Sans was lying awake in bed.

It was about seven in the morning, and soon, Papyrus would be in to get Sans up to help him get ready for school. Sans had, somehow, gotten into the habit of waking up five to ten minutes before Papyrus came to get him.

Sure enough, he heard the knock on the door, and, when Sans didn't respond, Papyrus came into the room, calling his name, turning on the lights.

The smaller skeleton climbed up onto Sans' bed and shook his shoulder. "Saaaaans! Wake up!"

"nooooooooo, pap, five more minutes!" Sans complained.

"Sans! Get up! I don't want to be late to school!" Papyrus grabbed the blankets of Sans' bed and pulled them off.

Sans grumbled, and tried to burrow back under the blankets, but Papyrus didn't let him.

Eventually, Sans gave in, sitting up. "... welp, i guess you win. mornin', papyrus."

Papyrus grinned. "Good morning, Sans! I'm going to go start getting ready."

"you do that, bro."

Papyrus scrambled away with a "Nyeh heh heh!"-- something he had never grown out of since before he could speak, which Sans, quite frankly, loved.

Sans stretched, his back cracking a bit, and yawned. He really didn't mind the early mornings, it was more that he just preferred a slower start. A gradual acceleration. Papyrus's immediately-up-and-running start was a bit sudden for him.

But, he loved his brother, so up he got.

After tugging on his usual pair of gym shorts and a tee shirt, Sans stumbled into the small kitchen of the hotel room, still yawning. Papyrus was still getting dressed.

Sans found a paper bag, pulled out some bread and peanut butter and jelly, and started making a PB&J sandwich for Papyrus's lunch. From there, he moved on to making Papyrus's customary breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal, using one of the instant-mix packets with the sugar dinosaur eggs in it. Papyrus loved those.

Just as Sans finished mixing the hot water and the  contents of the oatmeal packet together in a bowl, Papyrus came into the kitchen. He sat down at the small table as Sans set the bowl in front of him.

For a moment, Papyrus just stared at the bowl, blinking. Then he slowly picked up his spoon, and started eating.

But he was doing it more slowly than usual.

"hey, pap," Sans began slowly, "are you alright?"

Papyrus took a moment to respond. But he looked up at Sans and smiled. "Yeah. I'm fine."

But, now that Sans thought about it, Papyrus was going a bit slower than usual, and his voice was a little hoarse sounding. So Sans stepped around the table, stopping next to Papyrus. Gently, he pressed a hand to Papyrus's forehead.

All monsters generate body heat through the constant burn of Magic for energy. Even skeletons have body heat, albeit quite a bit less than most monsters, and they don't really depend on it, as they are largely unaffected by temperature.

But when Sans pressed his hand to Papyrus's forehead, Papyrus felt cold to him. Especially for a skeleton. On top of that, with his hand against Papyrus's skull, he could feel the minute  tremors that ran through Papyrus's frame.

"... yeeeeaaaah, no. you're not going to school today."

Papyrus looked up at Sans, and Sans couldn't decide if the blank look was shock, or slow comprehension brought on by whatever sickness this was. But, slowly, Papyrus's expression shifted to horror. "Wh- what?! Sans, no! I can't miss school!"

"yeah, you can. you are today."

"But Sans-"

"no. pap, you're sick, i can tell. you need to stay home and stay in bed. 'kay?"

"I don't wanna miss-..."

"if it makes ya feel better, i can swing by the school later and see if there's any homework for ya. if there is, i'll bring it back. alright?"

Papyrus took a moment, eventually slumping down a bit, sighing. "... Okay."

Sans rubbed his brother's skull, smiling gently down at him. "if you just rest, i'm sure you'll be better in no time at all."

Papyrus nodded after a second. Then, slowly, he looked back up at Sans. "If-... if I have to go back to bed..."

"yeah?"

"Will you carry me?"

"sure, i'll try. you might be too big, though."

Nonetheless, Sans lifted up his brother and carried Papyrus back to his room. He settled Papyrus into bed, tucking the blankets up to Papyrus's chin, making sure he was comfortable.

But now that Sans had acknowledged his unwellness and had dismissed his attempt at powering through it, Papyrus was dropping the facade of being alright. There was a nervous weariness in his eyes, and he was actually shaking now.

Sans realized Papyrus had never been sick before. He was probably scared, probably thought something was really wrong.

Granted, something was wrong: Papyrus was sick. But Sans doubted it was anything especially serious. Probably just needed some good rest, and he'd be fine.

Still. Sans didn't want to leave his brother scared.

So he settled down on the edge of the bed, letting one arm fall curled around Papyrus's skull.

"'s alright, pap. you're gonna be fine. just close your eyes, try to sleep. you'll be okay."

Papyrus closed his eyes. He was still tensed up and shaking, though.

So Sans hugged him a bit tighter. He slipped a hand under the blankets, rubbing Papyrus's chest. He didn't know much healing Magic, probably not even enough to restore more than a few HP, but he still drew on that, hoping to calm Papyrus down a little with it. And all the while, Sans was murmuring softly that everything was going to be okay, that he was right there, that Papyrus was going to be alright.

Eventually, Papyrus relaxed a bit, falling asleep. Sans continued to massage the healing Magic into his brother's chest, until he, too, dropped back off to sleep.

~o0o~

In the following days, Papyrus's condition only seemed to get worse. Sans did what he could to keep Papyrus comfortable, and tried to find more information on what was wrong, but he could find nothing. It seemed like this was an entirely new disease, one that had never been seen before.

But, bad as that was, it only got worse.

Because one day, As Papyrus was curled up in bed, trembling, Sans realized that he had just read the same passage in the Magic medical textbook five or six times and still had no idea what it was about.

And... and that morning, he had kinda dazed off while attempting to make breakfast.

And sometimes when he went to go comfort Papyrus, he would find himself blanking on what to say.

And he was cold.

Sans was getting sick, too.

But he couldn't think well enough of what to do about that. There was... something, he knew. Something you did when you were sick.

But he couldn't think of it. He fell asleep, curled up next to Papyrus.

When he woke up, he had a sudden moment of clarity.

Get to the hospital.

He struggled up, pulling Papyrus with him. Clung to that one thought.

Pulling Papyrus's arm over his shoulder, he started walking them both towards the door. Papyrus stumbled along, but he was even farther out of it than Sans.

Sans got them both out of the hotel, into the street. For a moment, the noise, the chaos was too much, and he just couldn't.

Then Papyrus whimpered, and Sans remembered.

Get to the hospital.

The hospital was about in the middle of New Home. Ordinarily, Sans could make it there in a maybe twenty minute walk.

But when he finally made it there, almost an hour had passed.

Luckily, the attendant at the desk could see that both he and his brother were in dire need of help.

And then, next thing Sans' knew, there was someone lifting him up, helping him stand the way he was helping Papyrus, telling him everything was going to be alright. And someone on Papyrus's other side, straight up picking Papyrus up. When that happened, Papyrus was pulled away from Sans.

Sans reached for his brother, pulling away from the nurse who was holding him up. "n-no! no, pap-!"

"Sir, please-"

A hand on his shoulder, trying to hold him back.

But he had to protect Papyrus! He had promised!

He struggled away from the person, reaching for Papyrus.

"Let him. Keep them close." Someone, somewhere commanded. "If it keeps him calm."

So the nurse that had been carrying Papyrus stooped down a little, enough for Sans to reach up and take hold of one of Papyrus's hands.

From there, they were led down the hall. Someone said something about an examination room, but Sans wasn't really paying attention. He just held on to Papyrus's hand, walked where he was told to.

He didn't especially like these hallways. They were all tile. If they were just a little bit more of a blue color, they could be...

He had to protect Papyrus. He wouldn't let Papyrus be a test subject.

They were led into a room, and Sans was asked to sit up on a table. He did so with a little hesitancy, glad when Papyrus was settled into his lap.

After a couple minutes, a doctor came in. He asked a few questions, which Sans answered as best he could. Then the doctor reached for Papyrus.

Sans pulled back, clutching Papyrus to his chest, a pleading whimper escaping his mouth.

The doctor set a hand on Sans' shoulder. "Shh, it's okay. I promise I won't do anything. I just need to take a look to see what's wrong." There was a certain calming warmth in the doctor's touch. Healing Magic.

Sans recognized that. Jeff had done that. Jeff had helped him. Jeff had always been there. Never hurt him.

Sans relaxed his grip on Papyrus. Didn't let go, but let the doctor lean over him, lift Papyrus's shirt.

Sans wasn't exactly sure what the doctor was doing, what he was looking at, but Papyrus didn't seem to be in any pain, so he supposed it was okay.

After a little while, the doctor turned to him.

"Okay. Sans, right? Sans, I need you to lay down. It's okay, you can still hold on to your brother, but I need you to lay down, so I can check on you."

Sans nodded a little bit. It was getting hard to focus.

Slowly, with the doctor's help, Sans laid back on the table. When the doctor went to lift his shirt, though, Sans flinched, holding Papyrus a little tighter.

There was something familiar about this. Sans didn't like it.

The doctor tried again, his hands warm with healing Magic. "It's okay, Sans. I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay."

Sans gave a barely perceptible nod, and let the doctor pull up his shirt.

Sans could feel the doctor's hands against his ribs, the soft flickers of healing Magic warming his bones...

Jeff, standing over him, telling him it was alright, that Gaster had finished with the experiment for now. Telling him to just relax, to stay calm. To go back to sleep.

Sans closed his eyes and slept.

§

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