and around the living room. Sans had managed to keep the downstairs clean just like papyrus left it.
"Huh? Oh yeah I thought that if i--" he shook his head, stepping aside to welcome him in "did you..did you want something to drink? Or something to eat? I can cook you something? I wasnt going to make dinner for a while but i just thought.."
He got cut off by a ungloved hand resting on his shoulder and squeezing in the slightest. Papyrus dropped his duffle in the least graceful way possible and stripped his boots off. The bag had the same emblem as the country's army, telling sans that papyrus had left to inlist. Or maybe he did that when he realised he had no where to go. Sans cleared his thoat and turned his head back to watch his brother unlace and tear off the second boot.
"So was that coffee? Or tea, or maybe just some water? I have some juice too if thats what -"
"Tea is fine" he placed the boot gently down. Hunched over, he looked up at his brother.
"The same way as before?"
"Yeah" his throat sounded like it needed to be cleared or maybe papyrus had always sounded so gravely.
The few minutes it took to boil the water and pour the tea was a silence that sans never wished on anyone. Handing the tea to his brother, he sat beside him on the couch. Not too close but just close enough that his fingers could touch his shoulder.
Upon receiving the mug he sat it down on the, new he observed, coffee table and sighed. He turned towards sans to speak.
"Sans I-"
"Dont" sans cut his brother off. His head bowed and hands gripping the glass of water he'd gotten himself. "Whatever you did, wherever you went.. i dont care. I dont care that you left as long as you dont leave again." A sad laugh left his permanent grin. "Just please...dont leave" he used the back of his hand to wipe away stray tears. Refusing to look up and seem weak to his obviously stronger brother.
Papyrus pulled the glass from the smaller, both in weight and height, skeleton. Looks as if he'd lost some weight since Papyrus's leaving.
"Sans..I left because i thought it was best if you... flourished on your own. Without a big mean brother to hold you back or scare you. It wasnt until i was across the country that i knew i made a mistake. And by then i was afraid to return home." He raised a hand to pet the top of his brother's head bit hesitated when it got there "i was afraid you'd hate me "
Sans grabbed his brother by the waste and pulled him in for a hug that wasnt ending anytime soon..
"I wish you had said something before you left." He nuzzled his head into the others camo covered ribs. "I dont hate you. I promise. I promise. Just dont leave..please "
The silence that came after sans statment left him on edge. "Sans I- "
"Promise me" he squeezed papyrus again.
"I promise"