your machine's on fire
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Sans (Undertale) & Papyrus [Reader]
○● Sans always felt something was… wrong with the new Papyrus that showed up, and he's not very good at hiding this fixation. His constant surveillance puts you on edge and Papyrus doesn't know how to mediate when half the problem doesn't know the other exists.
Vanilla Sans' POV for the first bit, second person POV for the rest, Reader is an Alternate Universe Papyrus :), but like in the way they share a body they're not just a Papyrus Yesterday was Let Papyrus Say Fuck Day and I wanted to do something for it, but I couldn't get it finished in time. He doesn't say fuck in this and I'm not sure if this even follows the sentiment of the day, but it's not the day anymore anyway and I had fun with this regardless. This is inspired from both @/teenyagent's fic Playhouse and a personal AU of mine. Just something I wrote for fun to try and get back into writing more, don't take this seriously lol
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Sans always felt something was… wrong, with the new Papyrus.
He was very similar to his own. Extremely loud, easily excitable, incredibly kind, a little full of himself (which he has every right to be like every other Papyrus), and always willing to lend a helping hand, but it was all so… detached. Even in traits "unique" to that variant; being fixated on machinery and gadgets instead of puzzles and traps and liking macaroni instead of spaghetti among other differences, everything felt a little off. Anytime he's spent observing his brothers variant the more tiny differences he's able to spot in ways he just can't seem to shake off or let go.
His Papyrus is loud just because that's who he is, the variant is loud only when other people are nearby. His Papyrus is excitable because he enjoyed life and had faith in everyone and everything in it, the variant, while easily excitable, kept all his reactions subdued and often never expands on his feelings. His Papyrus is kind because he believes in the good of everyone, the variant is kind, but it's almost in that way you don't want to set anyone off, not because it's better to be kind in general.
Sans knows he shouldn't be comparing the variant with his own brother, of course there would be differences across universes, but besides the swapped jobs he acts so similar. If it wasn't for these numerous little ticks he was noticing he'd think they're basically the same person. He's sure nobody else would be able to tell the difference… but he can, cause it's his brother.
A lot of his suspicions he could probably wave away if the new set of brothers came from a harsher universe, but neither of them told anyone anything about where they came from. There's no obvious signs either, fortunately and unfortunately. Sure they're hyper aware of their surroundings, but even his Papyrus could spot anything approaching from a mile away— unless they teleported right behind him (heh).
The new Sans hasn't been of any help to figure this out, if anything he's just made everything harder. He's chill but protective of his brother, constantly tired but remains vigilant anyway, makes people either laugh or groan in his presence, and holds every card close to his chest. Unlike the Papyrus, he basically is a carbon copy of himself— outside of being a knight in the royal guard and not a simple lookout. So, if the Sans is the same, why isn't the Papyrus.
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He was staring again.
This was becoming both a major point of annoyance and concern. It feels like whenever a mandated break was put up throughout the house (why force a break if there's nothing to do?) this version of Sans continuously followed you around. You thought it was innocent at first, and so did Papyrus. Maybe he just liked seeing someone closer to his own Papyrus around the house, but the longer this went on the more irritated you got. So him coming by again just out of Papyrus' field of view brings you that much closer to this becoming the last straw.
"I don't think Sans like us very much."
Papyrus doesn't reply— he can't with the copycat staring him down like he is, but you know he wants to reject the idea and cautiously continue giving him a chance. You are apart of him, there's no way you wouldn't know. It doesn't mean you don't want to argue he's being creepy about whatever he's trying to accomplish by staring at you so often. Of course, Papyrus already knows that's how you feel too.
If you had to give him some grace, you'd say he's probably stalking you right now because you're currently outside the house on a supply run. He's the one that brought you to a different city so there was less of a chance to run into this universes Papyrus, but if he was really going to follow you the whole time the least he could've done was help. When you finally got everything necessary, Sans appeared out of nowhere to bring you back as soon as possible.
After dropping off the necessities to the required people and rooms, you brought all the extra materials up to your room to continue your own work. You thought you'd finally be done with that version of Sans for the day, but when Papyrus goes to step out to try and find a missing part, there he is standing in front of your bedroom door for no reason.
"SANS."
You tried not to let your sheer annoyance at his needless hovering overflow into Papyrus, but it must have anyway with how curt he ended up being.
Sans' face doesn't move an inch, but you can feel the air around him drop upon hearing Paps tone. The only thing he allows himself to do is glance into your room and look at the machine on the desk. He doesn't acknowledge it though, and moves on to something meaningless.
"hey. y'know you don't have to use my name. you can just use the nickname like everyone else."
You mentally raise a brow which Papyrus ends up physically mimicking, "YOU ARE A SANS ARE YOU NOT?"
He takes a hand out of his hoodie pocket to scratch the back of his skull, "yeah, but it saves everyone the confusion, y'know?"
"YOU ARE THE ONLY OTHER SANS IN THE ROOM. THERE'S NO CONFUSION TO BE HAD!" Papyrus then shakes his head when he feels your annoyance spike again, "Wait— YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO DODGE RESPONSIBILITIES WITH YOUR BOONDOGGLING! TELL ME, WHY DO YOU KEEP STALKING ME? I UNDERSTAND I AM BRILLIANT, BUT THIS IS A LITTLE TOO FAR DON'T YOU THINK?"
Paps puts his hands on his hips as he awaits Sans' response, but all the guy can seemingly do is stand there and stress sweat— or whatever the magic equivalent of that is. His eye-lights dart everywhere but in Paps general direction, and his gaze flicks faster when Papyrus starts tapping his foot on the floor.
You've already checked out and Papyrus is also starting to doubt getting a response from this Sans, but decides to give him one more chance.
"SANS?"
Said skeleton freezes, but Papyrus' call does make him direct his attention back to him. Though it's lost almost as quickly as it's gained when he looks behind you and his stress is increased tenfold.
"… is that thing supposed to be on fire?"
Dread fills you both as Papyrus whips around to look in his room again. Instead of the miniature model of the machine you've been working on standing tall on your desk, it sits there smoking— pipes glowing red looking ready to burst, wires on the fritz, and that section of the desk quickly getting charred beyond saving.
"SHIT!"
"Why do we keep making things that blow up!?"
Without a second thought Papyrus picks up the whole machine and throws it out the window. The shattered glass scattering the floor is nothing compared to the explosion that sets off seconds later, embedding shrapnel into the side of the house and all over the lawn.
"what the fuck was that!?"
"this place is a nightmare."
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US!?"
Sans continues to stand in the doorway, probably too shocked to do much else, but neither of you can give him much of your mind when you hear the voices coming from outside.
Papyrus is quick to run over to the window and peak his head through to look at the damages and make sure whoever was outside is okay. When you notice Red, Axe, and Black respectively all on the lawn standing in places the shards of machinery didn't hit you begin to lose interest. They all made it out fine so you switch your focus to checking all the other casualties of the machine. You know Papyrus will apologize on both of your behalves anyway since that's who he is— even if those three are the biggest assholes in the house and definitely don't deserve his kindness. Though you can feel part of his relief is because someone he cared about more wasn't down there.
"I AM SO SORRY. SA— uh, VANILLA DISTRACTED ME LONG ENOUGH WITH HIS STALKING AND REFUSED TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING. THE MACHINE CAUGHT ON FIRE SO I THREW IT AWAY. IF I KNEW ANYONE WAS OUTSIDE I WOULD'VE THROWN IT FURTHER. I AM GLAD TO SEE YOU'RE ALL ALRIGHT!"
At this point your Sans runs into the room and pushes past the vanilla copy, which in turn finally gets him out of his head, but you can't pay any mind to either of them with Red still losing his mind. Black pinches the space between his eye sockets listening to him yell while Axe looks like he'd rather be anywhere else.
"woulda thrown it— why the fuck did you throw it outside in the first place!?"
"THERE IS NO PROPER DISPOSAL IN THIS ROOM AND IT WAS TOO LATE TO GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER, SO THROUGH THE WINDOW WAS THE BEST OPTION. I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THE BEDROOMS WERE MOSTLY EMPTY? YOU'VE BEEN HERE LONGER THAN ME."
"that's besides the point!"
"hey." You're both torn from listening to Red shout obscenities and demanding you come outside when your Sans tugs on your lab coat. "things don't usually explode on you, think it's time for a break."
While you partially agree with him, Papyrus still wants to continue working. You can't blame him either, the longer you dawdle the longer it will take to get back home— back to the people who need you. It's taken you this long to try and make something high power that doesn't explode without being plugged in. It'll take just as long, if not longer, to make something that won't blow up in your face while it's plugged in. You don't have time for setbacks.
When Papyrus is preparing to retort, that's when you notice the lack of glass on the floor. More than the lack of glass, there's barely any mess on the floor at all. Upon your notice, Papyrus stops to look around himself and see everything he would've needed to clean has already been thrown in the trash. Sans' grin quirks up seeing him get visibly confused at the state of the room.
"already got all that for you bro, aren't you proud of me?"
Both you and Papyrus' surprise at his statement probably makes the emotion easily visible on Paps face if Sans' laughter is anything to go by, "OF COURSE I AM! I JUST DON'T QUITE BELIEVE WHAT I'M SEEING, BUT—"
Papyrus was about to segway back into the work that needed to be done on the machine and the rest of the cleanup, but Sans continues on before he could.
"thanks bro. hey, as my reward, i'd like some of your macaroni. make some of your masterclass food downstairs so you don't pasta-way on me up here."
Papyrus groans and stomps his foot at the pun, but neither of you miss the ticks that told you he wasn't really joking. The slight stutter in his hand, his tight grip on your coat, and the lack of the usual fuzz along the edge of his eye-lights. Almost all will to continue vanishes noticing how much hearing that explosion must have affected him. There will always be the guilt in the back of your minds condemning you for not continuing— for not completing it faster, but Sans comes before it all.
"IF IT'LL GET YOU TO STOP SAYING THOSE ATROCIOUS PUNS IN MY VICINITY THEN I GUESS I SHALL INDULGE YOU WITH MY CULINARY PROWESS!"
He takes off his lab coat and leaves it folded on his mattress. When he turns to leave with Sans, you suddenly remember Vanilla Sans was also supposed to be here the whole time. You don't see him in the room, but you see him standing at the other end of the hall when the brothers exit to go downstairs.
"but we can't leave the house without vanilla's approval. we'd always be in the same vicinity otherwise."
"EXACTLY!"
While Papyrus is focused on his brother, your Sans, you don't miss the look that Vanilla Sans gives you all as you pass him. He may hold an eternal smile, but you've spent enough time around your Sans and shifted through enough of Papyrus' memories to pick up on the subtle differences. Papyrus mentally pats your head to tell you he acknowledges your concerns, but doesn't take his focus off his brother.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Vanilla's getting off your tail any time soon.
